Four sprinters who were stripped of their 2000 Olympics relay medals because teammate Marion Jones was using performance enhancing drugs won an appeal Friday to have them restored.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the women, who had appealed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to disqualify them from the Sydney Games. The court said the IOC and International Association of Athletics Federations rules in 2000 did not allow entire teams to be disqualified because of doping by one athlete, reports the AP.
The IOC said the ruling was “disappointing and especially unfortunate for the athletes of the other teams who competed according to the rules.”
In Sydney, Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson were part of the squad that won gold in the 4×400 relay. Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson were on the 4×100 bronze medal squad. All but Perry joined the appeal.
“The panel found that at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games there was no express IOC or IAAF rule in force that clearly allowed the IOC to annul the relay team results if one team member was found to have committed a doping offense,” CAS said.
In 2007, Jones admitted she was doping in Sydney and also lost her individual golds in the 100 and 200 meters and bronze in the long jump. She spent about six months in a Texas prison in 2008 for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs and her role in a check-fraud scam.
She has since made a comeback in basketball with the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA.
“I’ve totally moved on,” Jones told The AP on Friday in San Antonio, where the Shock were preparing to play the Silver Stars. “I’m moving forward.”
Jones said she had not heard about the CAS decision and had not spoken to her former Olympic teammates recently. She declined further comment.
