U.S. Track Team Stripped Of 2000 Gold

IOC Disqualifies Entire Men's 1,600-Meter Relay Of Gold Over Pettigrew Doping Admission

(AP)  The International Olympic Committee stripped gold medals Saturday from the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Olympics in the aftermath of Antonio Pettigrew's admission that he was doping at the time.

The IOC executive board disqualified the entire team, the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.

Three gold and two bronze were previously removed after Marion Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Saturday's decision was almost a formality after Pettigrew gave up his gold medal in June. During a trial involving former track coach Trevor Graham, he admitted in May that he used EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

Five of Pettigrew's teammates also lose their medals: Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison ran in the final; Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor ran in the preliminaries.

It was Johnson's fifth gold medal of his stellar career. He has already said he was giving it back because he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by Pettigrew's testimony. Johnson still holds world records in the 200 and 400 meters.

Three of the four runners from the relay final have been tainted by drugs.

Alvin Harrison accepted a four-year ban in 2004 after admitting he used performance-enhancers. Calvin Harrison tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2003 and was suspended for two years. Young was banned for life for doping violations.

"We support the action taken today by the IOC," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "Athletes who make the unacceptable choice to cheat should recognize that there will be consequences. Those consequences can be severe including the loss of medals and results. We're in full support of this action. In other matters like this in the past we've worked with the IOC to make certain medals will be returned, and we'll do so again."

The IOC also disqualified Pettigrew from his seventh-place finish in the individual 400 meters in Sydney. The committee also banned him from attending the upcoming Beijing Games "in any capacity," including as a competitor, coach or technical official. Pettigrew has retired from competition, and the U.S. Olympic Committee said there had been no plans for him to come to Beijing.

The IOC had previously tried to strip the relay team after it became known that Young tested positive before the Sydney Games. But a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport said the entire team should not be disqualified, and Pettigrew and the others were allowed to keep their medals.

Saturday's move came four months after the IOC stripped the gold from the U.S. women's 1,600-meter relay team and bronze from the women's 400-meter relay squad because of doping by Jones. She admitted last year that she used drugs at the time and returned her five medals, including gold in the 100 meters and 200 meters and bronze in the long jump.

The IOC has put off any decision on reallocating the U.S. medals until later this year when it takes into account all the files from the BALCO investigation in the United States.

"It forms part of a wider piece of work," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "This can be treated as a bigger case."

No time frame for a decision on medal redistribution has been set, although an eight-year statute of limitations expires on Oct. 1.

Nigeria finished second in the men's 1,600-meter relay, with Jamaica third and the Bahamas fourth.

The IOC is reluctant to hand Jones' 100 gold to silver medalist Katerina Thanou, a Greek sprinter at the center of a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Games. She and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris missed drug tests on the eve of the opening ceremony and claimed they were injured in a motorcycle accident. They were forced to pull out of the Games and were later suspended for two years.

An IOC disciplinary panel will meet next Thursday to consider whether Thanou can run at the Beijing Games. The 33-year-old sprinter qualified for the Greek team in the 100, but the IOC is reviewing her eligibility.

Thanou's lawyer has threatened legal action if she is barred from the Games.

[lemonskink]

Man, I wonder why the Olympic committee just doesn''t have a doping team. Imagine how many medals they''d hand out. And the gold medal for doping goes to...

ronnierayjenkins.com

[praymont]

Most countries cheat in the Olympics (and the Tour de France, etc.). What a colossal waste of money that circus has become. And now it''s being used to put a happy face on Communist, totalitarian China.

[dsr57]

I would probably kill that guy, I couldn''t imagine working my As$ off then because one guy used I got my medal taken. Oh WOW he''d have a lot more things to worry about than being embarrassed

[cbsfan73]

The Olympics are a waste of money that could otherwise be spent on more useful things.

[wardoglrs]

America should just stay out of all world affairs they are a Welfare/Warfare country and should be boycotted from such events. Americans are drug addict losers there prisons are full 2.4 million what does this say to the world. They and Israel there buddy should all be banned from any world event. These Neo Con Nations have had there wars over this world far to long time to just turn them away from future Olympics

[be_real]

Pretty embarassing

[shazam112]

Bunch of loser cheaters and liars, a typical american style....like their president chimp bushy and hog cheney....hoop paaa

[demwatcher]

"Wow.. all these dopers caught and medals stripped... notice how just about every single one of these is from the good ol'''' US? Great, not only do we attach other nations unprovoked, we also are known as world-wide cheaters. Great... way to go you morons who cheat. Karma''''s a btch... it *ALWAYS* comes back to bite you... and others around you.

Posted by CANYOUTELLME at 01:29 PM : Aug 02, 2008"

Did you ever stop your mind''s ramblings long enough to ask the question if other countries try as hard as we do to weed out dopers?

Thought not.

[timdgrim]

Cheech and Chong have probably done less drugs than these Olympic athletes!

[canyoutellme-2009]

Wow.. all these dopers caught and medals stripped... notice how just about every single one of these is from the good ol'' US? Great, not only do we attach other nations unprovoked, we also are known as world-wide cheaters. Great... way to go you morons who cheat. Karma''s a btch... it *ALWAYS* comes back to bite you... and others around you.

[occams_taser]

United Cheaters of America.

The Olympics is a silly farce anyway. From Hitler to now.

[deepperppl]

Competition in the Olympics is like love and war. "All''s fair..." So, if you have other countries doping and the only way to compete is to dope, also, then what''s the point of the competition? To see who can design and create the best "super-athlete"? Ridiculous. There''s a reason all the old Olympic and World records are dropping like flies. It''s not "better training", it''s better doping.

[andrew_693]

yeah, now the world is supposed to admire the US because one of their cheats has admitted before being dragged into the open and embarrassed. This guy is just one of probably hundreds of cheats, it''s no coincidence that the industrialized countries have more winners always, ......they own better laboratories. The Olympics have always been a sham, it''s an insult to the old greek tradition of amateurism. They are all a bunch of gold digging cheats. For those who still believe in the US olympic team, all you have to do is look at tonya harding, the most representative athlete of the american spirit, from trailer trash, to olympic skater, to piece of trash again, and a lot of lying and cheating while on her way, just Bush in iraq. If that''s not enough just take another look at Floyd Landis, the American cheat that won the tour of France and was stripped in front of the whole world later, just like this relay team from 2000 and the ones we will find out later on as science gets better. This, blame everybody else doesn''t work. By the way, the former east german national team already returned several of their olympic medals, so stop trying to take higher moral ground because your moral is non existent. It''s like the war in Iraq, a bunch of lies that will eventually be unmasked.

[pirmin3]

"on the eve of the Mecca Olympics"

ROFLOL. I can just see burka clad lovelies playing beach volleyball. Too much.

[pirmin3]

Beijing 2008 - may the best laboratory win!!

[sistatee-2009]

So if my math is correct, it will be 2016, on the eve of the Mecca Olympics, when the U.S. track team of 2008 is stripped of its medals?

[cabrera5]

What about all those East German ladies that
grew mustache and Chinese swimmers that look like
pit-bulls. Do they also lose the medals?
Antonio came up voluntarily, but all the others
will never tell the truth so he is scapegoated.
Lance Amstrong is still treated like a hero even though it was proven that he was doped in the tour de France but he will not come out.
Perhaps the Olympic authorities should recognize many if not most medals are tampered with drugs and go from there. But Antonio should not be the escape goat.

[smurfcrusher]

yeah edintex... we should make doping mandatory, turn our athletes into medical freaks that dominate every Olympics. Too bad for the losers that have ethics... although they''ll live three times as long as the winners, they''ll never wear a medal... Great post, thanks

[edintex]

It seems we are the only nation who is strictly policing our atheletes for doping. I dont ever hear about atheletes anywhere else loosing their metals. And you KNOW they are doing it too. Our DO-GOODERS are doing a great job hamstringing our atheletes for the rest of the world.

[lovesamerica]

I think with the current gold prices they are just looking to recycle old medals for new olympics.......