It has been more than ten years since the 2012 Olympic Games. But only now does a sprinter receive her gold medal. Because her competitor was convicted of doping and banned, Lashinda Demus is entitled to the Olympic victory. She receives the medal, but no one can give her back the celebration.
Ten years after the Summer Games in London, the Russian track and field athlete Natalya Antyuch has now officially been stripped of her gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles. As the Independent Integrity Commission AIU of the World Athletics Association announced, the 41-year-old let the period for a possible objection pass. This allows the IOC to reassign the medals.
The American Lashinda Demus, who originally came second, is thus subsequently awarded gold. Silver goes to the Czech Zuzjana Hejnova, bronze to Kaliese Spencer from Jamaica. Two-time world champion Demus had always dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion one day. “I won’t stop until I get gold,” she promised in an interview in 2012 after her second place.
The path that has now been taken was not what the athlete had imagined. As early as late October, when an original deadline had passed, Demus wrote on Instagram: “I would also like to thank everyone who informed me about the news of the promotion to gold medalist. My energy will never be the same as when I was during the Games would be on the podium, but justice is justice.”
Athletics legend Michael Johnson tweeted about the gold ten years late: “This is the right thing to do and at the same time incredibly upsetting. I received my gold in front of my family and the world, enjoyed the financial benefits of endorsement deals and from that moment lived as Olympic champion. Lashinda Demus was deprived of that. I can’t imagine that!”
At the Antjuch, which was convicted of doping, the results were canceled retrospectively for another year. The no longer active Antjuch had previously been punished by the International Sports Court CAS. In the spring of 2021, she was handed a four-year ban, and all of the hurdler’s results between June 30, 2013 and December 31, 2015 were annulled by the CAS. The basis was the report by Richard McLaren, the special investigator of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The AIU had extended this period until July 15, 2012, twelve days before the start of the Summer Games in London. Antjuch used a “banned substance or method”. Previously, the 2012 Russian 4x400m relay had already been stripped of Olympic silver after a positive doping test by Antyuch’s former teammate Antonina Kriwoschapka.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.)