By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
Marion Jones was once a celebrated track and field athlete. Now, Jones has been stripped of her Olympic medals.
This year, she admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during her career. As a result, the medals that she had won are no longer in her position.
This historic event took place on December 11th when the International Olympic Committee stripped all medals from Jones that she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Additionally, she was barred from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is banned from competing in any future Olympic event.
This monumental announcement was made by International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge. Jones admitted in October that she doped during the 2000 Olympics and had previously returned all of the medals she won at the event – three golds and two bronze.
After much deliberation, International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said, “The IOC Executive Board regretfully concludes that the athlete violated the Olympic Movement anti-doping rules, resulting in the disqualification of the three medals…The IOC will now strip her of the results and all Olympic medals won in the Sydney Games.”
Marion Jones competed in the Sydney Olympics where she dominated the track and field events. She swept the 200 meters and long jump and also won gold as a member of the US relay team. Additionally, she won bronze in the 100 meters and the 4 x 400-meter relay. She and the US relay team had been celebrated for their world record run of 41.95 seconds in winning the gold – a record that has yet to be broken.
However, a year before her winning performance, Jones started using performance-enhancing drugs. Also, during the time of the wins in 2000, Balco was attempting to create a testosterone-laced product that bypassed testing capabilities used at the Olympics.
In October 2007, Bones was indicted on two counts of lying to federal agents in the Balco scandal. It was during the investigation into this scandal that Jones admitted her use of drugs to gain an advantage over the other athletes during the Olympics.
