U.S. 800m runner Alysia Montaño will receive her first world outdoor track and field championships medals, six and nine years after being cheated out of them.
Montaño will be in Doha for the world championships that start next week, not to compete but to be given bronze medals from the 2011 and 2013 World Championships, according to her social media.
Montaño crossed the finish line fourth in each of those world 800m finals. Russian Maria Savinova, an original gold and silver medalist in those respective races, was retroactively stripped of those medals (and her 2012 Olympic title) years later for doping. That cleared the way for Montaño’s upgrade.
“I always give everything I’ve got, and in track and field that has also been the case,” was posted on Montaño’s Instagram. “Everything I had I left it out there, I have no regrets, used all of the power in me to come up with the best possible result for all my true, honest hard work and over a decades time worth of dedication. From 2007-2016 I had the ultimate displeasure of racing against dopers who ultimately dominated the top of the scoreboard. These athletes who were doping stole precious moments and money from clean athletes including me, who never got the outdoor podium moment that I earned. -The [IAAF] took monetary bribes from the athletes that were doping at the time to cover up theirs failed results, if it were not for whistle blower Yulia Stepanova who secretly recorded her teammates as they explained their operation, what they took and how they got away with it, I would not have the opportunity to stand on and receive my podium moment and my medals that I honestly earned.”
Montaño, 33 and a 2012 Olympian, last competed at the 2017 USATF Outdoor Championships, placing seventh in her first-round heat while five months pregnant.
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