Bulgarian weightlifter Bozhidar Andreev has received a four-year period of ineligibility after testing positive for a mesterolone metabolite. The decision was announced on 6 November and runs from 18 November 2025 to 17 November 2029.
The sample was taken during an out-of-competition control on 15 October 2025. Andreev was provisionally suspended on 18 November that year. The starting date of the sanction therefore reflects time already spent under suspension, rather than four additional years from today.
What happens to the results
The decision disqualifies his individual competitive results between 15 October and 18 November 2025. That period does not include the Paris Olympics in 2024, where he won bronze in the men’s 73-kilogram category.
His Olympic medal is consequently unaffected by this sanction. The distinction matters: an announcement of a doping ban does not automatically remove every result achieved throughout an athlete’s career.
The period covers Los Angeles
The ban extends beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Unless changed through the applicable process, it prevents a return to eligible competition before November 2029.
Mesterolone belongs to the anabolic-androgenic steroid category of the prohibited list and is banned both in and out of competition. A positive finding outside a competition can therefore lead to a competition ban.
The decision can be challenged before the appeals division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport by parties entitled to appeal. No appeal outcome is established in the announcement. The confirmed position is the four-year sanction, its defined dates and the specified period of disqualified results.
