A ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday dashed Jamaica’s hopes of being upgraded from silver to gold for the women’s 4x400m relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) had decided to disqualify the winning US team because Marion Jones, one of its members, was found guilty of doping. However, following an appeal to CAS by all members of the team except one, CAS has ruled against disqualifying the entire US team because of the doping of one athlete.
According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Jones’s teammates who were stripped of their medals won their appeal to have the medals restored. In making the decision, CAS noted that the IOC and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules in 2000 did not allow entire teams to be disqualified because of doping by one athlete.
The IOC, AP said, has described the ruling as "disappointing and especially unfortunate for the athletes of the other teams who competed according to the rules."
In a previous doping case five years ago, involving U.S. relay runners at the Sydney Olympics, the court determined that teammates of Jerome Young should not lose their 4x400 gold medals after he received a retroactive ban from 1999-2001, which meant Young was technically not eligible to compete in Sydney in 2000.
Young did not run in the 4x400 final in Sydney, while Ms. Jones was part of both quartets that won medals. His relay partners -- Michael Johnson, Antonio Pettigrew, Angelo Taylor, Alvin Harrison and Calvin Harrison -- won their appeal to CAS after the IAAF annulled their result.
However, the IOC ended up stripping the entire team of the medals in 2008 after Pettigrew admitted to doping. The IAAF amended its rules in 2003 so that relay teams can be disqualified if one member is caught doping.