They are the ones who are awarded them after their predecessors are disqualified: slow processes and the long time required by doping tests have something to do with it.
In March last year, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) decided to retroactively revoke the gold medal won by Russian athlete Natalya Antyukh in the women’s 400-meter hurdles event at the 2012 London Olympics. Five months earlier Antyukh had been disqualified for doping by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the independent body that monitors violations of rules of conduct in athletics. The gold was awarded to the athlete who had finished second in the race, Lashinda Demus of the United States. However, a year after the IOC decision, Demus has still not received her medal.
Demus’s situation is similar to that of another athlete who was awarded gold several years after the London Olympics: the U.S. Erik Kynard, who finished second in the high jump in 2012 and was not named the winner by the IOC until nine years later, following the disqualification for doping of the athlete who had preceded him, Russia’s Ivan Ukhov. Like Demus, Kynard has yet to claim an Olympic medal.
Cases like Demus’s and Kynard’s demonstrate the difficulties international sports justice bodies face when they have to balance two needs. On the one hand, they must ensure that athletes accused of taking doping substances during sports performances are stripped of their medals after a series of serious and thorough checks. On the other, it is necessary for these examinations to be carried out in a reasonable timeframe so that the athletes who are to receive medals can be awarded and recognized as Olympic champions, a circumstance that would allow them to obtain sponsorship and prize money.
Trials concerning doping cases, however, often take a very long time: they depend mainly on the tests, which to be effective require athletes’ urine and blood samples to be stored and analyzed several times – New York Times journalist Jeré Longman wrote that these analyses can take a very long time, as much as 10 years – and on the constant appeals filed by athletes who are deprived of medals.
Demus and Kynard should be symbolically awarded next summer, during the Paris Olympics. They have not been professional athletes for some time (they are 33 and 41 years old, respectively), and the fact that they were not awarded medals when they were active in their respective disciplines has caused them both to miss out on significant economic opportunities.
In an interview given to the New York Times, Kynard said that in the past twelve years, between the sponsorships and prize money he would have been due as an Olympic champion, he could have earned at least $500,000. For that reason, too, he called the gold medal that will be presented to him after 12 years a “participation award.”
In the cases of Demus and Kynard, the award, albeit with a 12-year delay, will take place at an official ceremony, but not all athletes who have been awarded a gold medal after an IOC pronouncement have been awarded in a dignified manner.
The most famous example is that of U.S. athlete Adam Nelson, who in 2012 was named the winner of the 2004 Athens Olympics weight throw competition after Ukrainian Yurij Bilonoh was disqualified for doping: he was awarded in the Atlanta airport, in a Burger King chain restaurant. Nelson recounted that receiving the medal in such a place and not in Greece, the home of the Games, caused him “a sense of bewilderment.”
According to U.S. Olympic historian Bill Mallon, since 1968, when the IOC made drug testing mandatory, there have been 164 competitions in which medals have been withdrawn or awarded to other athletes.
One of the most egregious cases happened in 2012, also at the London Olympics, when six of the top seven finishers in the men’s 94-kilogram weightlifting competition, including the top three finishers, were disqualified for doping. In the end, the IOC awarded the gold medal to the fifth place finisher, Iranian athlete Saeid Mohammadpour Karkaragh.
One of the most egregious cases happened in 2012, also at the London Olympics, when six of the top seven finishers in the men’s 94-kilogram weightlifting competition, including the top three finishers, were disqualified for doping. In the end, the IOC awarded the gold medal to the fifth place finisher, Iranian athlete Saeid Mohammadpour Karkaragh.
Another recently reassigned medal was the mixed team ice skating medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics: in January, the ISU (International Skating Union, the association that organizes international ice skating competitions) revoked the medal from the Russian national team and awarded it to the United States, which finished second on that occasion. However, the Russian Olympic Committee has filed several appeals against the ISU’s decision, which could further lengthen the time to reach a final ruling. If the appeals process concludes before the summer, the U.S. team athletes could be honored during the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
Source: www.ilpost.it
