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It is nearly 2024 and Cuba’s Yargelis Savigne has now received her 2008 Beijing Olympic bronze medal in the triple jump. Two of her competitors tested positive for anabolic steroids.
#Cuba/La triplista #YargelisSavigne recibió este martes su medalla de bronce correspondiente a los Juegos Olímpicos de 2008
— RadioSantaCruz 🇨🇺 (@RadioSantaCruz_) December 27, 2023
Concluyó quinta en la competencia de triple salto, con 15,05 m, pero 2 casos de dopaje la llevaron al podio en el período posteriorhttps://t.co/1i4ir4zje0 pic.twitter.com/jCDOtj5PeY
Russia’s Tatiana Lebedeva and Greek jumper Hrysopiyi Devetzi also known as Chrysopigi Devetzi tested positive for Turinabol and Stanozol, respectively.
The Cuban Olympic Committee awarded Savigne after it was discovered that the two athletes who outperformed her were doped.
Hrysopiyi (Chrysopigi) Devetze
In May 2009, Devetzi refused to submit to doping control. Failing to submit a sample equals a positive test. She was subsequently handed a two-year doping ban.
Samples given by Devetzi in August 2007 were retested in 2016 which turned out positive for stanozolol. Her results for the following four years were annulled. This includes the 2008 Olympic bronze medal. Her 2007 World Championship bronze medal was also annulled.
On Nov. 17, 2016, the IOC disqualified Devetzi from the 2008 Olympic Games, stripped her Olympic bronze medal and struck her long jump and triple jump results from the books.
Devetze owns a long jump best of 6.83m and a triple jump best of 15.32m.
Tatiana Lebedeva
On Jan. 25, 2017, the International Olympic Committee sanctioned Lebedeva for doping at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As a result, she lost her silver medals for both the long jump and triple jump events in those Games. Lebedeva appealed the IOC’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however on July 26, 2018, the IOC’s decision was upheld.
As is turned out to be Russia was handed a systematic doping ban.
The now 47-year-old owned bests of 7.33 metres in the long jump and 15.36m in the triple jump.
Yargelis Savigne
Savigne owns a long jump best of 6.91m and a triple jump best of 15.28m, which is the national record. She finished eighth during the 2012 London Olympic Games. She is a two-time world champion and won internationally and professionally during the Pan-American Games, World Cups, and National Championships and is a seven-time Diamond League and one-time Gold League champion. The now 39-year-old Cuban mother of two retired in 2013 from international competition, while continuing to compete locally for two more years.
“I would have preferred to enjoy it in full competition and not find out almost ten years later in 2017,” she lamented. “In the end, I accepted it, and I am very happy about it, but I felt pain when I finished fifth in Beijing. It wasn’t fair.”
