Olga Yegorova

Who is Olga Yegorova?

Olga Yegorova is a Russian middle distance runner.

Her first international appearance came at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where she finished 9th in the 1500m won by future world record holder Qu Yunxia. At the 2000 Summer Olympics she competed in 5000 metres, and she is a double world champion in this event, but like countryfellow Tatyana Tomashova she has concentrated on shorter races since, now competing mainly in the 1500 metres. In this event she finished 11th at the 2004 Summer Olympics and second at the 2005 World Championships.

In 2001 she shared the $1 million jackpot of the IAAF Golden League and in the same year tested positive for EPO which drew protests from her fellow competitors after she was allowed to compete in the World Athletics Championships. Although her urine sample tested positive for EPO, the French authorities failed to take an accompanying blood test and she avoided a suspension on a technicality.

Yegorova was one of seven Russian athletes to be suspended for doping offences ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On 20 October 2008, it was announced that Yegorova, along with 6 other Russian athletes would receive two-year doping bans for manipulating drug samples.