Former Kansas State high-jumper retroactively wins gold medal from 2012 London Olympics
Erik Kynard finally has his gold medal.
The former Kansas State high jumper was retroactively awarded a gold from the 2012 London Summer Olympics after the IOC on Friday approved reallocating some results from those games because of doping cases.
Kynard’s leap of 2.33 meters placed second in London behind Ivan Ukhov, who was proven years later to have taken part in the Russian state-backed steroid doping program. Ukhov was banned for four years in 2019 at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He went back to the same court last year for an appeal hearing but failed to get the ruling overturned.
The International Olympic Committee executive board on Friday signed off on reallocating the medals and final results for five events from the London Games, including the men’s and women’s high jump.
That means Kynard, who originally won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics, was upgraded to men’s gold. The three bronze medalists in 2012 will each now get silver medals: Derek Drouin of Canada, Robbie Grabarz of Britain and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar.
The decision has been a long time coming for Kynard, who has argued that he deserved a gold medal since Ukhov was first accused of cheating.
Kynard is one of the top Olympians in the history of K-State athletics, and his legend will only grow now that his silver medal has been elevated to a gold.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 7:45 PM.