20 kilometres Race Walk, Women

The top women’s walker for the past few years had been Russian Olga Kaniskina. She was the defending champion and had won the World Championships in 2007, 2009, and 2011. The London race was expected to be between her and her youthful teammate, 20-year-old Yelena Lashmanova. That was how it worked out as the two separated themselves from the pack, with only China’s Qieyang Shenjie staying with them near the end. After 19 km Kaniskina seemed to have the race in hand, leading and in control, but it was Lashmanova who finished fastest and came down the 10th lap of the race to win in 1-25:02, seven seconds ahead of Kaniskina, setting an Olympic and world record in the process. Lashmanova’s final lap of 8:07 was the fastest split of the race. Qieyang won bronze, followed by her teammate Liu Hong in fourth. The fifth-place finisher was Russian Anisya Kirdyapkina, whose husband, Sergey Kirdyapkin, had just won the 50 km walk that morning.

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 January 2015 Russian Olga Kaniskina, the original silver medalist, was disqualified for a biological passport offense, losing her silver medal. Chinese walkers Qieyang Shenjie and Liu Hong were advanced to the silver and bronze medals, respectively. In March 2022 Yelena Lashmanova was disqualified by the Athletic Integrity Unit (AIU) and she accepted the sanction proposed by the AIU which caused her to lose the gold medal in this event. In March 2023 the IOC announced medal re-allocations which ended up with China sweeping the medals in the event - gold to Qieyang Shenjie, silver to Liu Hong, and bronze to Li Xiuzhi.