Tatyana Kotova

Kotova was born in Kokand, Uzbek SSR, and grew up in Taboshar, Tajik SSR. She started to take up track and field in 1995, previously also practicing volleyball and basketball. Training in Barnaul, West Siberia, Kotova won a gold medal at the European U23 Championships in Turku, Finland, and in 1999 got a gold medal at the World Indoors in Maebashi. She was injured in a car accident in August 2000, and went on to finish fourth less than two months later at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. ==Doping==

Kotova managed to both win and lose medals due to doping. In the 2000 Olympics, she had initially finished fourth. She was promoted to the bronze medal nine years later, after original bronze medal winner Marion Jones admitted usage of performance-enhancing drugs during the Olympics. However, in 2013, samples from the 2005 World Championships were retested and Kotova was found to have been doping. She was stripped of her silver medal at the World Championships, and also of the gold on the 2005 IAAF World Athletics Final, with Anju Bobby George promoted to first. ==International competitions==