HIGH-JUMPER Ruth Beitia and canoeist Sete Benavides have finally heard they are set to receive their London 2012 Olympic bronze medals – more than nine years after earning them.
Although both have known for over two years that their fourth-place diplomas were due to be replaced with what should have been a podium position at the time, following a Sporting Arbitrage Tribunal (SAT) verdict stripping one of each of their rivals of their awards as a consequence of doping, these rivals appealed the decision.
They lost their cases in April this year, and the outcome has only now been ratified by the International Olympic Committee (COI or, in English, IOC), before which the medal and diploma readjustment was not considered to be set in stone.
Ruth, 42, from Cantabria (pictured left) – who retired in 2017 aged 38, a year after scooping up the gold at Rio 2016 and having already said she felt she would be 'too old' by Tokyo 2020 – and Sete (pictured right), from Córdoba, who is still active in his sport, have yet to receive their prizes, but they now know they have definitely won them and that they are on the way.
According to the Games organiser on Twitter, IOC Media (@iocmedia): “The approval of the medal and diploma reallocations in athletics, canoeing and wrestling has come after the previous disqualification of a number of athletes and the results of their events being adjusted accordingly by the International Federations.”
Five events in total have seen the top eight – those who would receive a medal or a diploma – reworked.
They are in addition to the results that saw Spanish weightlifter Lydia Valentín moved from fourth place to gold medallist - a decision she was advised of in 2018 at the same time as finding out she had actually gained the silver at her first Olympics, Peking 2008, instead of a fifth-place diploma – meaning that her sole podium appearance at Rio 2016 after getting the bronze should have been three.
Men's high-jump gold winner Ivan Ukhov has been disqualified, giving the USA's Erik Kynard the top award, and women's high-jump bronze winner, Russia's Svetlana Shkolina, loses her medal and it will be given to Ruth instead, after the Spaniard fell just three centimetres (about an inch) behind what was needed at the time to clinch third place.
Svetlana Shkolina's official results between July 16, 2012 and the end of December 2015 have been axed, meaning her Olympic performance is no longer valid.
Her disqualification also means Ruth Beitia has earned the world reserve championship title from 2013, also in London, where she originally took home a bronze medal and Shkolina won.
Lithuania's Jevgenij Shuklin took the silver medal in the men's singles 200-metre kayaking, or C1-200, in London 2012, but later tested positive for anabolic steroids, or performance-enhancing drugs.
Now that the verdict is final, the silver will be re-awarded to Russia's Ivan Shtyl, who initially earned the bronze, and Sete Benavides, who came fourth at the time, will be given Ivan's bronze.
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