Tatyana Viktorovna Lysenko (Russian: Татьяна Викторовна Лысенко, born 9 October 1983 in Bataysk) is a Russian hammer thrower. Her career has been blighted by repeated doping infractions. In February 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed her an eight-year ban for doping, starting from 2 July 2016.[2]
Career
Lysenko's first world record was 77.06 metres, achieved on 15 July 2005 in Moscow, beating the old record of Mihaela Melinte by 0.99 metres.[3] On 12 June 2006 she lost the record to Gulfiya Khanafeyeva, who threw 77.26 metres at the Russian athletics championships in Tula.[4] However, Lysenko threw 77.41 metres on June 24 in Zhukovsky[5] and 77.80 metres in Tallinn, Estonia on August 15.[6] On 21 July 2007 it was reported that she failed a drug test, testing positive for a women's hormone blocker.[7] In 2008, she was found guilty of using 6α-methylandrostendione and received a two-year ban (15.07.07 – 14.07.09) and disqualification of all results from 9 May 2007, including her world record of 78.61 m set on 26 May 2007.[8]
Lysenko returned to competition in July 2009, taking the Russian title with 76.41 m.[9] She won the gold at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup and ranked third in the inaugural IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge at the end of the year, with a combined score of 223.96 metres for her three best throws.[10] In 2011, she won her first world championship in the first world championships where the top three women all went over 75 m.[11] She was awarded the hammer throw gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics with a throw of 78.18 m. She won the 2013 World Championships with a world leading throw of 78.80 m.[12]
In May 2016 La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that a retest of Lysenko's samples from the 2012 Summer Olympics had tested positive for doping products, her third failure. If confirmed in the B sample, she stood to lose her Olympic and second World titles and faced a lifetime ban from the sport.[13] In October, she was stripped of her Olympic gold medal.[14]
