Heptathlon, Women

The top heptathlete in the past few years had been Sweden’s Carolina Klüft. She was the defending champion and World Champion in 2005 and 2007, but announced in early 2008 she would no longer compete in the heptathlon and would instead take part only in the long and triple jumps. Without her, the event was wide-open, although Britain’s Kelly Sotherton had some support, as did Russian Tatyana Chernova. In the end, however, the gold went to an athlete given minimal consideration, Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine. Dobrynska came in with a PR of only 6,268 from 2004, but she PRed in five of the seven events and bettered her overall PR by 365 points to win. Behind her was American Hyleas Fountain, who led after the hurdles, the high jump, and at the end of the first day. Dobrynska passed her to take the lead in the long jump, the first event of day two, and Fountain knew she would have to work to medal, as the javelin and 800 were not good events for her. In the 800 she ran a 2:15.45 to hang to what appeared to be a bronze medal, having been passed by Dobrynska’s countrywoman, Liudmyla Blonska, who ran 2:09.44 in the 800 to move up.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

Original silver medalist Liudmyla Blonska of Ukraine tested positive for methyltestosterone, an anabolic steroid. This was her second doping offense and she was given a lifetime ban from the sport. The bronze medalist, Russian Tatyana Chernova, was also tentatively disqualified in April 2017 after a positive re-test for dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (turinabol). Chernova appealed her suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), however, but this was later denied and Kelly Sotherton (GBR) was advanced to the bronze medal. Chernova also lost a bronze medal in this event from the 2012 London Olympics, after a similar positive re-test for turinabol was announced in November 2016.