Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, seen here celebrating his 1,500-metre gold medal victory at the 2008 Olympic Games, tested positive for doping in Beijing, according to the Bahrain Olympic Committee. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

The 2008 Olympic gold medallist in the men's 1,500 metres tested positive for doping at the Beijing Games, the Bahrain Olympic Committee said Wednesday, as Italy, Germany and the Dominican Republic also confirmed positive test results for athletes.

Rashid Ramzi, who is originally from Morocco and still trains there, gave Bahrain its first-ever track and field medal at the Beijing Olympics, with a time of three minutes 32.94 seconds.

He also won the 800 and 1,500 gold medals at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki.

National sports bodies also said cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin, cyclist Stephan Schumacher and weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras tested positive for the new blood-boosting drug CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting drug EPO.

The announcement comes a day after the International Olympic Committee said six athletes from the Beijing Games had positive doping test results for CERA.

If their backup B samples come back positive, the athletes face being disqualified, stripped of medals and banned from the next Olympic Games.

1st Beijing gold medallist to test positive

Ramzi is the first gold medallist from the 2008 Olympics to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Both the Canadian and American Olympic Committees say they haven't been notified by the IOC about any findings involving their athletes.

The IOC has not named the athletes involved, though an IOC official speaking on anonymity told The Associated Press three track and field athletes, two cyclists and one weightlifter had tested positive.

The International Association of Athletics Federations said it was notified of three names in track and field, but would not name anyone.

"The IAAF must wait for further details from the IOC before considering any provisional suspension of the athletes and a decision is not expected within the next week," the IAAF said in a statement.

Race walker and 800 runner named

Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka and Croatian 800-metre runner Vanja Perisic have also been named as athletes who tested positive in recent tests, The Associated Press reports. Tsoumeleka, who finished ninth in the 20K walk, announced in January that she tested positive for doping.

She was charged earlier this month with using banned drugs.

Perisic was eliminated in round 1 of the 800 heats in Beijing.

Coach of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who set world records in Beijing in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 relay, says Bolt "has not heard anything — and he will not hear anything."

A total of 948 samples from Beijing were reanalyzed by the IOC after new lab tests became available after the Olympics. Testing started in January and focused on endurance events in swimming, rowing, track and field and cycling.

If Ramzi is stripped of his Olympic gold, Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop would be upgraded from silver to gold. New Zealand's Nicolas Willis would go from bronze to silver, and Mehdi Baala of France would move up to the bronze medal from fourth place.

The Bahrain Olympic Committee said Ramzi's B sample will be tested in France on June 8 and he'll face an IOC hearing that same day.

"The Bahrain Olympic Committee apologizes for receiving such news from the International Olympic Committee since it ensured Ramzi went through all the necessary doping tests before the Games and they were all negative," the committee said in a statement.

Italian athlete under scrutiny

The Italian Olympic Committee, meanwhile, confirmed that cyclist Davide Rebellin, who won silver in the road race in Beijing, also tested positive.

If he's stripped of his medal, Switzerland's Fabian Cancellera could move to silver and Russia's Alexander Kolobnev to bronze.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said in a statement it has suspended Rebellin. His team, Diquigiovanni-Androni, said Rebellin is temporarily suspended until the B sample is further analyzed.

Anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has opened an investigation after the retesting of samples taken at the Olympics, and also called the cyclist to a hearing on Monday.

In an interview with an Italian daily, Rebellin, 37, said the result was "certainly a mistake" and rejected all doping accusations.

"I don't see why I should take a path that would ruin me or my image," he told Italy's state TV on Wednesday. "I don't know if I'll still be able to race, but I will always ride because cycling is my life."

Rebellin, a specialist at long, single-day races, won the Amstel Gold Race, Walloon Arrow and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2004.

He won the Walloon Arrow cycling classic in Belgium last week for the third time.

German cyclist tests positive, too

Also Wednesday, the German cycling federation confirmed positive doping test results for Schumacher, who finished 13th in the time trial in Beijing and dropped out before the end of the road race.

The federation said the documents of a positive retest had been passed on to the 27-year-old, and it's now up to Schumacher to decide if he wants to open the B sample.

Schumacher has already been banned two years by the International Cycling Union after he failed a newly developed test for CERA, according to French authorities. He has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the two-year ban.

At the Tour de France last July, Schumacher wore the yellow jersey for two days as race leader, and won two individual time trial stages.

Schumacher denies the doping allegations, but his new team, Quick Step, dropped him from its roster before the 2009 season.

Under the World Anti-Doping Agency code, athletes can be disciplined as many as eight years after they test positive for doping.

"We suggest that athletes who may be tempted to cheat keep this reality in mind," said WADA president John Fahey. "We believe that retrospective testing serves as a strong deterrent."

9 athletes already disqualified from Beijing

Nine athletes have already been disqualified for doping at the Bejing Games before this round of testing, which would bring the total to 15. There were also six cases involving horses in the equestrian competition.

If the two most recent doping cases are proven it will bring the number of athletes stripped of Bejing medals to six.

The IOC had already stripped four athletes of medals: Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska (silver), Belarusian hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy (silver) and Ivan Tsikhan (bronze) and North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su (silver and bronze).

With files from The Associated Press