Before this turns into an all-football blog over the next couple of days, I want to take a look at one topic that I saw a few days ago and really got me thinking, especially with Usain Bolt losing one of his gold medals as a result of Nesta Carter's positive doping test. That Jamaican relay team's gold medal, of course, isn't the only one that's been stripped because of doping. Not by a long shot.
Which brings me to an idea presented by Jo Pavey, a British athlete who was elevated from fourth place to the bronze medal in the women's 10,000 meters at the 2007 World Championships. This year's World Championships are in London. Pavey would love to receive her bronze medal at the London World Championships. She wants the glory of standing on the medals stand in a packed stadium. That moment, more than anything, is what these athletes are deprived of.
I've written about this topic before, and other athletes have expressed similar sentiments to Pavey. But the idea of presenting the medals at the next Olympics or World Championships is intriguing. You've gotta admit, it's better than the current system of simply giving the new medal to an athlete wherever whenever. Sure, they might have a "medals ceremony" at the local high school or college and get the local media to cover it. But that's not even close to the same thing as having the medal put around your neck and hearing the anthem played in a stadium full of people shortly after winning it.
Sure, these athletes are getting the medal they deserve, even if it is too late. But how much consolation is there in that? Yes, winning an Olympic or World Championships medal is a career- (or, in many cases, life-) long goal. And whether you receive the medal on the stand in the moment or years later in an airport cafeteria, that doesn't change the fact you won it. I'm sure they can't help but feel like something's missing, though.
That brings me to Pavey's point. Why not have retroactive medals ceremonies for those who are given the medals that are stripped and reawarded? Because it's about more than the medal. It's about the moment. And if you can give them the medal, why not give them the medals ceremony, too?
Pavey doesn't want just her medal to be awarded in the stadium. She wants a complete medals ceremony for all three medalists. The gold medalist, Tirunesh Dibaba, already heard Ethiopia's national anthem played in her honor, but Pavey never got to stand on the bronze medal step, and Kara Goucher stood one step further down than she should've.
Or, to use our most recent example, Trinidad & Tobago has immense national pride in their now-gold medalists in the 4x100 relay from Beijing. They never heard their national anthem. And that's a shame. Likewise, the Brazilian bronze medalists never got to stand on the Olympic podium. Unless you're Michael Phelps (or Usain Bolt), that's a once-in-a-lifetime moment. That moment was taken away. I'm not suggesting a replacement medals ceremony would be remotely the same, but it would be as close as they could get to replicating the real thing.
If it's World Championship medals that are being redistributed, they could easily fly the three medalists in and hold a medals ceremony before the competition on one of the days. They wouldn't even need to all be on the same day. Maybe have it on the day of the final in that event. Likewise, if you're getting a reissued Olympic medal, it happens at the next Olympics (although, waiting another three years until Tokyo doesn't sound like the best plan, either).
The IAAF and IOC aren't totally on board with this plan, and I can't say I blame them. They don't want any more focus put on these failed doping tests and reallocated medals. They would prefer it if there was no positive doping tests to begin with, but we all know that's not going to happen. But there has to be some alternative that pleases everyone.
What that alternative is, I don't know. But that's the real tragedy that comes with these doping retests and postmortem disqualifications. Athletes like Jo Pavey didn't just have their medals taken away by cheaters. They had their moment taken away. The least the powers that be can do is give them that "moment." Even if it won't be totally the same, there would still be some justice in that.
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