Individual, Women

Amélie Cazé (FRA) had won the World Championships in 2007-2008. But in Beijing she placed only 22nd in shooting and 16th in riding, and would finish only eighth overall, although she had moved up to fourth after three phases. Germany’s Lena Schöneborn had placed second to Cazé at the 2007 Worlds, but she took the early lead by winning the fencing, moving ahead by 60 points after two phases. Schöneborn, a former swimmer, would finish 10th in the swimming, fourth in riding, and ninth in cross-country, and would not be headed, winning the gold medal by 40 points over Britain’s Heather Fell. This was Germany’s first gold medal in pentathlon since 1936.

Cazé attempted to redeem herself, finishing second in the 200 freestyle, the third section. She placed behind American Sheila Taormina, who was the real story of the women’s event. It was not surprising that Taormina had won the swim, as she had won a relay gold medal in swimming at the 1996 Olympics. After that she turned to triathlon, and competed in that sport at the Sydney Olympics (6th) and Athina Olympics (23rd). Taking up modern pentathlon after the 2004 Olympics, she became the first woman to compete in three different sports at the Olympics. Unfortunately, in Beijing she was done in by her first two events. She placed 28th shooting and then last in fencing. She was last after two phases. Even though she won the next two phases, swimming and riding, and placed seventh in the run, she could move up only to 19th position overall. Still, it hardly diminished her accomplishment.

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.

In March 2017 the original bronze medalist, Viktoriya Tereshchuk (UKR) had a re-test positive for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) and was disqualified. Belarussian Anastasiya Samusevich was advanced to the bronze medal and received the medal at the 2018 World Championships.