Darya Vitalyevna Pishchalnikova (, born 19 July 1985 in

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

) is a female

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

er from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Pishchalnikova is the sister of Bogdan Pishchalnikov and Kirill Pishchalnikov.

Career

Pishchalnikova rose through the ranks as a young athlete, winning the

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in the discus at the

2001 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2001 World Youth Championships in Athletics was the second edition of the IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics, World Youth Championships in Athletics. It was held in Debrecen, Hungary 12–15 July 2001. Results Boys Girls Medal ta ...

, then repeating that feat at the World Junior Championships in 2004. She established herself as one of the top women's throwers at the

2006 European Athletics Championships The 19th European Athletics Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, between 7 August and 13 August 2006. The competition arena was the Ullevi Stadium and the official motto "Catch the Spirit". Gothenburg also hosted the 1995 World Champions ...

, taking the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

with a throw of 65.55 metres, which remains her personal best. She set a personal best throw of 65.78 metres when she won the silver medal at the 2007 World Championships in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, but that throw was to be subsequently discredited. She was selected to represent Russia at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, but on 31 July, she was suspended from competition due to doping test irregularities, along with several other high-profile Russian female athletes. On 20 October 2008, it was announced that Pishchalnikova was one of seven Russian athletes receiving a two-year doping ban for manipulating drug samples. She returned to competition in 2011 and finished eleventh at the World Championships in Daegu that year. She took second place at the 2012 European Cup Winter Throwing, then had a personal best throw of 67.00 m in Adler in May. At the Prefontaine Classic

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

meeting she was runner-up to

Sandra Perković Sandra or SANDRA may refer to: People * Sandra (given name) * Sandra (singer) (born 1962), German pop singer * Margaretha Sandra (1629–1674), Dutch soldier * Sandra (orangutan), who won the legal right to be defined as a "non-human person" Pla ...

. She won the Russian Championships with a throw of 70.69 m – the best performance in the event since 1992. Pishchalnikova participated in the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and was awarded a silver medal. However, she tested positive for the anabolic steroid oxandrolone in the samples taken in May 2012. In April 2013 she was banned by the Russian Athletics Federation for ten years, and her results from May 2012 were annulled, meaning she was set on track to lose her Olympic medal. According to the New York Times, she was a whistleblower who sent the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) a December 2012 email detailing state-run doping programs in which Russian athletes had to participate; her ban by the Russian Athletics Federation was likely in retaliation.

Achievements

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pishchalnikova, Darya 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Astrakhan Russian female discus throwers Olympic athletes for Russia Russian sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Athletes stripped of World Athletics Championships medals Competitors at the 2005 Summer Universiade 21st-century Russian sportswomen