THE DIRTIEST RACE IN HISTORY

How did the 2012 Olympics women's 1500m get its reputation? Athletes cheated out of medals discuss what happened - and how the results unravelled

- By Esther Addley

IN WHICH ATHLETES WAIT before they enter a stadium ahead of a major race is "by no means a friendly place to be", says Lisa Dobriskey - and as a former Team GB athlete who won Commonwealth gold and world championship silver at 1500m, she has stood in enough of them to know. "Different people handle it differently," she says. "Some people are really relaxed and friendly; other people just look right through you. It's scary. I remember my coach saying to me, 'When you go to the Olympics, you'll be standing next to the meanest, toughest, hardest people that you'll ever face. Everybody wants to win." As it turned out, the wait to walk into London's Olympic stadium for the final of her event in August 2012 was even more stressful than she'd been warned. With British excitement at fever pitch, support and expectation for home athletes neared hysteria at times. "It was terrifying," Dobriskey says of hearing the 80,000-strong stadium crowd.

"People were yelling, people were screaming, it was overwhelming." Having come an agonising fourth in Beijing four years earlier, Dobriskey had battled her way into the London final after a nightmarish year. In early 2012 she developed a stress fracture of her thigh, delaying her track training for months; then in late May, a niggling problem with her breathing led to her being taken to hospital with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Doctors advised her not to think about running for six months. Instead, less than three months later, here she was in an Olympic final, having won her heat and with commentators talking up her chances of a medal.

"That weight, that pressure," she says, "I took it all on personally." Footage of the race buildup shows the 13 athletes lining up jumpily on the track, with Dobriskey on the far outside lane. Her name is announced first, to a roar from the crowd. She bounces on her toes, then stands nervously, her eyes closed, breathing deeply.