Tatyana Pavlovna Firova (; born October 10, 1982) is a Russian former sprint athlete. She was awarded the silver medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
In 2016, it was announced that a reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Summer Olympics resulted in a doping violation by Firova. She was disqualified from the competition, and she and her teammates were stripped of their 4 × 400 m relay silver medals."IOC sanctions six athletes for failing anti-doping tests at Beijing 2008". olympic.org. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016. She claimed that using banned substances was necessary for achieving good results: "A normal person can take banned substances if they want to. So why can't athletes take them as well? How else can we achieve high results?""Russia doping scandal: Tatyana Firova suggests athletes should be able to take banned substances". independent.co.uk. 8 June 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2017. Although offending athletes are required to return their stripped medals to the IOC, Firova refused to return her medals.
In February 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed her a four-year ban for doping, starting from 9 June 2016, and all of her results from 20 August 2008 to 31 December 2012 were disqualified.
References
External links
Athlete bio at 2008 Olympics website