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Panel Restores Medals to Jones’s Teammates
July 16, 2010
Panel Restores Medals to Jones’s Teammates
By KATIE THOMAS
The relay teammates of Marion Jones can keep the Olympic medals they won at the Sydney Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Friday that it had overturned a decision by the International Olympic Committee to disqualify the team because Jones admitted to doping.
The three-member panel reasoned that the I.O.C.’s decision was unfair because there was no specific rule disqualifying athletes when their relay teammate used performance-enhancing drugs. It acknowledged, however, that “the outcome of this case may be unfair to the other relay teams that competed with no doped athletes helping their performance.”
Jones pleaded guilty in 2008 to lying to federal investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. The I.O.C. executive board stripped the gold medals of Jones and her teammates in the 4x400-meter relay in 2000, as well as the bronze medals in the 4x100-meter relay. Jones surrendered her medals, but her teammates appealed.
Jones’s gold-medal teammates were Jearl Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander Clark and Andrea Anderson. Her bronze-medal teammates were Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson. Perry was the only athlete not involved in the appeal.
“We are thankful that the Court’s decision resolves, once and for all, that we earned our medals and no one can take them or the results we achieved,” Richardson said in a statement.
In an interview Friday, Jacques Rogge, the president of the I.O.C., said he was disappointed by the panel’s decision, but said it underlined the independent nature of the court. “When the I.O.C. loses a case, we are disappointed but we respect it and we are saying, Hey, this is proving that it is independent. It can take a decision that is adverse to the founding organization.”
Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee, which had supported the I.O.C.’s ruling, said in a statement: “Although we continue to believe that the U.S. medals in the 4x100 and 4x400-meter women’s relays were unfairly won due to Ms. Jones’s doping, we have always recognized that the athletes who made up the U.S. teams might have a legal basis on which to defend these medals.”
The panel noted that it was following a 2005 precedent set by a similar case involving the gold medals won by the United States men’s 4x400 relay team in the 2000 Olympics. In that case, Jerome Young ran in preliminary heats; it was later revealed he had tested positive for a banned substance before the Games. The U.S.O.C. supported the men and paid their legal expenses, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the athletes.
The seven women who appealed the decision are pursuing a case in commercial arbitration against the U.S.O.C., arguing that in failing to support them it breached its contractual duty. A decision is pending in that case, their lawyer, Mark Levinstein, said.
On Friday, the court ordered the I.O.C. to pay the athletes 10,000 Swiss francs, about $9,500, toward their legal expenses.
Panel Restores Medals to Jones’s Teammates
By KATIE THOMAS
The relay teammates of Marion Jones can keep the Olympic medals they won at the Sydney Games. The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Friday that it had overturned a decision by the International Olympic Committee to disqualify the team because Jones admitted to doping.
The three-member panel reasoned that the I.O.C.’s decision was unfair because there was no specific rule disqualifying athletes when their relay teammate used performance-enhancing drugs. It acknowledged, however, that “the outcome of this case may be unfair to the other relay teams that competed with no doped athletes helping their performance.”
Jones pleaded guilty in 2008 to lying to federal investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. The I.O.C. executive board stripped the gold medals of Jones and her teammates in the 4x400-meter relay in 2000, as well as the bronze medals in the 4x100-meter relay. Jones surrendered her medals, but her teammates appealed.
Jones’s gold-medal teammates were Jearl Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander Clark and Andrea Anderson. Her bronze-medal teammates were Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson. Perry was the only athlete not involved in the appeal.
“We are thankful that the Court’s decision resolves, once and for all, that we earned our medals and no one can take them or the results we achieved,” Richardson said in a statement.
In an interview Friday, Jacques Rogge, the president of the I.O.C., said he was disappointed by the panel’s decision, but said it underlined the independent nature of the court. “When the I.O.C. loses a case, we are disappointed but we respect it and we are saying, Hey, this is proving that it is independent. It can take a decision that is adverse to the founding organization.”
Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee, which had supported the I.O.C.’s ruling, said in a statement: “Although we continue to believe that the U.S. medals in the 4x100 and 4x400-meter women’s relays were unfairly won due to Ms. Jones’s doping, we have always recognized that the athletes who made up the U.S. teams might have a legal basis on which to defend these medals.”
The panel noted that it was following a 2005 precedent set by a similar case involving the gold medals won by the United States men’s 4x400 relay team in the 2000 Olympics. In that case, Jerome Young ran in preliminary heats; it was later revealed he had tested positive for a banned substance before the Games. The U.S.O.C. supported the men and paid their legal expenses, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the athletes.
The seven women who appealed the decision are pursuing a case in commercial arbitration against the U.S.O.C., arguing that in failing to support them it breached its contractual duty. A decision is pending in that case, their lawyer, Mark Levinstein, said.
On Friday, the court ordered the I.O.C. to pay the athletes 10,000 Swiss francs, about $9,500, toward their legal expenses.
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