Wipe out: Marion Jones' career from 2000-on erased
The International Association of Athletic Federations sat down today in Monte Carlo to roll the dice on Marion Jones; the association rolled snake eyes as they voted to wipe out Marion Jones' athletic career from 2000 on. In what may be the harshest penalty meted out to a doping competitor, the losses begin with Jones' 3 gold medals, and 5 overall medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. (IAFF decision after the Surfaris jump)
All records, all results, all relays, and reported all financial rewards vanished as the IAAF incinerated Jones accomplishments for violating doping regulations. Jones admitted -- with urging of federal investigators -- that she used illegal anabolic steroids in 2000 handed to her by San Francisco's BALCO anabolic drug distribution operation. (Update, reports say Jones owes the IAAF 700,000, which is going to be tough as she is flat broke)
All of Marion Jones’s results dating to September 2000, including her Olympic and world championship titles, were annulled Friday because of “her admission that she was using the prohibited substance known as ‘the clear.’”
At a meeting of its council in Monte Carlo, the International Association of Athletics Federation, track and field’s world governing body, also decided that Jones had to return all awards, medals and money from that period, including about $700,000 in prize money. The council upheld a two-year ban imposed by United States officials.
The IAAF handed down 2 other controversial decisions: 1.) All relays in which Jones participated will be nullified; and 2.) Runners finishing below Jones will advance up in finishing place and in prize money. Earlier Jones' relay teammate Passion Richardson expressed her desire to retain the contaminated relay medals.
The I.A.A.F. council also recommended that Jones’s teammates from the relays she ran at the 2000 Sydney Olympics be disqualified and lose their medals.
Athletes who are eventually upgraded would be eligible to receive a share of Jones’s prize money.
Will 2000's second place 100M finisher Katerina Thanou, the tainted Greek sprinter who D/Qed at the Athens Olympiad benefit?
The I.A.A.F. did not take a position on whether the Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou should be upgraded to the Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters. Thanou was suspended for two
years after she and another Greek runner, Konstantinos Kenteris, failed to appear for drug tests on the eve of the 2004 Athens Games. They said they were injured in a motorcycle accident and eventually pulled out.
This decision brings some closure to Marion Jones' troubled career. However, it only intensifies the malignancy of the BALCO legacy. BALCO and Victor Conte continue to make the news, and may explode anew when MLB slugger Barry Bonds goes on trial for perjury and obstruction in the BALCO investigation.
BALCO tainted the world 100M record of Tim Montgomery, the career of Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, the career and single season MLB home run leader in Barry Bonds, as well as man of the most prominent athletes of the past 15 years.
With the entire story not written, Victor Conte -- who only served 4 months in prison despite the massive negative effects his operation spewed on sports -- continues to be prominent, even to the extent of arranging a meeting with WADA head Dick Pound.
The IAAF decision:
At its meeting held in Monaco on 23 November 2007, the IAAF Council reviewed the case of Marion Jones in light of her admission that she was using the prohibited substance known as 'the clear' beginning on 1 September 2000 and confirmed the following consequences of her admission of doping and acceptance of sanction:
1. A 2-year period of ineligibility beginning on the date of her acceptance of sanction on 8 October 2007 i.e., until 7 October 2009;
2. Disqualification of Marion Jones from all competitions on or subsequent to 1 September 2000.
3. Annulment of all her individual competitive results on or subsequent to 1 September 2000;
4. Annulment of the results of all relay teams in which she competed in IAAF competitions on or subsequent to 1 September 2000;
5. Forfeiture and return of all awards and medals obtained in relation to the above competitions;
6. Forfeiture and return of money awarded to her in relation to the above competitions.
The IAAF Council further recommends to the IOC Executive Board to disqualify Ms Jones and the USA women's 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams from the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and to insist on the return of all medals and diplomas.
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