Not really OT:
If only Angelo R Mozilo had to return his "medals".
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I.O.C. Strips Gold From 2000 U.S. Relay Team
By JULIET MACUR
Published: August 3, 2008
nytimes.com
BEIJING — The International Olympic Committee officially disqualified on Saturday sprinter Antonio Pettigrew and his entire United States 1,600-meter relay team from the 2000 Sydney Games because Pettigrew admitted using performance-enhancing drugs at those Olympics.
The entire team must return its gold medals to the United States Olympic Committee which, in turn, will deliver the medals to the I.O.C. offices in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Nigerian team finished second in that event in 2000; a team from Jamaica was third.
Pettigrew, who never failed a drug test, admitted in May to using the blood booster EPO and human growth hormone before, during and after the 2000 Olympics. He returned his medal in June.
His teammates — Michael Johnson, Angelo Taylor, Jerome Young and the twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison — will also lose their medals. Johnson, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in individual events, voluntarily gave up his relay gold medal in July.
“We fully support the action taken today by the I.O.C.,” Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the U.S.O.C, said. “Athletes must understand that if they make the choice to cheat, there will be consequences and those consequences can be severe.”
Former track star Marion Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Games, also never tested positive for drugs, but the I.O.C. formally stripped her of those medals last year. She is now serving six months in prison for her involvement in a check-fraud scheme and also for lying to federal agents about her drug use.
Jones’s relay teammates at the Sydney Games in the 1,600-meter relay and the 400-meter relay were also stripped of their medals.
For now, though, the I.O.C.’s executive board will not reallocate the medals from either of those cases.
At a news conference on Saturday, Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the I.OC., said the board would wait on that decision, so they could see if any more information comes out of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroids case.
Some of Pettigrew’s teammates have already been swept up in doping scandals of their own.
Alvin and Calvin Harrison have both served suspensions from the sport for violating doping rules. Young was barred for life.
NOTES: A decision on whether disgraced sprinter Katerina Thanou would be eligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics will come Thursday when the I.O.C.’s disciplinary committee meets. Thanou received a two-year ban for eluding drug-testers on the eve of the Athens Games, but was named to the Greek Olympic team for Beijing...The I.O.C. announced Saturday that it will donate $4 million to help rebuild the sports infrastructure in the earthquake-damaged Sichuan province. The Beijing Olympics organizers and the Chinese Olympic Committee matched that donation, at $2 million each. |
