Elena Anatolyevna Lashmanova (, born 9 April 1992 in

Saransk Saransk (, ); ; is the capital city of Mordovia, Russia, as well as its financial and economic centre. It is located in the Volga River, Volga drainage basin, basin at the confluence of the Saranka and Insar Rivers, about east of Moscow. Sar ...

Mordovia Mordovia ( ),; Moksha language, Moksha and officially the Republic of Mordovia,; ; is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, situated in Eastern Europe. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of S ...

) is a Russian

race walker Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asses ...

who was the

20 km walk The 20 kilometre race walk is an Olympic athletics event that is competed by both men and women. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight un ...

Olympic champion in 2012.

Early career

Lashmanova was World Youth, World Junior and European Junior champion in race walking.

Career

Lashmanova won the 20 km walk at the 2012 World Racing Walking Cup in Saransk with a time of 1:27:38. Later that year in her Olympic debut at the

2012 Summer 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 ...

in London, Lashmanova won gold in the women's

in a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

time of 1:25:02. She beat defending champion

Olga Kaniskina Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina (; born January 19, 1985 in Napolnaya Tavla, Kochkurovsky District, Mordovian ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian coach and former race walker. She won the silver medal in the 20 km walk at the 2006 ...

in a come from behind win by 7 seconds. In 2013, she won the

at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

in Moscow.

Doping

On 22 June 2014, it was announced that Lashmanova had tested positive for doping with

Endurobol GW501516 (also known as GW-501,516, GW1516, GSK-516, cardarine, and on the black market as endurobol) is a PPARδ receptor agonist that was invented in a collaboration between Ligand Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline in the 1990s. It entered ...

, along with a large number of other Russian race-walkers, and would receive a two-year suspension. She would come off of the doping suspension in time to defend her Olympic gold medal. She joined over a dozen other elite Russian race walkers all coached by

Viktor Chegin Viktor Mikhailovich Chegin (; born 3 February 1962 in Bersenevka, Lyambirsky District) is a banned Russian racewalking coach. He was responsible for training all three athletes who swept the medals at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics: Olg ...

to receive doping suspensions. She is alleged to have competed on 30 December 2014 despite the drug suspension. If proven her ban could be extended for a further two years. IAAF investigating Russian Olympic gold medallist Elena Lashmanova
" ''The Guardian'' (January 14, 2015). Retrieved March 6, 2015. In 2021, she received a two-year ban for a doping violation along with a similar penalty for the majority of her training partners shortly thereafter. Her Olympic gold (at time of writing) will be stripped following an IOC decision in March 2022. It is claimed by Russian whistleblower

Grigory Rodchenkov Grigory Mikhailovich Rodchenkov (; born 24 October 1958) is the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory, the ''Anti-Doping Center''. Rodchenkov is known for his involvement in the state-run doping program in Russia. In Novemb ...

that her positive sample (found with the doping compound GW1516) was in fact one from her 2012 Olympics mistakenly substituted for a further positive test result by the state run-doping programme. He claims that she had at least 2 positive findings that went unreported and that this one was reported only because it was witnessed by non-Russian experts. In March 2022, she received a two-year ban, retroactive to March 2021, with all of her results disqualified from February 18, 2012, to January 3, 2014, disqualified for doping use. However, her Olympic gold was stripped for doping following an IOC decision in March 2022. She was also stripped of her 2013 world title. Russia originally was thought to have won 18 medals and eight gold medals in track and field at the 2012 Olympics. After Lashmanova's medal was officially stripped, however, Russia's total was reduced to seven medals and two gold medals (following many other reallocation for similar reasons).

International competitions

References

External links