Pishchalnikova participated in the 2012 Olympics and was awarded a silver medal. However, she tested positive for the anabolic steroid oxandrolone in the samples taken in May 2012. On April, 2013 she was banned by the Russian Athletics Federation for ten years, and her results from May 2012 were annulled, meaning she was set on track to lose her Olympic medal. According to the New York Times, she was a whistleblower who sent the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) a December 2012 email detailing state-run doping programs in which Russian athletes had to participate; her ban by the Russian Athletics Federation was likely in retaliation. she has been further discredited by Russian whistleblower Rodchenkov who describes her positive test result after the London 2012 Olympics as a result of her body being ‘basically a steroid soaked sponge’ and she was a ‘chronic doper, who was bound to be caught eventually’