Sha’Carri wins first gold, Olivia Reeves makes US weightlifters proud
Sha’Carri Richardson won her first gold medal in Paris, US weightlifter Olivia ended both a dry spell and a record, and the US basketball team stormed into the final.
PARIS — Beverly McDonald had long since given up hope of ever winning the Olympic bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games and had long since come to terms with the reality that Marion Jones, who later confessed to doping, had pushed her off the podium.
As her 30s came and went, then her 40s and finally her 50th birthday, the Jamaican sprinter decided she had no choice but to keep going. She started working as an assistant manager at Gap in Fort Worth, Texas. She had a son, who is now 16. At some point about a decade ago, McDonald said she was told her long-awaited medal would be sent to Jamaica – and was later told that officials there had “misplaced” it. “I don’t know what happened,” she said.
But on Friday afternoon, at the age of 54, McDonald finally stood on the winner’s podium – and won the coveted bronze medal in the 200 meters. For the first time, she was one of ten athletes to whom the International Olympic Committee reassigned their Olympic medals. Most of them were upgraded or promoted to the winner’s podium because the men and women before them had been caught doping.
The ten athletes competed in three different sports and disciplines at the Games. But no one had waited as long for this day as McDonald – almost 24 years, spanning parts of three decades.
“(It’s) a bittersweet moment,” she said. “I thought I wouldn’t be nervous, (but) when I walked out and saw the crowd, it was really incredible.”
American high jumper Erik Kynard, whose 2012 silver medal was converted to a gold medal, described his experience as follows: “It’s like I told a joke 12 years ago and the world is only now beginning to understand it.”
Kynard said the ceremony was only held at this time and place – against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, during the 2024 Paris Olympics – because former American sprinter Lashinda Demus lobbied to add that location as an option for athletes to receive newly allocated medals.
The IOC awards these medals on a case-by-case basis, and it had previously tried to give athletes a list of dignified locations to receive the medals – for example, at the organization’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, or at a ceremony hosted by their national Olympic committee. In practice, however, many of these medal ceremonies were more logistical than triumphant; Adam Nelson received his newly awarded gold medal in the shot put outside a Burger King, for example.
Demus, now 41, finished second in the final of the 400-meter hurdles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, only better than Natalya Antyukh from Russia, who was later found guilty of doping. She campaigned for the IOC to put the Olympic Games in Paris, with a roaring crowd, on the table as a new option.
“It was just pride. I think it was closure. Being celebrated,” Demus said of Friday’s ceremony. “I think the crowd was great and they brought us as close to the real situation as possible. I’m grateful to them for that.”
Demus said her mother, father, four sons, a niece and two cousins were all in Paris to celebrate with her. She interrupted an interview with reporters to hug her college coach.
For McDonald, one of the bright spots of the 24-year delay is that her son Justin, 16, was able to experience this time with her. He is a sprinter on the track and field team at his high school in Texas – just like McDonald and her husband Raymond Stewart, whom she credits with campaigning for the awarding of the medal allotted to her.
“I think it’s a different moment,” McDonald said. “You’re (not) with the top three athletes – silver or gold medal. Here you are all alone and you get a medal. So it felt a little different, but it’s still a great feeling.”
The medal she wore around her neck was not just an unmarked relic. It was the exact same design, size and style as she wore at the 2000 Olympics.
In fact, it could even be the exact medal that previously belonged to someone else. The IOC said in a statement that it was making “every effort to recover the original medals from disqualified athletes” before resorting to a stockpile from each Games.
The athletes who received their newly allocated medals on Friday said they did not know where they came from, but several said they had returned their old medals. Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin, for example, said he had turned in his bronze medal to the Canadian Olympic Committee. Demus said she had sent hers back.
“I think I actually put it in a thick ziplock bag or something and just put it in an express envelope and sent it off,” Kynard said. “I didn’t even insure tracking. Maybe they got it, maybe they didn’t, I don’t know.”
For any athlete, the delay comes at a cost. Demus noted that she was considered the favorite for the gold medal in 2012 and believes she missed out on endorsement deals and sponsorship opportunities worth “millions.” Kynard said he doesn’t want to be a victim of the circumstances, but he wants ceremonies like Friday’s to become more commonplace in the future.
McDonald, who also won relay medals with Jamaica in 2000 and 2004, thanked the IOC for the opportunity to do so. She said it also allowed her and her son to watch a few races at the Stade de France while they were in town. But she still regrets the moment she lost.
“2000 was the best year I’ve ever competed,” she said. “I really thought I was going to win a medal. But hey, now I have one.”
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on social media @Tom_Schad.
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