Kolkata: One of India’s most talented athletes in long jump on the world stage, Anju Bobby George feels that she has fallen victim to ‘dope cheats’ during the 2004 Athens Olympics Games and could very well end up with an Olympic silver against her name if the investigations in the long jump event of that Olympics turn out to be successful and fruitful.
Not only Anju, but Australian Bronwyn Thompson and Britain’s Jade Johnson, the both of whom had participated in the global event, have made similar allegations and are expected to get the backing of their respective Olympic committees to put up this case in front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to get justice. Anju, for that matter has already secured the support of the sports ministry, the Athletics Federation of India and the Indian Olympic Association.
In an interaction with portal Firstpost, the bronze winner at the 2003 World Championships said, “All three of us and our national associations are going to appeal our case to the IOC. We need justice. We plan to stand together and raise our voices.”
In the 2004 games, all the three medallists of the long jump event- Tatyana Lebedeva (gold), Irina Simagina (silver) and Tatyana Kotova (bronze) passed the dope tests at that time but failed to do so later in the other competitions. Adding to this, the revelation of the fact that the state sponsored doping in Russia was in play in recent months is what led Anju and the others to take a stand and fight for what they deserved.
Although she didn’t reveal their plan of action against the three winners of the long jump event at the 2004 Olympics, a source revealed that a part of their case rested on witnesses. Anju, herself revealed that on the day of the competition, she had suspicions on the Russian trio as she saw them taking some substance.
“I saw one of them inhaling something and the other drank some liquid from an ampoule (vial). The security at the venue was really tight, so at that time I didn’t think it was possible that they could have brought any prohibited substance at the venue,” said Anju.
Tatyana Lebdeva, who won the gold finished at a distance of 7.07 m followed by Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova, both of whom had finished at 7.05 m. Australian Thompson finished at 6.96 m followed by USA’s Marion Jones who finished at 6.85 m ahead of Anju’s 6.83 m. Quite interestingly, Jones was denied her place in the competition after she was tested positive for doping offences in December 2007.
Lebdeva, who is currently a senator in Russia had her 2008 Bejing Olympics silver medals for long jump and triple jump taken away from her this January as she was tested positive for a steroid called turinabol from samples taken during the competition. She retired in 2013.
In 2014, Kotova was stripped off her 2005 World Athletics Final gold medal due to doping. Anju’s silver medal thus received an upgrade to a one made of gold. Unfortunately, the samples of the Athens Olympics winners have been destroyed keeping in mind the IOC mandate which states that a sample can be preserved for 10 years for the purpose of re-examination.
But this did not dampen Anju’s spirits as she still believes that she and her fellow competitors has a point to prove through this case.
“We have been gathering details that support our cause for many months now. In few days, there will be a meeting of Athletics Australia, where they will hear Thompson’s case” said Anju.
Bronwyn Thompson, who is retired now, while speaking to the Brisbane’s Courier Mail said, “You can’t ever give someone back the moment on top of the podium once you’ve stolen it from them. I have a great life after athletics but would I love to be awarded the gold medal after finishing behind three athletes who have all been shown up as drug cheats? Of course. At this stage, I am hoping Athletics Australia will support the three of us in our legal action to help build a strategy and gather evidence to build our case.”
Anju has the support of her husband Robert Bobby George in this fight and faces the prospect of becoming the second Indian alongside Rajvardhan Singh Rathore who had won a silver in shooting at the Athens Olympics.
(With inputs from The Times of India and Firstpost)