Hammer Throw, Women

The favorite was Cuba’s Yipsi Moreno. She had been the silver medalist at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, the 2004 Olympics, and had the best record of the year for 2008. She led the qualifying, getting the best mark on her third attempt. The lead in the final was taken in round one by Oksana Menkova (BLR) who tossed 74.40 (244-1). That held up thru the fourth round. The early rounds saw the elimination of 2007 World Champion Betty Heidler (GER) and 2000 gold medalist Kamila Skolimowska (POL). In round five, Moreno briefly took the lead with 74.70 (245-1), but Menkova answered with 76.34 (250-5). That held up for the gold medal although Moreno improved her silver medal standing in the final round with 75.20 (246-9).

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 November 2016 the gold medalist, Oksana Menkova of Belarus, was announced to have a positive re-test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) and oxandrolone, for which she was disqualified. The medals were completely re-assigned as follows: Gold – Yipsi Moreno (CUB); Silver – Zhang Wenxiu (CHN); and Bronze – Manuéla Montebrun (FRA). The original fourth-place finisher Darya Pchelnik, was also disqualified for a positive doping re-test.