I will be a pensioner before I get my Olympic medal
Briton upset at delay in receiving 2008 bronze Javelin thrower retires after series of injuries
Goldie Sayers revealed a “deep sense of injustice” as she announced the retirement that she had been delaying in the hope of finally receiving a javelin bronze medal from the 2008 Olympics.
Sayers, 34, finished fourth at the Beijing Games, but retesting of samples last year uncovered a doping violation by Russia’s Mariya Abakumova – who had claimed silver – which meant the Briton was elevated to third.
Sayers discovered she was to be upgraded to the podium while driving on the motorway to meet her mother for a coffee at a Newmarket supermarket. However, with Abakumova appealing against the decision, the reallocation of medals has still to be confirmed a year after the news broke.
“Initially, I was just really happy,” Sayers said. “I’d been chasing something that had eluded me and then, all of a sudden, driving down the M11, I had it. But, actually, now I’m much angrier about it – and I’m not an angry person at all. There’s a deep sense of injustice.
“I was desperate to draw a line under my career and move on because I think endings are important – but, at this rate, I’ll be drawing my pension before I get an Olympic medal.”
Recent retesting of samples has resulted in 111 athletes from a number of sports being stripped of their results from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Kelly Sotherton was upgraded last month to heptathlon bronze from the Beijing Games, although she said she would decline a “dirty medal”.
Sayers does not have such reservations, because she would receive the bronze medal originally won by Christina Obergföll, of Germany.
“I’m quite happy with that. We’re friends,” she said. “She told me last year she’s got it. I could just go to Berlin and pick it up.”
Speaking to the BBC, Sayers added: “It’s a strange place to be. There are going to be more and more athletes who’ve retired, picking up Olympic medals, thinking, ‘If only...’
“It’s getting on. Some of the kids I’m coaching don’t even remember those Olympics. You very quickly feel like a has-been in sport. And I don’t want to be one of those people talking about something that happened 20 years ago, and that being the best moment of their life.”
Sayers’s attempt to improve on her Beijing placing at London 2012 was wrecked by injury and she missed out on a spot in the team for the Rio Olympics.
“Last year was tough,” she said. “I fell off a box in 2010, tore the meniscus in my knee and it’s the knee that I pivot on, land and rotate at speed on. I had three surgeries on it and I got to the point where I had to start thinking about my health post athletics. And I just wasn’t able to produce the performances I wanted to. It was quite an easy decision at the end of last year.
“I’ve wanted to do it [announce the retirement] for months, but I kept thinking this legal process would be wrapped up, and I could look forward to a presentation.
“At the moment, I’m enjoying a healthy body and being able to train and do everything I want to do and not be in fear of having another operation.”
The British Olympic Association has announced that Sayers will be Team GB’s deputy chef de mission for the Gyor 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival.