IOC finally makes Lashinda Demus a 2012 Olympics champion

Demus was formally reallocated the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles by the IOC because of the disqualification of Natalya Antyukh in fallout from the Russian doping scandal.

Russia’s Natalya Antyukh (right) powers ahead of United States’ Lashinda Demus to win gold in the women’s 400-meter hurdles final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. | Photo Credit: AP

American runner Lashinda Demus officially became an Olympic champion on Thursday, at the age of 40 and more than a decade after the 2012 London Games.

Demus was formally reallocated the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) because of the disqualification of Natalya Antyukh in fallout from the Russian doping scandal.

On the London track on August 8, 2012, Demus finished 0.07 seconds behind Antyukh, who was implicated last year in the second doping case of her career.

Historical evidence recovered from a Moscow testing laboratory database let track’s Athletics Integrity Unit decide last October to strip Antyukh of all her results from July 2012 through June 2013.

Demus will receive a gold medal from the IOC to add to her world title won in 2011. However, she was denied during her career the commercial benefits of calling herself an Olympic champion.

Zuzana Hejnová of Czechia was upgraded to silver, and the bronze was reallocated to Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica, the IOC said.

When the AIU ruling was made five months ago, Antyukh was already serving a four-year ban in a previous case that disqualified all her results from 2013 to 2015.