Dimitri Bilozerchev, who won three gold medals...

Dimitri Bilozerchev, who won three gold medals in the 1988 Olympics, and a colleague were kicked off the Soviet team for the World Gymnastics Championships because of a two-day drinking binge, a newspaper in Moscow reported.

Bilozerchev, 22, and teammate Vladimir Gogoladze “had a corrupting influence on other members of the team,� top Soviet gymnastics official Leonid Arkayev told Sovietsky Sport. They were removed from the squad, he said.

The newspaper said the pair’s fate was not unique in Soviet sports: “The situation is so typical for our sports, that this almost doesn’t require any elaboration, commentaries or conclusions.�