Russia originally won eight track and field gold medals at 2012 Olympics. Now it’s two.
By OlympicTalkMar 21, 2022, 9:54 AM EDT
Race walker Yelena Lashmanova is set to be stripped of 2012 Olympic and 2013 World titles, marking the sixth Russian track and field gold medal from the London Games to be taken away due to doping.
Lashmanova, 29, accepted a two-year ban, retroactive to March 2021, and all of her results being disqualified from Feb. 18, 2012 to Jan. 3, 2014 for the use of prohibited substances, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced Monday.
The AIU, which handles doping cases in international track and field, said Lashmanova’s charges were based on data and evidence from probes that began several years ago into institutionalized doping in Russia.
Lashmanova was previously banned for two years after a positive drug test in 2014 and has not competed outside of Russia since then, according to her World Athletics biography.
Since November 2015, Russian athletes have either been banned from international competition or only allowed to compete as neutral athletes if approved by World Athletics due to the nation’s doping history.
Russia originally won 18 medals and eight golds in track and field at the 2012 Olympics. After Lashmanova’s medal is officially stripped, those totals will be seven medals and two golds.
The other Russians previously stripped of 2012 Olympic track and field gold medals for doping: race walker Sergey Kirdyapkin, high jumper Ivan Ukhov, hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko, 800m runner Mariya Savinova and 3000m steeplechase runner Yuliya Zaripova.
Similarly, Russia’s tally from the 2013 World Championships in Moscow has gone from 17 medals and seven golds to what will be seven medals and two golds with Lashmanova’s case.
All nine Russian race walkers from the 2012 Olympics will have been stripped of their results from those Games.
China’s Qieyang Shenjie is in line to be upgraded to gold in the women’s 20km race walk. Chinese athletes would sweep the medals should they be reallocated. The three Chinese walkers originally finished third, fourth and sixth.
