Russian middle-distance runner Tatyana Tomashova may be stripped of her 2012 Olympic 1500m silver medal after being found guilty of a second anti-doping violation and being banned for 10 years. American Shannon Rowbury, who originally finished sixth in the 1500m Olympic final at the London Olympics, may receive the bronze medal after three women ahead of her have been disqualified for anti-doping offenses.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced an arbiter determined Tomashova is now banned for 10 years and lost all her results from June 21, 2012 to Jan. 3, 2015 after her out-of-competition drug test samples from June 2012 and July 2012 were re-tested and come back positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Tomashova initially finished fourth in the 1500m final at the London Olympics.

Turkey’s Asli Cakir Alptekin and Gamze Bulut, who were the original 1500m Olympic gold and silver medalists, have also been disqualified for doping. Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal has been upgraded from bronze to gold. Tomashova was upgraded to silver. Abeba Aregawi was moved up from fifth place to bronze.

Rowbury would be upgraded from fourth to bronze. This would have been the second global championship medal for Rowbury in her career after her 2009 World Championship 1500m bronze medal and would have made her the first American woman to medal in the 1500m at the Olympic Games.

You can read all about the case here.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Guest: Shannon Rowbury | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@shannonrowbury on Instagram

The following interview highlights have been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full interview with Shannon Rowbury on the CITIUS MAG Podcast – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

Feeling like she had unfinished business on the track prior to learning about Tomashova’s ban:

“It was that unfinished business – this sense that in my career, the one thing that I hadn’t accomplished was an Olympic medal and feeling like in the back of my mind I had accomplished it, but not officially… It was just a really complicated feeling like I had done everything I could.”

The impact of not having the Bronze medal experience at the Olympics:

“I would have loved the victory lap, the podium experience – but for me, it's those relationships. Those people I mentioned are still a big part of my life. Not only was I disappointed, but they carried this disappointment [too]. In some ways, I think you carry disappointment for the people you love. I could kind of process it, like, ‘It's going to be okay,’ but they were upset for [me] and that disappointment was brutal.

Those are the moments that I’m probably the most sad about: just the opportunity to really celebrate together with the people that helped make it possible. Those are the things I thought about after getting the news in September from CAS. It was the thought of those things that brought the most emotion, the most tears.

But luckily those people are still in my life, so we're planning a way for us to at least celebrate together, even though we don't know when the next phase of this saga will be over.”

Her initial reaction after finding out that she will be upgraded from fourth to bronze in the 2012 Olympic 1500m, pending appeals:

“It was an overwhelming feeling of emotion. I had put London in a box in the corner of my heart, had shielded it up, stored it away. In the weeks since, it's been trying to unpack a lot of those feelings and the gratitude that 12 years later, there’s actually justice coming.”

Why she’s returning to racing after retiring from professional running:

“That's why I love running. It's the people of our running community that I love apart from the business of sport. That kind of got me back into it. I got to do some more broadcasting and I was able to prove myself enough to be a part of the Paris Olympics. Then the New York Marathon, that was just a bucket list goal of like, ‘I've never done one in my life, I probably will never race on the track again, but I do love racing. Road racing especially, because that's the running community.”

Believing things happen for a reason:

“I would have loved to be able to experience it differently. I do believe things happen for a reason and that we're meant to learn something from them. I don't know what I was supposed to learn from this yet, but I intend to figure it out. Some lessons, you're like, ‘Why do they have to be so heavy?’ But I guess that's life.”

Hopes for improving how future cases similar to hers will be handled:

“We need to have a better system in place. God willing there's less of these moving forward, but for those who do have to go through such a process, there needs to be a better protocol for informing the athlete before it goes to the media – to give them a sense of timeline, even if there's not exact dates. Just, ‘These are the steps in the process and approximately this is what it might look like…’

I think there has been this desire to sort of brush the ugly bits under the rug, but I don't think that’s right. I don't think it's fair. I don't think it does anything for loyalty and belief in the sport when we can't recognize those moments where we've made mistakes and use those as opportunities to commit to improvement…

I don't know what that will look like, but I would love to more broadly help create a better process so that anyone else in my shoes or Alysia [Montaño]’s shoes doesn't feel so lost, doesn’t feel like they're in the dark after the trauma of – in my case – 12 years.”

Time Stamps:

• 4:09 - Initial reactions after learning she will be upgraded to 1500m bronze from the 2012 Olympics.
• 10:11 - Finding out the news during the Paris Olympics.
• 12:45 - Memories associated with London following the 2012 Olympics: 2017 Worlds, getting engaged, upcoming vacation.
• 14:44 - Rewatching the full race for the first time only a few weeks ago.
• 17:43 - How she set goals for the 2012 London Olympics.
• 23:45 - Letting go of doping suspicions towards competitors at the Olympics.
• 27:16 - The balance between advocating for clean sport and being suspicious of potential dopers.
• 30:00 - Breaking down the 2012 Olympic 1500m final.
• 39:03 - Thoughts after finishing the race.
• 44:55 - Improving the protocol for alerting athletes about competitors being banned.
• 51:18 - Recapping the final few years of her pro career.
• 57:57 - What she likes and dislikes about marathon training.
• 1:01:02 - Choosing to be optimistic about the sport.

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