Vita Pavlysh

Vita Pavlysh ("Віта Павлиш" in Ukrainian, born January 15, 1969 in Ukraine) is a former athlete who specialised in the shot put.

Pavlysh was stripped of her 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships gold medal after she had tested positive for anabolic steroid stanozolol at the event in Maebashi, Japan. She claimed that she may have taken the drug to aid her recovery from injury. For this offence she received a two year ban.

Five years later at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary she won the title again only to fail the drug test for the same reason. She was again stripped of her title and banned from athletics for life.

Whether because of her drug-use or not, Pavlysh was famed for her very muscular lower body. During a state television show her middle-thigh was measured at 98cms and her calf at 65cms.

At the same event Russian Anastasiya Kapachinskaya failed her drug test was also stripped of the gold that she had won in the 200 m and received a two year ban.

ee also

*List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences