10,000 metres, Women

This was the first final for women in athletics at Beijing and went off at 2245 on the first night of competition. The heavy favorite was Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, who had never lost a 10K race, and had won the World Championships in 2005 and 2007. The race was a final only and was held in high heat and humidity, especially considering the start time. The early lead was taken by Lornah Kiplagat, a Kenyan-born Dutchwoman. She powered thru 5K in 15:09.98, shredding the field as only 10 remained in the lead pack at that point. Kiplagat led thru almost 7K, when she fell back, the lead taken by Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, with Dibaba moving into second. With a kilometer remaining, they had 10 seconds on the chasers. Abeylegesse led to the bell, when Dibaba surged ahead and had five metres on the Turk by the final curve, when she opened up even more, winning by 15 metres. Her time of 29:54.66 made her only the second woman to run under 30 minutes, and she also pulled Abeylegesse under the barrier as well (29:56.34). American Shalane Flanagan moved into third place with 600 metres remaining. But because the field was so strung out, she was not certain of her place. She won the bronze medal but did not realize that until being told after the race. Dibaba returned a week later to win the 5K, becoming the first woman to win the distance double at the Olympics.

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. American Shalane Flanagan was moved up to the silver medal, while Kenyan Linet Masai received the bronze medal. Abeylegesse was also disqualified from the 5,000 metres, in which she also initially received a silver medal.