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Alina Maratovna Kabaeva
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At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Kabaeva was expected to claim gold in all-around, but, due to an error in an otherwise exceptional performance—she dropped her hoop and ran to retrieve it outside the competition area – took home the bronze with the final score of 39.466 (Rope 9.925, Hoop 9.641, Ball 9.950, Ribbon 9.950), Belarus' Yulia Raskina took the silver medal while fellow Russian teammate Yulia Barsukova won the Olympics Gold medal.
At the 2001 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, she won the gold for the ball, clubs and rope, and gold in the Individual All-Around and hoop. At the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, Kabaeva won the gold for the ball, clubs and rope, and the silver in the Individual All-Around and hoop. However, Kabaeva and her teammate Irina Tchachina tested positive to a banned diuretic (furosemide) and were stripped of their medals.
Irina Viner, the Russian head coach, who also served as the Vice President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee at the time, said her gymnasts had been taking a food supplement called "Hyper" which contained mild diuretics, which, according to Viner, the gymnasts were taking for pre-menstrual syndrome. When the supply ran out shortly before the Goodwill Games, the team physiotherapist restocked at a local pharmacy. According to Viner, the supplement sold there was fake and contained furosemide. The commission requested the Goodwill Games organizing committee to nullify Kabaeva and Tchachina's results. The FIG also nullified their results from the World Championships in Madrid, causing Ukraine's Tamara Yerofeeva to be declared the 2001 World Champion.
In 2003, Kabaeva marked her return to competitive gymnastics after the ban, she won the all-around gold medal at the 2003 World Championships as well as the event final in ribbon and ball ahead of Ukrainian Anna Bessonova.
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