American high jumper Eric Kynard earned his long-awaited Olympic gold medal on Friday, as the International Olympic Committee reallocated five results from the 2012 London Games to account for doping disqualifications. The two-time Olympian placed silver in 2012 behind Ivan Ukhov, but Ukhov’s medal was stripped after the Court of Arbitration for Sport found he and 11 other Russian track and field athletes were doping.
With Ukhov out, Kynard (2.33 meters) is the 2012 men’s high jump’s gold medalist while Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, Canada’s Derek Drouin and Great Britain’s Robert Grabarz are silver medalists with matching 2.29-meter leaps. Barshim tied for gold with Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi in the Tokyo Olympics, giving fans one of the most wholesome outcomes of the 2020 Games.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport gave Ukhov a four-year ban in 2019, and the Russian unsuccessfully appealed the ruling a year ago.
In addition to the men’s high jump, the IOC adjusted results in the women’s high jump, women’s long jump, men’s canoe sprint and men’s wrestling event. Spain’s Ruth Beitia is now the bronze medalist in the women’s high jump, as the IOC reallocated the Russian and then-bronze medalist Svetlana Shkolina’s medal.
Kynard, a 30-year-old Ohio native, responded to a tweet suggesting he “always” knew the 2012 high jump gold medal was his by writing, “fair is relative.”
