Lyudmila Blonska

August 22nd, 2008 filed in Olympics, Track and Field

Lyudmila Blonska is a Ukrainian heptathlete, who was previously exposed and banned in 2003 for doping. Following a second failed drug test during the 2008 Summer Olympics, she was withdrawn from the long jump final, was stripped of her silver medal in the heptathlon and excluded from the Olympic Games. Blonska’s first Olympic appearance in the sport was at the 2000 Games in Sydney. She finished well outside medal contention, in 23rd place. Blonska finished thirteenth at the 2002 Athletics Championships and soon thereafter tested positive for steroids. She served a two-year ban, before returning to the sport. She won silver in the women’s heptathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, the IOC confirmed to news agencies that her A sample tested positive for steroids, after Gabrielle Dolle, director of the IAAF’s medical and anti-doping department, informed Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Of Blonska’s appearance in the 2008 Summer Olympics, British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton said, “I’m not happy she can still compete in the Games. We have rules in our country that we have to abide by. We don’t bring anyone who is cheating, so why should any other country? That needs to change.” For her part, Blonska has responded to such criticism by saying that using steroids was “a mistake in my life”, and adding, “I have managed to prove that I can compete again”. - Wikipedia