Denisse van Lamoen

In 2002, van Lamoen had an outstanding participation at the VII South American Games held in Brazil, where she earned 7 medals (6 gold and 1 silver). However, all would be overshadowed by a doping test that tested positive in amphetamine, after which she was disqualified and had to return all earned medals. Although the Chilean Federation of Archery (Fechta) fined van Lamoen with a suspension for one year, the International Federation of Archery (FITA) decided to extend the punishment to two years, decision that the athlete appealed later, because the punishment exceeded international regulations. The appeal at the Court of Appeals of Santiago was later on accepted. After a Supreme Court ruling, Fechta also lowered its initial penalty of one year to six months.

Van Lamoen achieved fifth place in the XIV Pan American Games in Santo Domingo 2003. In Venezuela, in 2004, van Lamoen won four gold medals and one silver, achieving 4 Panamerican records, which were recently beaten in 2010. However, she could not participate representing Chile at the Olympic Games in Athens, as the team from Mexico filled the vacancy to which she aspired. In 2006, she won two gold medals at the VIII South American Games. At the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro 2007, she reached the second stage, where she was eliminated by American Jennifer Nichols.

After a break of two years to resume her studies, van Lamoen returned to competition in 2009, beating four Chilean records. In January 2010, she qualified to participate in the IX South American Games, held in Medellin, where she earned a bronze medal (30 meters, with a score of 343 points) and a bronze medal in the elimination round, where she defeated Ana Maria Rendon of Colombia by a narrow lead of 99 to 98.

London 2012 Olympic games: Denisse Van Lamoen was knocked out of the women’s Olympic archery competition by Georgia’s Kristine Esebua, who won with a 6-0 victory.