Years Later, Bittersweet Victory for Alysia Montaño

Published by the New York Times on November 9, 2015

Alysia Montaño, an American 800-meter runner, woke up early in Valencia, Calif. Knowing the World Anti-Doping Agency was releasing the findings of its extraordinary inquiry into doping and corruption in Russian track and field, she devoured the details of the report in bed as soon as she awoke.

And then she began to cry.

“My hands were shaking,” she said by telephone on Monday. “Anger, sadness, relief, all of it. I just got a rush of emotions. I can’t even pinpoint all of them. At first you think of all the moments you lost, and then you feel, ‘Oh my gosh, well, thank you.’ Then you are mad. I was sweating. I just broke out in a sweat, thinking, Is this real? Are they actually going to do something?”