Ara Abrahamian got his wish; the International Olympic Committee stripped Abrahamian of his Bronze medal for violating the spirit of fair play during the 2008 Olympic award ceremony for the competition.

Abrahamian removed the Bronze medal from his neck, tossed it on the floor and walked away from the award ceremony that he tied for third place.

Abrahamian is a Swedish wrestler that became angry after a disputed penalty caused him to lose a semi-final match against Italian, Andrea Minguzzi. Abrahamian said, "I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold." He also declared that he was retiring from the sport and offered no apology for his behavior.

The International Olympic Committee stated, "The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual, acknowledged as such by all athletes and other participants. Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement. It is also contrary to the spirit of fair play."

This is the second time that Abrahamian lost the Gold on a disputed call. Like "deja-vu", Abrahamian lost at the 2004 Olympics to Russian wrestler, Alexei Michine, and secured a Bronze medal instead of the Gold.

His Bronze medal won't be awarded to another wrestler because the disqualification wasn't associated with the event itself, so Nazmi Avluca of Turkey is the sole Bronze medal winner in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division.

Copyright 2007-2010 by Times of the Internet. All Rights Reserved.