- Home >
- Olympic games >
- Olympic Games >
- Who Is Beverly McDonald, the Athlete Who Received Her Medal 24 Years Later?
Who Is Beverly McDonald, the Athlete Who Received Her Medal 24 Years Later?
The 54-year-old Olympic athlete Beverly McDonald received her bronze medal 24 years later.
Paris 2024 has not only become one of the most iconic editions of the Olympic Games but also a moment of justice for a number of athletes who have finally received their medals from previous editions due to a series of changes made by the IOC following doping cases.
Among this select group of athletes is the Jamaican sprinter, who is now 54 years old and received her Olympic medal in Paris, one that she should have won at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
McDonald was awarded the bronze medal she deserved in the 200m event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics after U.S. athlete Marion Jones admitted to doping. Justice came late, but it came, along with the Olympic medal.
In that 2000 race, McDonald finished in fourth place, achieving only a great time, while Marion Jones won the event until she admitted to cheating by using performance-enhancing drugs. Jones won five medals in those Games, which were later returned to the International Olympic Committee (three golds and two bronzes).
Seventeen years later, Jones confessed to doping during the Games, and one of those medals went to McDonald, who had finished fourth in the 200m, just seven-hundredths of a second away from the bronze.
This medal is the third for the Jamaican sprinter, who also won gold and silver in the 4x100 relay events in Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000.
