Russian Tomashova loses Olympic silver medal after 10-year doping ban

Former Russian athlete Tatyana Tomashova, double world champion and double Olympic runner-up in the 1,500m, was handed a ten-year ban on Tuesday for a new anti-doping rule violation, as well as the cancellation of her second place at the London Games in 2012.

Now retired from the track, the 49-year-old middle-distance specialist was sanctioned after a new analysis at the end of 2021 of two tests carried out out of competition, on June 21 and July 17, 2012, which revealed the presence of anabolic steroids prohibited by the regulations, explains the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a press release. However, Tatyana Tomashova, along with six other Russian athletes, had already been sentenced in 2008 to a two-year suspension for “fraudulent substitution of urine” and deprived of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, after having won silver in the 1,500m four years earlier in Athens.

Cancellation of all results between June 21, 2012 and January 3, 2015

The CAS sole arbitrator therefore imposed a heavier sanction on him, namely a ten-year suspension starting this Tuesday, as well as the cancellation of all his results between June 21, 2012 and January 3, 2015, which includes his second silver medal at the London Games.

In the British capital, the double 1,500m world champion (2003, 2005) had initially taken 4th place, before being reclassified following the disqualification of Turkey’s Çakir Alptekin and Gamze Bulut for doping. Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal remains in gold, while Ethiopia’s Abeba Aregawi and American Shannon Rowbury could be awarded silver and bronze respectively, a decision that is up to the International Olympic Committee.

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The CAS recalls having “ruled as the court of first instance in this case, replacing the Russian Athletics Federation”suspended since 2015 by the international federation due to a vast organized doping system.