There are now no bronze medalists from the men’s high jump event at 2012 Summer Olympics. Why? Because the three men all got upgraded to silver this past weekend.
Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, Great Britain’s Robert Grabarz, and Canada’s very own Derek Drouin are now the silver medalists for the event, and the United States’ Erik Kynard is now the Olympic Champion.
Russia’s Ivan Ukhov was stripped of his gold medal in February 2019 by the Court of Arbitration in Sport for doping. He is one of twelve Russian track and field who were found guilty of state-backed doping. Ukhov’s results were disqualified from competitions between July 2012 to July 2014, which includes the 2012 Olympics.
The men’s high jump was one of five 2012 Olympic events to have their results re-written due to doping disqualifications on Friday.
“I am just pained for the athletes who were denied the opportunity to listen to their own national anthem while standing on top of the podium, as well as the athletes who will now receive their Olympic medal in the mail rather than having the medal ceremony experience they always dreamt of. ” -Derek Drouin
Drouin knows what it is like to be on top of the Olympic podium, hearing his nation’s anthem play in the stadium, because he was the 2016 Olympic Champion in Rio, with a leap of 2.38m.
“[A medal upgrade is] not the same. Speaking from experience, [standing atop the podium] is something that I’ll never forget, and it’s something that [Kynard] should have experienced, and he might never now.” -Drouin
Both Kynard and Drouin were absent from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim shared the top of the podium with Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi. Ukhov has not competed since 2015.
According to Drouin, there is a bit of a brightside to the medal upgrade – no one is actually missing out on the podium experience. Because of the three way tie for bronze, there was no 4th place finisher, and now with the medal upgrade, there is no bronze medalist.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the women’s high jump, where fourth place finisher Ruth Beitia from Spain was upgraded to bronze after Russian Svetlana Shkolina was stripped of hers. Beitia went on to win gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
This isn’t the first time a Canadian track and field athlete has been upgraded at the Olympics; Kamloops’ Dylan Armstrong was upgraded to bronze in 2015 after finishing fourth in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Belarus’ Andrei Mikhnevich originally won bronze, but was then disqualified for doping.