4 x 100 metres Relay, Women

Jamaica had swept the medals in the 100 metres so the only question was “by how much,” not if they would win. That assumed, of course, they had no problem getting the stick around. As always, the United States was thought to have a solid team, but was not expected to beat the Jamaicans. And in heat one, they lost all chances when the final exchange between Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams was botched and they dropped the baton. Jamaica won the second heat easily and was thought to have a virtual walkover for the final, especially with the US out. The East German world record of 41.37 from 1985 was thought to be threatened. But in the final, on the second exchange, Kerron Stewart took off early, and the incoming runner, Sherone Simpson, could not get the baton to her and they were out of the race. With the Jamaicans out, the Russians scored a huge upset victory over Belgium, with Nigeria third. The final also saw Great Britain not finish because of difficulty with the baton, and Poland was disqualified for an exchange out of zone. Thus only five teams finished the final, after five teams had not finished in the heats.

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 August 2016 one of the Russian relay runners, Yuliya Chermoshanskaya was revealed to have a positive re-test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) and stanozolol. She was disqualified, as was the entire Russian team, losing their gold medal. Belgium received the gold medal, Nigeria the silver medal, and Brazil was moved up to bronze. This was only the third time Belgium had even entered this event in the 80 years since it was first held at the Olympics. The Belgian runners received their gold medals eight years after the race before 40,000 fans at the 2016 Van Damme Memorial meet in Brussels.