Olga Nikolayevna Kaniskina (russian: О́льга Никола́евна Кани́ськина; born January 19, 1985 in Napolnaya Tavla,

Kochkurovsky District Kochkurovsky District (russian: Кочку́ровский райо́н; myv, Кочкурбуе, ''Kočkurbuje''; mdf, Кочкуровань аймак, ''Kočkurovań ajmak'') is an administrativeConstitution of the Republic of Mordovia, Arti ...

Mordovian ASSR The Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (russian: Мордовская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика, ''Mordovskaya Avtonomnaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika'' ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) is a Russian coach and former

race walker Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Referee, Race judges careful ...

. She won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the 20 km walk at the 2006 European Championships, the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the 2007 World Championships, and the gold medal at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. She also won the 20 km walk at the

2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup The 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup was held on 10 and 11 May 2008 in the streets of Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic, Chuvashia, Russia. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the results was given for the IAAF. Complete result ...

, setting a Championship record of 1:25:42. She was disqualified from several years of competition due to doping.

Career

At the

2006 IAAF World Race Walking Cup he 2006 IAAF World Race Walking Cup was held on 13 and 14 May 2006 in the streets of A Coruña, Spain. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the results was given for the IAAF. Complete results were published. M ...

Kaniskina finished in fifth place and won her first major medal, a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

, at the

2006 European Athletics Championships The 19th European Athletics Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, between 7 August and 13 August 2006. The competition arena was the Ullevi Stadium and the official motto "Catch the Spirit". Gothenburg also hosted the 1995 World Champions ...

later that year. She won her first global title the following year, taking the gold in the women's 20 km walk at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

, beating compatriot

Tatyana Shemyakina Tatyana Aleksandrovna Shemyakina (russian: Татьяна Александровна Шемякина; born 3 September 1987) is a Russian race walker. She was born in Makarovka, Republic of Mordovia. Career Her first international medal was ...

to the finish. The 2008 season saw Kaniskina break her first world record in the 20 km Walk at the Russian Championships. She lowered the mark set by her compatriot

Olimpiada Ivanova Olimpiada Vladimirovna Ivanova (russian: Олимпиада Владимировна Иванова, born 26 August 1970) is a Russian race walker. Her first gold medal was won in the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, where she beat the rest ...

in August 2005. However, IAAF rules dictate that 3 official judges must be present at the race for a world record to be ratified, making it unlikely that this record would be ratified, as there were not 3 judges present. She went on to set the 20 km championship record at the

held in Russia, finishing with a time of 1:25:42. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, she broke the standing Olympic record for the fastest 20 km walk. She walked 20 km in 1:26:31 to beat the silver medalist by 36 seconds. The previous Olympic record was 1:29:05 set by Wang Liping in 2000 at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. She continued her run of success by winning her second World gold medal at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

, becoming the first woman to win the title consecutively. Kaniskina's first win of 2010 came at the Na Rynek Marsz! competition in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Poland, where she beat Melanie Seeger by two seconds. She improved one position from her 2006 performance to top the podium at the

2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Cat ...

, claiming the women's 20 km title. Her 2011 started with a win on the 2011 World Challenge circuit in

Rio Maior Rio Maior () is a municipality in the Santarém District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 21,192, in an area of 272.76 km². The present mayor is Isaura Morais of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the first woman to be elected mayor ...

in April. At the 20km walk during the 2012 Summer Olympics she was leading the walk from the start, but on the last kilometer was overtaken by

Elena Lashmanova Elena Anatolyevna Lashmanova (russian: Елена Анатольевна Лашманова, born 9 April 1992 in Saransk, Mordovia) is a Russian race walker. In March 2022 she accepted a two-year ban, retroactive to March 2021, and all of her re ...

and won silver.

Disqualification

Kaniskina was part of a training group coached by

Viktor Chegin Viktor Mikhailovich Chegin (russian: Виктор Михайлович Чёгин; born 3 February 1962 in Bersenevka, Lyambirsky District) is a banned Russian racewalking coach. He was responsible for training all three athletes who swept the med ...

. More than a dozen members of that group have been suspended for doping violations. She did not return to defend her world championship on home soil, similar to teammate

Sergey Bakulin Sergey Vasilyevich Bakulin (russian: Серге́й Васильевич Бакулин; born 13 November 1986 in Insar, Mordvin ASSR) is a male race walker from Russia. Biography He was originally the 2011 World Champion in the 50 kilometre ...

. It was later revealed that Bakulin was serving a previously unannounced doping suspension, casting the suggestion that Kaniskina was doing the same. On January 20, 2015 Kaniskina was disqualified for 3 years and 2 months starting from 15 October 2012, and all her results between 15 July 2009 and 16 September 2009, as well as between 30 July 2011 and 8 November 2011 (which included two world championship golds) were annulled. The reason for the ban was anomalies in her

biological passport An athlete biological passport is an individual electronic record for professional athletes, in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time. Doping violations can be detected by n ...

. On March 25, 2015, the IAAF filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland, questioning the selective disqualification of the suspension periods of the six athletes involved, including the one for Kaniskina which had allowed her to keep her Olympic silver medal. Kaniskina received prize money of around $135,000 from the government at events from which she was later disqualified.

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaniskina, Olga 1985 births Living people People from Mordovia Sportspeople from Mordovia Russian female racewalkers Olympic female racewalkers European Athletics Championships medalists Olympic athletes of Russia Olympic gold medalists for Russia Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals World Athletics Championships athletes for Russia World Athletics Championships winners World Athletics Championships medalists Athletes stripped of World Athletics Championships medals World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships winners European Athletics Championships winners Russian Athletics Championships winners Russian sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics Mordvin people