US women stripped of Sydney relay medals
BEIJING (AFP) — The US women who won the Sydney Olympic 4x400-metre relay and came third in the 4x100m relay along with drug-tainted Marion Jones have been stripped of their medals, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the committee's executive board decided in a meeting here Thursday to disqualify the entire team in both events because Jones, whose medals had already been stripped, had admitted doping during the Games.
"With regards to the four members of the relay teams, the decision was taken that the United States relay team will be disqualified from the 4x100 metres where the women placed third, and the 4x400 metres where they placed first," Davies said.
"In the Marion Jones case, the important thing to take notice of is the fact that she ran in the finals and that she was, on her own admission, doped during the Olympic Games."
Jones had already been stripped of three gold medals and two bronze medals by the IOC after admitting taking performance-enhancing drugs and is currently serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to investigators over steroid use and a cheque-fraud scheme that involved her former partner, Tim Montgomery.
Although the other team members were innocent parties and only Jones was implicated in doping, an IOC official who asked not to be named said that they were seen to have benefited from the doping episode.
Davies said that the US Olympic Committee had been asked by the IOC to return the medals won by the two relay teams.
No decision has been taken on the reallocation of medals won by Jones and the US relay teams, she said, adding that the step would be taken by the next board meeting in June or the one following that in August.
The United States Olympic Committee said Thursday that it accepts the decision to strip Jones' teammates of their medals but added it would also not stand in the way of the athletes right to appeal the move.
"We respect the decision of the IOC executive board," said USOC chief executive Jim Scherr. "as well as the right for the athletes who are impacted by this decision to file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration of Sport."
Scherr said there are lessons to be learned from this.
"The decision illustrates just how far reaching the consequences of doping can be." he said.
"When an athlete makes the choice to cheat, others end up paying the price, including teammates, competitors and fans."
Jones was the toast of the US women's track team in Sydney and her humiliating fall from grace did not come until October last year when she admitted lying to federal agents during the course of the BALCO steroid distribution probe.
The admission came after years of denials during which she went so far as to sue BALCO founder Victor Conte when he accused her of being a dope cheat.
Despite mounting evidence indicating that her success was steroid-tainted, Jones still denied wrongdoing, even qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics in the long jump.
But when faced with charges of lying to federal agents about taking steroids and about her role in the fraud scheme, Jones made a tearful confession, admitting she used BALCO's designer steroid THG from September 2000 to July 2001.
All Jones's results since September 1, 2000 have been struck from the records and she has been banned from competition by the sport's governing body, even though she announced in October her decision to retire.
