‘The dirtiest race ever’ saw six of top nine take drugs and champion banned for life
The women's 1500m final at London 2012 has been dubbed the 'dirtiest race in history' - and it's easy to see why.
Six of the top nine finishers at the London Stadium have served bans before or since for performance-enhancing drugs - including the gold and silver medallists.
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A quick glance at the medal table will tell you that Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal clinched first place, clocking a 4:10.74 finish.
According to the current leaderboard, just behind Jamal was Ethiopian runner Abeba Aregawi in silver position, while the American Shannon Rowbury took home bronze.
But the story on paper tells a very different tale to what actually happened.
This is because the medals were actually reallocated in June, after earning an unwanted label in the 13 years since.
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What happened in the Women's 1500m at London 2012?
In a drug-ravaged saga that has dragged on to the present day, Asli Cakir Alptekin initially looked to have won gold after crossing the line first.
However the Turk, who had already served a two-year doping ban prior to winning gold, was later stripped of her title in 2015.
After irregularities were found in her biological passport, she was suspended for eight years by the Turkish Athletics Federation.
And though Cakir Alptekin's ban was eventually halved, as she returned to competition in 2017, her comeback was short-lived.
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The now 40-year-old would reoffend in the same year, and received a lifetime ban for her third doping violation.
Meanwhile, in second place at the time was Cakir Alptekin's compatriot Gamze Bulut.
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Bulut improved her personal best by an eyebrow-raising 18 seconds in the previous year to clinch silver, and her first Olympic medal.
But her past caught up with her in 2017, when she received a four-year ban for abnormal blood levels, and saw all of her results backdated to 2011 disqualified, meaning she was stripped of her Games medal.
Of the initial three medallists, Jamal is the only one to still hold onto some silverware, having never failed a drugs test in her career.
The 2007 and 2009 world champion initially won bronze at London 2012, but has since been awarded gold following Cakir Alptekin and Bulut's disqualification.
Russia's Tatyana Tomashova, who had served a two-year ban up to 2010 for switching urine during a test, finished fourth.
Adding to the controversy, Tomashova was retrospectively awarded silver due after her fellow competitors were discredited.
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But in September 2024, the two-time world champion met a similar fate, when she had her medal stripped after being handed a ten-year ban following a positive test for anabolic steroids.
Even Aregawi, who now holds the 1500m silver medal, has not been without controversy in her career.
The Ethiopia-born runner, who later competed to Sweden, was provisionally suspended in 2016 after she tested positive for meldonium, though that was later lifted.
Elsewhere, the Russian Ekaterina Kostetskaya (seventh) and Belarussian Natallia Kareiva (ninth), have subsequently been banned.
"People will be caught eventually"
Of the 13 athletes to run in the now tainted final, just a further five boast a totally clean doping record.
As well as Jamal, now-bronze medallist Rowbury, who initially finished sixth, and Slovakia's Lucia Klocova (eighth) are the only others in the original top nine to never fail a drugs test.
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Completing the list of clean athletes are British duo Lisa Dobriskey and Laura Weightman, as well as Kenya's Hellen Onsando Obiri, with the trio making up the final three places back in 2012.
And even at the time, it was clear to some that illegal measures had been taken, with Dobriskey confidently predicting her rivals would be found out.
Speaking to the BBC after the race, she said: "I’m very uncomfortable with that.
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“I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying so, but I don’t believe I’m competing on a level playing field.”
She added: “I think these Games came too soon. People will be caught eventually.”