Park hit with 18-month ban

South Korean superstar flunked doping test

Former Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea has been banned 18 months for doping after testing positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition drug test, the latest in a series of high-profile doping cases in swimming.

The ban, ordered on Monday, will begin retroactively the day of the positive test in early September and expire March 2, 2016 - putting Park's participation at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in doubt. It also keeps him out of this year's world championships in Kazan, Russia.

Swimming's governing body, FINA, said Park's results from Sept 3, 2014 onward will be annulled and his prize money will be forfeited, meaning he will have to return the three individual medals and three relay medals he won at last year's Asian Games.

The 25-year-old Park won the 400-meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also took silver in the 200 free in Beijing and silvers in both events at the 2012 London Games.

No other South Korean swimmer has won an Olympic medal and he is one of the most popular athletes in the country.

When the positive test was made public in January, Park's representatives blamed it on an injection administered by a local hospital, which offered him free chiropractic and other treatments in July.

Park told investigators he was given the injection without knowing what specific substances it contained, while the hospital said it did not know testosterone was a prohibited substance.

Park has also brought home three golds from the long-course world championships.

Park becomes the latest in a long list of accomplished swimmers to be handed doping bans recently, with Chinese rival Sun Yang - a two-time Olympic champion - having served a three-month suspension last year.

Russian swimmers Yuliya Efimova, Vitaly Melnikov, Sergei Makov and Vladimir Dyatchin and Brazilians Joao Gomes Jr. and Evandro Vinicius Silva have also been banned for doping over the past year.