Canadian Olympian shot putter Dylan Armstrong was awarded his Beijing 2008 bronze medal on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015 at a ceremony in Kamloops. The medal re-allocation came more than six years after Armstrong's performance in Beijing.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff Bassett
February 15, 2015 - 2:28 PM
KAMLOOPS - Dylan Armstrong finally has his Olympic bronze medal.
The 34-year-old Kamloops athlete was awarded bronze in shot put, receiving it six-and-a-half years after the 2008 Beijing Games.
He celebrated the moment in front of about 700 people at the Tournament Capital Centre where he trains.
"Thank you to the IOC, the COC and the IAAF for getting this medal back to Canada where it really belongs," Armstrong said. "It's very overwhelming with the people that came out and supported me today."
Armstrong finished fourth in Beijing, missing bronze by less than a centimetre with his Canadian-record throw. But he was later bumped to bronze because a competitor tested positive for doping.
The IAAF re-tested stored urine samples from the 2005 world track and field championships in 2013 and stripped third-place finisher Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus of all his results post-2005.
"It just shows if listen to your coach and you're dedicated and you work hard, you can do it clean. I'm a prime example of that," Armstrong said.
He said he was a "bit nervous" receiving his medal.
"It's probably a bit more nervous when you're in front of your home crowd and a lot of family members that I wouldn't have had in Beijing."
To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015