Marion Jones stripped of medals
Marion Jones was erased from the Olympic records yesterday when the International Olympic Committee formally stripped her of her three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Games. Once the world's biggest track and field star, Jones is now just a disgraced drug cheat.
Marion Jones
was erased from the Olympic records yesterday when the International Olympic Committee formally stripped her of her three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Games. Once the world's biggest track and field star, Jones is now just a disgraced drug cheat.
"She is disqualified and scrapped from the results," IOC president Jacques Rogge said at the close of a 3-day executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC also banned Jones from attending next year's Beijing Olympics in any capacity and said it could bar her from future games.
The IOC postponed a decision on redistributing her medals, including whether to strip her eight American relay teammates and whether to upgrade doping-tainted Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou to gold in the 100.
Jones won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay in Sydney, and bronze in the long jump and 100-meter relay. She was the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at a single Olympics.
In addition to stripping her Sydney medals, the IOC disqualified Jones from her fifth-place finish in the long jump at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Jones already had handed back her medals. The IOC said it would now ask the U.S. Olympic Committee to get Jones to return the diplomas she received for competing in Sydney and Athens.
Jones becomes the fourth American athlete in Olympic history to have a medal taken away by the IOC, and the third for a doping offense.
In other Olympic news:
* The IOC is taking steps to ensure that illegal betting and match-fixing are kept out of next year's Olympic Games. President Jacques Rogge said the International Olympic Committee might bring in a company that monitors gambling before the 2008 Beijing Games.
* The French Olympic chief received a reprimand from the IOC for his role in a corruption case. Henri Serandour, president of the French Olympic Committee, received a suspended 3-month prison sentence from a Paris criminal court in October 2006. He was convicted on charges of giving two lucrative jobs to a communications company that hired his wife, former swimmer Catherine Poirot. Serandour faced possible suspension, but an IOC ethics board decided on a reprimand. He was barred from sitting on any IOC commission for 5 years.
* The 2012 U.S. Olympic track and field trials will be held in Eugene, Ore., also the site of the 2008 trials.
* Three-time Olympic gold medalist Catalina Ponor, of Romania, is retiring from gymnastics.
* Hosting soccer's World Cup in 2014 will help rather than hurt Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's chances to be chosen 2016 Olympic Games host, Jacques Rogge said. Rio is among Chicago's six rivals in the 2016 competition. The IOC members will choose the winner Oct. 2, 2009.
Sport Stops
* BALCO founder Victor Conte and World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound had their first face-to-face discussion about doping in sports. During the 2-hour meeting in Manhattan, they didn't discuss specific cases or name any names, but had what both termed a frank conversation they hope will lead to a more productive relationship. Conte pleaded guilty to operating a steroids distribution ring at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
* Brazil's top sports tribunal fined Bahia $45,500 and suspended the club from playing at home for seven matches because of a stadium collapse that killed seven people and injured 40 others last month in the nation's worst soccer disaster. *