Can You Heal Olympic Heartbreak With Belated Medals?

When Jeon Sang-guen’s barbell fell from his hands at the London Olympics, he knew everything was about to change. There would be no medal. No joyous celebration. His career in weight lifting, he knew in that moment, was probably over.

Except, it turns out, it wasn’t.

In April, Jeon was working at his desk at South Korea’s state-run currency maker when his phone rang. The voice on the other end delivered stunning news: The Russian who had finished ahead of him in London had been disqualified for a doping violation. Nearly 12 years after his crushing disappointment, the International Olympic Committee would be awarding Jeon the bronze medal after all.

“It felt ecstatic for a moment,” Jeon, 43, said in his office in the southeastern city of Gyeongsan. And then he went right back to work. “I had other responsibilities,” he said.

The reallocated medal, Jeon knew, could not undo the fact that his bitter fourth-place finish had altered the course of his life. He had returned home and taken a desk job. He had moved on.

But this spring, as he processed the news of his belated achievement, Jeon said it rekindled a dream that he previously thought was unattainable: to become a coach.

The bronze medal, which Jeon will receive during a ceremony at the Paris Olympics on Friday, is one of more than 160 Olympic medals that have been reallocated or withdrawn since drug testing began in 1968. The ceremony will belatedly recognize 10 athletes — runners, jumpers and lifters — who competed in London.