Boulder runner Kara Goucher may soon be named the 2007 IAAF World Championships silver medalist in the 10,000 meters.
The woman who took silver on the day of the race, Turkish runner Elvan Abeylegesse, may have to forfeit her medal because of an emerging doping scandal. Abeylegesse was among a group of 28 athletes whose samples were retested and found to have "adverse findings," Sports Illustrated reported.
If Abeylegesse is stripped of her medal, Briton Jo Pavey would be named the bronze medalist. (Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba took the gold that day.)
The IAAF hasn't officially name any of the athletes under suspicion, but Abeylegesse's name was leaked to the press, and SI says Turkish Athletics has confirmed Abeylegesse's identity. Here's a video clip of the Turkish runner approaching the finish line that day in 2007:
Goucher told Sports Illustrated she cried when she saw the news on Twitter: "This is every clean athlete’s dream—that people get caught no matter how long after the fact."
"Those moments can never come back,” Goucher said. “Take the financials out of it. What you work for isn’t money, it’s those special moments when the stars align and where there’s an opportunity and you seize it. That happened that day and it happened for Shalane in ’08. Even though we both got to stand on the podium, we didn’t get to experience it to the fullest. Some people didn’t get to stand on the podium. That’s an experience that is robbed and that no apology can ever give you back.”
