The running world is still reeling from 2021 Boston Marathon winner Diana Kipyokei’s six-year ban for using prohibited substances, with former American marathon record holder Deena Kastor weighing in on the scandal and the state of doping in the sport as a whole.
The Athletics Integrity Unit announced the Kipyokei athlete’s ban in October, which led to the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) officially stripping her title and elevating Kenyan Edna Kiplagat to first place.
Kipyokei did not contest the ban or the allegations.
Kiplagat had previously expressed disappointment that despite the updated standings, she was “robbed” of her victory on the day of the marathon. The 41-year-old is now the oldest athlete to win a World Marathon Major, male or female.
Kastor said she spoke with Kiplagat after the BAA elevated Kiplagat to first place.
“[Kiplagat] said ‘It’s heartbreaking.’ And it is in so many ways, on so many levels,” Kastor said in an email to Fan Hub.
This is the eighth time that a winner of an Abbott World Marathon Major (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City and Tokyo) has been disqualified due to doping. It happened one other time to a Boston winner — the 2013 and 2014 women’s champion, Rita Jeptoo, had her 2014 title stripped after she tested positive for EPO.
Jeptoo also won back-to-back Chicago marathons in 2013 and 2014 and had the latter title stripped.
Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova won the 2009–2011 Chicago Marathons and the 2010 London Marathon, and had all four of her titles stripped after a doping ban in 2014.
And Tatyana Aryasova of Russia, who won the 2011 Tokyo Marathon, had her title stripped in 2012 after testing positive for a controlled substance just days after her win.
The athletes listed above didn’t just rob the true winners of the glory of breaking the tape — they also raked in multiple millions of dollars in prize money. Luckily, most of that money has been paid out to the true winners, but Kastor said the impact of high-profile cheating scandals can have long-term negative effects for the sport.
“Aside from stealing money and glory from events, sponsors and other athletes, they are the dark side of role models, showing younger generations how to cheat, lie and take advantage of a sport that can truly change [lives] for the better,” Kastor said.
And blood doping and using other controlled substances can be extremely harmful to the athletes themselves. After a major leak of doping tests in 2015, London Marathon officials said they learned that many elite athletes who competed in the race between 2001 and 2012 had “blood that appeared so heavily doped as to threaten their health” — and that World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) failed to inform them of this.
There have been calls in recent years for reforms to the testing system, such as more frequent tests and more doping research to create tests with longer “detection windows.”
Former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound recently suggested that officials should reform the “whereabouts requirement” of drug tests so they can confirm athletes’ whereabouts quicker and reduce the rate of deliberately missed tests.
“The WADA director general (or some other designated official) should be able – where such conduct may reasonably be suspected as deliberate (for example the doping control officer may know perfectly well that the athlete is there, but is not responding) – to authorise short-circuiting the process,” Pound said.
For now, though, we can expect to see many more high-profile athletes suspended for doping in the coming years.
“I’m sad that in a sport that can give, share and teach so much, cheaters won’t benefit from those lessons,” Kastor said. “It’s sad, these unfortunate decisions that ruin more lives than just the cheater making them. The sport isn’t dirtier from drug cheats today than the past, its that the AIU is effectively catching them.”
Doping isn’t the only reason to disqualify a major marathon winner. In 1980, Rosie Ruiz cut the Boston course by taking the subway and finished first, and was champion for eight days until race officials learned of her actions.
