Alysia Montano to receive 2011, 2013 medals at World Championships after Russian doping scandal
Finally, years later, Alysia Montano will receive the medals she earned.
Montano announced on Monday that she has been invited to the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, later this month to receive a pair of bronze medals from the 800-meter races at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships.
Montano finished in fourth in both of those races, but was moved up to third after Russian Marya Savinoa was disqualified for doping. The American, however, was never actually given the medals after Savinoa’s disqualification.
“I always give everything I’ve got, and in track and field that has also been the case,” Montano wrote on Instagram. “Everything I had I left 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 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.”
Montano has been competing for Team USA since 2007, and even competed twice in U.S. Championship events while pregnant in 2014 and 2017. Montano slammed Nike in an op-ed in the New York Times earlier this year for the company’s treatment of their pregnant female athletes, too.
The 33-year-old, who will not actually compete in Doha later this month, made sure to thank Russian runner Yulia Stepanova in her Instagram post, too. Stepanova famously exposed the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“If it were not for whistleblower 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,” Montano wrote. “Huge thank you to Yulia Stepanova and other whistleblowers who risked their lives to uncover this scandal.”
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