| | Event type

Heptathlon, Women

Date	15 – 16 August 2008
Status	Olympic
Location	Beijing Guojia Tiyuchang, Beijing Aolinpike Gongyuan, Beijing
Participants	43 from 28 countries
Format	Scoring by 1985 point tables.

The top heptathlete in the past few years had been Sweden’s Carolina Klüft. She was the defending champion and World Champion in 2005 and 2007, but announced in early 2008 she would no longer compete in the heptathlon and would instead take part only in the long and triple jumps. Without her, the event was wide-open, although Britain’s Kelly Sotherton had some support, as did Russian Tatyana Chernova. In the end, however, the gold went to an athlete given minimal consideration, Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine. Dobrynska came in with a PR of only 6,268 from 2004, but she PRed in five of the seven events and bettered her overall PR by 365 points to win. Behind her was American Hyleas Fountain, who led after the hurdles, the high jump, and at the end of the first day. Dobrynska passed her to take the lead in the long jump, the first event of day two, and Fountain knew she would have to work to medal, as the javelin and 800 were not good events for her. In the 800 she ran a 2:15.45 to hang to what appeared to be a bronze medal, having been passed by Dobrynska’s countrywoman, Liudmyla Blonska, who ran 2:09.44 in the 800 to move up.

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.

Original silver medalist Liudmyla Blonska of Ukraine tested positive for methyltestosterone, an anabolic steroid. This was her second doping offense and she was given a lifetime ban from the sport. The bronze medalist, Russian Tatyana Chernova, was also tentatively disqualified in April 2017 after a positive re-test for dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (turinabol). Chernova appealed her suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), however, but this was later denied and Kelly Sotherton (GBR) was advanced to the bronze medal. Chernova also lost a bronze medal in this event from the 2012 London Olympics, after a similar positive re-test for turinabol was announced in November 2016.

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	Points	100 metres Hurdles	High Jump	Shot Put	200 metres	Long Jump	Javelin Throw	800 metres
1	3079	Nataliya Dobrynska	UKR	6733	–	13.44	1.80	17.29	24.39	6.63	48.60	2:17.72	Gold
2	3170	Hyleas Fountain	USA	6619	–	12.78	1.89	13.36	23.21	6.38	41.93	2:15.45	Silver
3	1837	Kelly Sotherton	GBR	6517	–	13.18	1.83	13.87	23.39	6.33	37.66	2:07.34	Bronze
4	1301	Jessica Zelinka	CAN	6490	–	12.97	1.77	13.79	23.64	6.12	43.91	2:07.95
5	2789	Anna Bogdanova	RUS	6465	–	13.09	1.86	14.08	24.24	6.45	35.41	2:09.45
6	2617	Karolina Tymińska	POL	6428	–	13.62	1.77	14.08	23.39	6.53	35.97	2:07.08
7	1899	Lilli Schwarzkopf	GER	6379	–	13.73	1.80	14.61	25.25	5.96	51.88	2:10.91
8	2490	Jolanda Keizer	NED	6370	–	13.90	1.83	15.15	23.97	6.15	42.76	2:15.21
9	1058	Kylie Wheeler	AUS	6369	–	13.68	1.89	13.06	24.28	6.11	43.81	2:11.49
10	1913	Jennifer Oeser	GER	6360	–	13.57	1.80	13.62	24.67	6.16	47.53	2:11.33
11	1728	Marie Collonvillé	FRA	6302	–	13.57	1.86	12.42	25.06	6.21	46.14	2:11.81
12	2788	Olga Kurban	RUS	6192	–	13.77	1.77	13.84	24.34	6.08	42.85	2:13.59
13	3071	Hanna Melnychenko	UKR	6165	–	13.52	1.80	13.18	24.35	6.40	35.89	2:15.23
14	2573	Kamila Chudzik	POL	6157	–	13.79	1.77	14.34	25.36	5.97	52.05	2:21.97
15	1872	Sonja Kesselschläger	GER	6140	–	13.50	1.77	14.33	25.50	6.04	44.28	2:15.94
16	1247	Lucimara Silvestre	BRA	6076	–	13.55	1.83	11.59	24.56	6.18	40.34	2:16.20
17	1755	Antoinette Nana Djimou	FRA	6055	–	13.85	1.71	13.12	24.90	6.16	49.32	2:20.96
18	2328	Aiga Grabuste	LAT	6050	–	13.78	1.77	12.70	24.71	6.36	39.02	2:16.87
19	1404	Liu Haili	CHN	6041	–	13.56	1.77	12.71	24.47	6.08	41.79	2:18.84
20	2535	Ida Marcussen	NOR	6015	–	14.07	1.71	12.97	25.02	6.06	47.37	2:14.96
21	2546	Rebecca Wardell	NZL	5989	–	14.07	1.71	14.28	24.64	5.84	42.14	2:13.65
22	1699	Niina Kelo	FIN	5911	–	13.95	1.65	14.82	25.90	5.76	51.48	2:20.97
23	1931	Argyro Strataki	GRE	5893	–	14.05	1.68	13.22	25.47	5.97	45.20	2:14.57
24	1465	Gretchen Quintana	CUB	5830	–	13.77	1.68	13.10	24.34	6.02	38.14	2:20.31
25	3293	Yuliya Tarasova	UZB	5785	–	14.03	1.71	12.60	24.36	5.92	43.31	2:26.19
26	2032	Pramila Ganapathy	IND	5771	–	13.97	1.74	11.66	24.92	6.11	41.27	2:23.46
27	2003	Győrgyi Farkas	HUN	5760	–	14.66	1.74	12.06	26.10	6.09	43.45	2:14.05
28	2020	J. J. Shobha	IND	5749	–	13.62	1.65	13.07	24.62	5.86	43.50	2:27.50
29	2928	Linda Züblin	SUI	5743	–	13.90	1.62	12.34	24.99	5.74	47.19	2:18.68
30	1808	Julie Hollman	GBR	5729	–	14.43	1.77	12.45	25.41	6.13	39.08	2:22.54
31	2018	Sushmitha Singha Roy	IND	5705	–	14.11	1.71	11.27	24.34	5.98	39.79	2:21.14
32	1638	Kaie Kand	EST	5677	–	14.47	1.65	12.91	25.49	5.75	42.51	2:13.36
33	1194	Yana Maksimava	BLR	4806	–	14.71	1.74	13.60	25.94	–	39.14	2:21.55
DNF	2489	Laurien Hoos	NED	–	–	13.52	1.65	14.98	24.57	5.74	48.54	–
DNF	3267	Jackie Johnson	USA	–	–	13.22	1.77	11.82	24.74	5.88	–	–
DNF	2370	Austra Skujytė	LTU	–	–	14.46	1.77	17.02	25.40	–	–	–
DNF	2374	Viktorija Žemaitytė	LTU	–	–	14.44	1.74	14.01	25.06	–	–	–
DNF	1534	Denisa Ščerbova	CZE	–	–	13.88	1.65	–	–	–	–	–
DNF	2989	Wassana Winatho	THA	–	–	13.93	1.68	–	–	–	–	–
DNF	2237	Irina Naumenko	KAZ	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
DNF	3218	Diana Pickler	USA	–	–	14.28	–	–	–	–	–	–
DQ	3064	Liudmyla Blonska	UKR	[6700]	–	[13.31]	[1.86]	[14.29]	[24.14]	[6.48]	[47.60]	[2:09.04]
DQ	2790	Tatyana Chernova	RUS	[6591]	–	[13.65]	[1.83]	[12.88]	[23.95]	[6.47]	[48.37]	[2:06.50]		1