Nadzeya Astapchuk

Nadzeya Astapchuk (Belarusian: Надзея Мікалаеўна Астапчук, Nadzeya Mikalayeuna Astapchuk; Russian: Надежда Остапчук, Nadezhda Ostapchuk; born October 28, 1980)^[1] is a Belarusian shot putter. She briefly was designated the Olympic Champion in 2012, but was subsequently stripped of the title for failing a drug test and the gold medal was awarded to New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams.^[2] She was World Champion in 2005, but in March 2013, the IAAF reported that her drug test sample from that event had been retested and found to be positive.^[3]

Nadzeya Astapchuk

Astapchuk at the World Indoor Championships in 2010
Personal information
Native name	Надзея Мікалаеўна Астапчук
Birth name	Nadzeya Mikalaeuna Astapchuk
Born	(1980-10-28) October 28, 1980 (age 42) Bolshiye Orly, Stolin District, Brest Region
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	97 kg (214 lb)
Sport
Country	Belarus
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Shot Put
Coached by	Alexander Yefimov
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Outdoor: 21.58 m (2012) Indoor: 21.70 m (2010)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Belarus Olympic Games Disqualified 2012 London Shot put Disqualified 2008 Beijing Shot put World Championships 2003 Paris Shot put Disqualified 2005 Helsinki Shot put Disqualified 2007 Osaka Shot put Disqualified 2011 Daegu Shot put
Updated on 13 August 2012.

Astapchuk was initially designated as the bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (but was subsequently disqualified from that too, because of a doping violation), and was the World Indoor and European Champion in 2010. Her overall personal best of 21.70 m that year is the fourth best women's all-time distance indoors.^[4] However, IAAF has subsequently disqualified all of her results since August 2005. She is a four-time runner-up at the World Indoor Championships and a three-time World Championships silver medallist outdoors. She holds the Championship record for the former event, with her winning throw of 20.85 m in 2010. In continental competition, she was the 2005 European Indoor champion and came second at the 2006 European Athletics Championships. In addition to her withdrawn medals in Beijing and London, she was fourth at the 2004 Athens Olympics before the disqualification of Svetlana Krivelyova. Though upgraded to third place in Athens, the IOC declined to award her a bronze medal. ^[5]

Career

Born in Stolin, she was initially interested in basketball but the lack of a local team left her unable to pursue the sport further. Astapchuk instead entered throwing events and her first international title came at the age of seventeen, as she won the shot put at the 1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics. She was dominant at the younger levels and won at the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships and then the 2001 European Athletics U23 Championships.^[6]

She rose to top international level in the early 2000s, winning two consecutive silver medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships and also finished as runner-up at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. She finished fourth at her first Summer Olympics in 2004, but reached the peak of her discipline the following year, winning at the 2005 European Athletics Indoor Championships and then becoming 2005 World Champion. Her career became overshadowed by Valerie Adams, who succeeded her as World Champion in 2007, although she continued to win major medals, including silvers at the World Indoor and Outdoor Championships and a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Her personal best is 21.70 m thrown at the Belarusian championships in 2010, making her the third best indoor thrower on the all-time lists.^[7] She scored her first world indoor title at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, throwing a championship record of 20.85 m. She won further honours at the 2010 European Cup Winter Throwing meeting, easily winning gold ahead of compatriot Natallia Mikhnevich.^[8] She defeated the reigning champion, Natallia Mikhnevich, at the 2010 European Athletics Championships to claim her first outdoor European Championship. She won all six of the IAAF Diamond League meetings that she competed in that year, becoming the inaugural women's shot put trophy winner, and suffered just one defeat in the entirety of 2010 – a runner-up placing behind Valerie Adams at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup.^[9]

She decided to miss the indoor section of 2011 and instead struck a balance between training and resting her left knee. She had endured ongoing pain in the joint but remarked "I didn’t want to do something radical and have surgery as there is no guarantee of a speedy recovery".^[9] Her first competition of 2012 came at the Belarusian indoor championships and she demonstrated her form with a world-leading mark of 20.70 m.^[10] She had a best throw of 20.42 m at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships and this brought her the silver medal behind Adams.^[11]

Turning to the outdoor season, she won at the 2012 European Cup Winter Throwing and reached 20.53 m to win the first leg of the 2012 Diamond League in Doha.^[12][13] She managed only third at the Golden Gala at the end of May, but threw a Belarusian outdoor record of 21.13 m in Minsk two weeks later.^[14] She threw further in July, having marks of 21.32 m, then 21.39 m in Grodno.^[15] Immediately prior to the Olympics, she had a world-leading throw of 21.58 m.^[16]

During the 2020–21 Belarusian protests, Astapchuk became a member of the Coordination Council of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.^[17]

Doping

Astapchuk won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the day after which the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, awarded her the Third-class Order of the Fatherland in recognition of her “high professionalism, outstanding sports achievements and victory at the 30th Summer Olympic Games”.^[18] However, she was later disqualified from the medal for testing positive for a banned substance.^[19] She was tested twice, once on 5 August and again the following day after she had finished first. The IOC said both samples indicated the presence of the anabolic agent metenolone. New Zealand's Valerie Adams was subsequently awarded the gold.^[19] Russia's Yevgeniya Kolodko was moved up to win the silver medal (and was eventually disqualified for doping as well and stripped of her medal), and China's Gong Lijiao moved to take the bronze medal.^[20] She received a one-year ban after her coach, Alexander Yefimov, admitted to spiking her coffee with metenolone without her knowledge after being worried about her performance, stating that he thought the drug would be clear before the tests were administered.^[21][22]

In March 2013, Astapchuk was stripped of her 2005 World Championship title after samples from the 2005 event were retested by the IAAF.^[23] In 2014 IAAF announced that she was sanctioned to four years ineligibility, ending 14 August 2016,^[24] and that her results from 13 August 2005 to 12 August 2007 and since 5 August 2012 were annulled.^[25]

On 12 January 2017 it was announced that because of a doping violation she had been disqualified from the 2008 Olympic Games.^[26]

Achievements

 

Astapchuk receiving her silver medal at the 2007 World Championships

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing   Belarus
1998	World Junior Championships	Annecy, France	1st	18.23 m (=PB)
1999	European Junior Championships	Riga, Latvia	1st	18.20 m
	World Championships	Seville, Spain	19th (q)	17.47 m
2000	European Indoor Championships	Ghent, Belgium	6th	18.65 m
2001	World Indoor Championships	Lisbon, Portugal	2nd	19.24 m (=PB)
	European U23 Championships	Amsterdam, Netherlands	1st	19.73 m
	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	7th	18.98 m
2002	European Championships	Munich, Germany	5th	19.07 m
2003	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	2nd	20.31 m
	World Championships	Paris, France	2nd	20.12 m (=PB)
	World Athletics Final	Monte Carlo, Monaco	3rd	19.51 m
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	7th	18.33 m
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	4th	19.01 m
	World Athletics Final	Monte Carlo, Monaco	1st	19.23 m
2005	European Indoor Championships	Madrid, Spain	1st	19.37 m
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	DSQ	Failed drugs test
	World Athletics Final	Monte Carlo, Monaco	DSQ
2006	World Indoor Championships	Moscow, Russia	DSQ	18.13 m
	European Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	DSQ	19.42 m
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	2nd	20.48 m
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	1st	20.45
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	2nd	19.74 m
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	DSQ	19.86 m
2010	World Indoor Championships	Doha, Qatar	DSQ	Failed drugs test
	European Cup Winter Throwing	Arles, France	1st	20.16 m
	European Championships	Barcelona, Spain	1st	20.48 m
	Continental Cup	Split, Croatia	2nd	20.18 m
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	2nd	20.05 m
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	2nd	20.42 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	DSQ	Failed drug test

References

1. "Athletes - Ostapchuk Nadzeya Biography". IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
2. "Valerie Adams thought gold medal phone call was a joke". Magic.co.nz. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
3. "Doping: Five 2005 world medallists caught after IAAF retests". BBC Sport. BBC News. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
4. (5 March 2012) [1]. IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
5. "Athens 2004 shot put women Results". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 2022-11-07.
6. "Cutting on disco is the secret to Ostapchuk's success". European Athletics. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
7. Dubitski, Mikhail (14 February 2010). "Ostapchuk blasts 21.70m Shot Put heave in Mogilev". IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
8. Slovenia's Ratej provides big surprise at European Cup Winter Throwing. European Athletics (21 March 2010). Retrieved 13 October 2019.
9. "European shot put champion Ostapchuk ready to return after resolving knee problems". European Athletics. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
10. Dubitski, Mikhail (12 February 2012). "Ostapchuk opens with 20.70m world leader at national champs in Mogilev". IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
11. (PDF). Omega Timing. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
12. Ostapchuk and Ratej live up to billing at European Cup Winter Throwing 22 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. European Athletics. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
13. Rowbottom, Mike (11 May 2012). "Middle distance magic highlights hot results in Doha – Samsung Diamond League". IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
14. Dubitski, Mikhail (14 June 2012). . IAAF. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
15. Dubitski, Mikhail (8 July 2012). . IAAF. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
16. Dubitski, Mikhail (19 July 2012). "National records and world leads for Miankova and Ostapchuk in Minsk". IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
17. . Archived from the original on 2020-08-19.
18. Vankovich, Alyaksandr (14 August 2012). . naviny.by Belarus News. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
19. Stallman, Jason (13 August 2012). "Positive Test Costs Shot-Putter Gold Medal". The New York Times.
20. "IOC withdraws gold medal from shot put athlete Nadzeya Ostapchuk". IOC. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
21. "Coach spikes shot putter Nadezhda Ostapchuk's food". The New Zealand Herald. 12 September 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
22. "Olympics-Shot putter Ostapchuk given year ban for doping". Reuters. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
23. "Doping: Five 2005 world medallists caught after IAAF retests". BBC Sport. BBC News. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
24. . iaaf.org. IAAF. 27 May 2014. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
25. "Revision of results following sanctions of Tsikhan and Ostapchuk". iaaf.org. IAAF. 27 April 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
26. "IOC sanctions eight athletes for failing anti-doping test at Beijing 2008 and London 2012". IOC. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2019.

External links

• Tilastopaja profile