Olympic medals will be reallocated within 12 months of the end of any legal procedure and athletes can chose their ceremony.

This was revealed yesterday by the international Olympic Committee as it looks to give those cheated out of medals their moment of glory.

Many athletes have had medals stripped, some years after the Olympics, after doping sample re-testing from past games regularly delivered dozens of positive tests.

More than 100 positive cases were found in re-tests from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics alone and some 75 medals were reallocated from those games.

The medals are usually given to the next best athletes but until recently they received the medals with little or no planned ceremony and sometimes years after their performances.

At the moment there is no standardized reallocation process with athletes receiving medals at home or at the offices of Olympic committees with little or no publicity.

Athletes now have the option of choosing to receive their medal at an Olympics, a youth Olympics, by the international federation or the national Olympic committee, at a ceremony at the Olympic museum or at a private ceremony.