It will be a hollow, golden upgrade

Caster Semenya could see her silver medals from the 2011 Daegu World Championships and London 2012 Olympic Games upgraded to gold.

Caster Semenya could see her silver medals from the 2011 Daegu World Championships and London 2012 Olympic Games upgraded to gold.

Published Nov 12, 2015

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Earning a medal upgrade when the winner has been found guilty of a doping offence is nothing but an empty gesture with the silverware often arriving years after retirement.

Former world champion Caster Semenya could see her silver medals from the 2011 Daegu World Championships and London 2012 Olympic Games upgraded to gold as Russian champion Mariya Savinova faces a lifelong ban from sport.

Savinova was fingered in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report as being part of what an independent commission termed a systematic doping programme that involved the Russian athletics federation.

Her doping test taken during the 2011 World Championships was termed as “very suspicious” according to laboratory experts.

A day before the WADA commission released the report, Semenya said she would consider it a hollow victory.

“I ran the Olympics and I won the silver medal, so I can’t celebrate anything other than my silver ... it is just an award from them I never celebrated,” she said.

Former South African sprinters Mathew Quinn and Arnaud Malherbe can relate to Semenya’s situation as they have both been belated recipients of upgraded medals following doping scandals.

Quinn received a retrospective gold medal as a member of SA’s 4x100m relay team at the 2001 World Championships.

Malherbe was part of the 4x400m relay team that earned an upgrade from fourth place to a bronze medal from the 1999 World Championships.

“You actually win that silver medal as if it is the most amazing thing, it is a medal we did not expect, and we put everything into that celebration,” said Quinn. “You never get to live up to those heights again, and it is a false victory, if you want to call it that.”

To add insult to injury Quinn and the other members of the quartet, Morne Nagel, Corne du Plessis, and Lee-Roy Newton only received their medals five years after the championships.

The SA relay team’s silver was upgraded after initial winners the US were disqualified due to Tim Montgomery’s doping infringement.

“I didn’t even get the original and honestly that medal is in a box in my garage, and that is almost how I feel about it,” Quinn said.

Malherbe, Jopie van Oudtshoorn, Hendrik Mokganyetsi, and Adriaan Botha received their retrospective bronze medal 10 years later when the US were disqualified. Antonio Pettigrew admitted to doping during that period.

The former South African 400m record holder lamented the fact that convicted drug cheats from his era did not only rob him of a podium spot but could have had an influence on his career. Four of the athletes that he competed against at that time have since admitted to doping.

“I think people forget about the impact it has the year afterwards in terms of appearance money that you miss out on,” Malherbe said.

“Especially for Caster, who went through a tough time, it could have changed things for her if she was a World or Olympic champion at that point in time”. - The Star

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