5,000 metres, Women

After winning the 10K a week before, Tirunesh Dibaba was looking to become the first woman to win the 5K/10K double at the Olympics. The early lead in the final was taken by Russian Gulnara Galkina, who had already won the steeplechase gold medal. She led thru the first kilometer when Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse (a native Ethiopian), silver medalist in the 10K, took over. But the pace was pedestrian, likely due to the high temperatures, and all the contenders were still in contention. Abeylegesse pushed the pace with two laps left, but did not drop Dibaba. Dibaba took the lead at the bell and was not challenged on the final lap, winning quite easily, to acheive the first female Olympic distance double. Abeylegesse held on for the silver medal, duplicating their 10K 1-2 finish. The winning time of 15:41.40 was the slowest ever for an Olympic or World Championship final.

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 March 2017 Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey was revealed to have a positive re-test from the 2007 World Championships for stanozolol, and was disqualified, losing her silver medal. She was given a two-year ban from the time of the 2007 Worlds, which negated her 2008 Olympic results. Ethiopian Meseret Defar was moved up to the silver medal, while Kenyan Sylvia Kibet received the bronze medal. Abeylegesse was also disqualified from the 10,000 metres, in which she also initially received a silver medal.