Antyukh the fifth Russian track and field athlete to have 2012 gold stripped
Russian athlete Natalya Antyukh has been stripped of the gold medal she won at the London 2012 Olympic Games due to historical sampling data which came out of a Moscow testing facility.
The 400m hurdler – who is now 41 – is already distanced from track and field due to a four-year ban which she is currently serving after being named in a probe into cheating by the Russian team.
The revocation of the gold medal now means that all three golds won by the Russian Federation on the London track have been rescinded due to doping.
Antyukh joins Yuliya Zaripova – the 3,000m steeplechase winner – and Mariya Savinova – the 800m victor – in having their medals taken away.
Those three add to hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko and Ivan Ukhov – of the high jump – as athletes with their records now mopped from the archives.
“The integrity of the sport of athletics is our utmost priority and we are pleased, in this instance, that athletes who competed fairly at the highest level will ultimately be acknowledged as the rightful medal winners,” Brett Clothier, head of the Athletics Integrity Unit, said.
“The AIU remains committed to investigating all cases of potential violations and securing the appropriate outcomes.”
A decade on from London 2012, it is now seen as an Olympics Games with a notable level of doping.
With Antyukh not appealing her punishment, American Lashinda Demus will receive the gold medal, Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova will be handed the silver and Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer will receive the bronze – no Brit made the final.
This comes as the number of Kenyan athletes currently facing bans from the sport has risen to over 20.