Kenyan middle-distance runner Pamela Jelimo has been awarded her bronze medal, ten years after competing at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The 2008 Olympic gold medallist was upgraded from fourth to third place in 2017 after Russia’s Mariya Savinova was disqualified due to a doping violation in 2015 that led to the annulment of all her results between July 2010 and August 2013.
At 18 years old, Jelimo became the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic medal, surprising the athletics world in the 2008 Beijing Games and setting a world junior record of 1:54:01, a time that is still the third-best in history.
Donning a national team tracksuit, the 33-year-old received her bronze medal in front of family and friends this week at a museum in the nation’s capital, Nairobi.
“It’s so painful to wait this long to receive a medal,” Jelimo told BBC Sport Africa. “My children can now watch me on TV as I receive the bronze medal.
“This is like a dream. I initially didn’t believe it when I heard the good news. It’s truly a dream of every athlete to win a medal in the Olympics and I’m honoured to have my parents accompany me and share this joy.
“Doping is a menace that has cost me a lot of opportunities in both winning bonuses and in promotions at my Kenya Police workplace where we have targets in international competitions.”
Jelimo, headed into the 2012 Olympics with high expectations, only to finish behind third-placed Russian Ekaterina Guliyeva, who was later disqualified along with four other Russian athletes in 2015.
This provides a breath of fresh air for a gloomy Kenya Athletics Federation, fortunate enough to avoid an international ban from the World Athletics Federation after reports of doping incidents led to 55 of its athletes being sanctioned.
