Light-Heavyweight (≤69 kilograms), Women

The women’s light-heavyweight competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics was one of the rare weightlifting events with no Chinese participants and thus no favorite from that nation. Oksana Slivenko of Russia, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, three time European Champion (2007, 2011, and 2012), three time World Champion (2006, 2007, 2011), and once runner-up (2009), was believed to be the favorite in the event, but injured herself in a training accident and did not compete in London. Her withdrawal left the field wide open, with Roxana Cocoș of Romania, runner-up at the most recent World Championships, and Huang Shih-Chun of Chinese Taipei, the reigning Asian Champion, in the best positions to win the crown.

The top score in the snatch competition, 115 kg, went to three participants, Rim Jong-Sim of North Korea, Anna Nurmukhambetova of Kazakhstan, and Dina Sazanovets of Belarus, none of whom had medals from a major international tournament. In the clean and jerk, Marina Shkermankova, also of Belarus, took an early lead with a lift of 135 kg that tacked on to her 113 kg lift from the snatch. She was quickly passed by Sazanovets and Nurmukhambetova, who each added 136 kg to their total, giving the Belarusian the advantage as the lighter competitor. Cocoș then joined them with 138 kg lift and, with an even lower body weight, moved into the gold medal position. Next came a string of failures at the 140 kg level, with Nurmukhambetova and Meline Daluzyan of Armenia, European Champion in 2007 and 2008 and runner-up in 2010, both unable to lift the weight, exhausting the Kazakh’s remaining attempts and leaving her in third place. Shkermankova, meanwhile, was successful at this weight and passed the Romanian, but was quickly bested by her compatriot, who lifted 141 kg. Rim then arrived with a successful lift of 142 kg, securing her lead, while Daluzyan got one final shot at the podium by attempting this weight. She was unsuccessful and thus failed to post a score. Next up were Cocoș and Shkermankova, who lifted 143 kg to tie Sazanovets and enter the silver and bronze medal positions respectively by virtue of bodyweight. This is where they would remain, with Cocoș failing at her 146 kg attempt and Rim succeeding with hers, thus earning the title of Olympic champion.

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. Every women’s weightlifting event at the 2012 London Olympics, except flyweight (≤ 48 kg), was affected by positive re-tests.

In October 2016 the third- and fourth-place finishers, Belarussians Marina Shkermankova and Dina Sazanovets, were disqualified after positive re-tests for anabolic steroids. The bronze medal was re-assigned to Kazakh lifter Anna Nurmukhambetova. Then in November 2020, after re-testing of samples from London. Romania’s silver medalist Roxana Cocoș’s samples produced an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) and she was disqualified, removing her silver medal. In June 2021 Colombia’s Ubaldina Valoyes was advanced to third-place and scheduled to receive a bronze medal; however, because Nurmukhambetova was by then serving a suspension for use of PEDs, she was not advanced to the silver medal, leaving two bronze medals in this event (as of June 2021).