Usain Bolt has been stripped of one of his nine Olympic gold medals following confirmation that his 4x100m relay team-mate Nesta Carter took a banned substance at the Beijing Olympics. It means the legendary Jamaican sprinter can no longer claim to have done the “triple-treble” – gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in the Games in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The International Olympic Committee announced the decision on Wednesday after a hearing in November to discuss Carter’s results following retests of 454 frozen blood and urine samples from the 2008 Games.

Bolt has not yet commented on the news but when traces of the banned stimulant methylhexanamine were found in Carter’s “A” sample in June last year he admitted he feared the worst.

“It’s heartbreaking because over the years you’ve worked hard to accumulate gold medals and work hard to be a champion – but it’s just one of those things,” he said. “Things happen in life, so when it’s confirmed or whatever, if I need to give back my gold medal I’d have to give it back, it’s not a problem for me.”

Carter, the sixth fastest 100m runner of all time, helped Jamaica set a then-world-record time of 37.10sec in Beijing, as Bolt won the first of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m treble. But under the rules of the IAAF, athletics’ governing body, all four members of Jamaica’s 4x100m squad in 2008, which was made up of Bolt, Carter, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater, will now lose their medals.