Hammer Throw, Women

German Betty Heidler had been world ranked #1 for the past two years and was slightly favored, but Russian Tatyana Lysenko had won the 2011 World Championships, and was expected to push her. Heidler would struggle as the level of throwing was high. She opened with 73.90 but that placed her only fourth at the end of the first round, led by Lysenko’s 77.56. Heidler did not improve in rounds two or three and barely made the last three throws, placing only eighth at that point.

Round two opened with 2008 bronze medalist Zhang Wenxiu (CHN) throwing 76.34 to move into second. Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk then threw 76.02 to move into third position behind Zhang and Lysenko. On round three Włodarczyk was displaced by Heidler’s teammate Kathrin Klaas, who PRed with 76.05 to move into third. No changes in position occurred in the fourth round. Heidler opened the fifth round with what appeared to be her best mark of the day, one which would eventually get her a bronze medal, but not without some drama. Her mark had landed nearly on top of Lysenko’s 77.12 from round four, the previous attempt, and the data system lost the measurement because the computer had been programmed not to accept consecutive marks of the same distance, feeling that odds against this were very high. Heidler was given a back-up throw but fouled it. Lysenko finished the round improving to 78.08, the eventual gold medal winning throw. In the final round, Włodarczyk moved up to the silver medal with a mark of 77.60, and held that spot when Zhang fouled. After all the throwers had finished, an official found Heidler’s mark and it was re-measured at 77.12, good for the bronze medal.

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.

Tatyana Lysenko of Russia, who originally won the gold medal, was disqualified in October 2016 after a failed re-test which showed evidence of turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) use. The original second, third, and fourth place finishers moved up one spot, with Anita Włodarczyk of Poland receiving the gold, Betty Heidler of Germany moving up to silver, and Zhang Wenxiu of China given the bronze.

There were also three other finalists disqualified in this event. Original seventh-place finisher Oksana Menkova of Belarus was disqualified in November 2016 for a re-test positive for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) and stanozolol. Mariya Bespalova of Russia, who placed 10th initially, was disqualified in March 2017 for a substance that was not announced. Finally, Russian Gulfiya Khanafeyeva lost her 15th-place finish in March 2017 for a re-test positive for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone).