Irina Tchachina: Last News

Tokyo. Kabaeva, who won bronze in all-around at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and gold in the same category at Athens 2004, agreed to a rare appearance on television to defend the performance of Dina Averina and criticise the judgement of the officials.

Vladimir Putin's hidden gymnast mistress Alina Kabaeva was stripped of a World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships gold medal back in 2001 - and it was handed over to her rival athletes from Ukraine. Kabaeva and team-mate Irina Tchachina were stripped of their medals in individual and group events at the 2001 tournament having tested positive for a banned diuretic forcing a change in the leaderboards.The tests had been done months earlier at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, and led to Ukraine securing individual all-around gold with Belarus subsequently moving up to silver and Bulgaria taking bronze.Kabaeva and Tchachina were convicted of using furosemide and disqualified for two years, retuning for the 2002 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship where Kabaeva won the individual all-around, after serving one year of her ban.Kabaeva, who went on to secure all-around gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, called time on her career in 2007 after a World Championship win in Patras, Greece.