Doping at the World Athletics Championships
As a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) prohibits the use of banned performance-enhancing substances by competitors at the World Championships in Athletics. A list of WADA-banned substances is regularly published to the public and amended as scientific knowledge expands. The IAAF and anti-doping bodies undertake in-competition sampling of athletes blood and urine in order to detect where athletes have taken banned substances. This is also complemented by out-of-competition tests during the tournament and in the preceding period.
Ben Johnson's disqualification in 1987 was the first time a world champion was stripped of their title for doping.
Marion Jones was stripped of three sprint medals for doping at the 2001 event
Three-time racewalk world champion Olga Kaniskina of Russia has been stripped of two of those titles for doping.
Mariya Savinova is one of many Russian athletes to be stripped for World Championships medals.
Mariya Sergeyevna Savinova is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 800 metres event. In 2017, she was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspended from competition for four years. In addition to the ban, she had three years of elite results nullified and was stripped of both her World Championship medals and her 2012 Olympic gold medal.
Savinova in 2012
