Six Years Overdue

It took six years and by any standards it took far too long, but Dylan Armstrong (34) finally can add the one missing medal to complete his deserved collection of medals – the Olympic Medal.

Armstrong who calls Kamloops home is the World Championship, Commonwealth and Pan American Games shot put medallist.

If you are an Olympic supporter and lover you will remember that he was denied the Olympic medal in Beijing when Olympian Andrei Mikhnevich  who comes from Belarus beat him out by one centimetre (21.05m to 21.04m) for the Bronze Medal.

Armstrong’s throw was a National record but just not enough to see Canada’s flag raised for shot-put.

Remember what your parents told you when they used to say “cheaters never win”, well this is not only true in real life, but also true in the world of the Olympics.

It took two years when it was reviled that Mikhnevich’s 2005 World Championships doping sample came back to be positive.

This was not the first time for him to test positive, but apparently it is his second offence, which carries a lifetime ban by his National Federation. This was later upheld by global athletics’ governing body IAAF

This clearly meant that he (Armstrong) was now advanced to third place at Beijing and he had a complete set of senior competition medals.

It took an agonizing six more additional months of planning that eventually and finally brought a list of Canadian Olympic royalty to Kamloops and Dylan.

The Medal was presented to Dylan by Hayley Wickenheiser on behalf of the International Olympic Committee.

Dylan offered up a short but humble speech full of gratitude and the local legend spent the better part of an hour shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures.

Justice does indeed happen to those who are not cheaters and in this case it took far too long to sort it out.

In the end Dylan is the Winner!!