Athletics: Jones's medal loss set to boost Ottey's tally
Marion Jones has handed back her medals won at the Sydney Olympics
Wednesday October 10 2007
Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey could add to her record tally of eight Olympic medals thanks to the fall from grace of US rival Marion Jones.
Jones, who won the 100 metres gold at the 2000 Sydney Games ahead of fourth-placed Ottey, last week admitted to taking steroids and has returned her medals to the US Olympic Committee.
Ottey, 40 at the time of the race, is now in line to receive the bronze.
"I'm sure she will get that medal. That's automatic now," said Ottey's Slovenian coach Srdjan Djordjevic.
"Of course I would have been happier if she'd got the medal back then," added Djordjevic, who has coached Ottey since she moved to the Alpine republic in 1998.
The silver went to Katerina Thanou of Greece, who has since served a two-year ban for doping violations, while Jamaican Tanya Lawrence won the bronze.
Difficulties
The fact that Thanou is also tarnished has added to the medals' mess with Australian Olympic chief John Coates arguing that she should not be awarded the gold medal.
"I'd like to think that Katerina Thanou would not be awarded the gold medal," Coates said yesterday. "But there may be some legal difficulties for the International Olympic Committee to overcome in order to reach that conclusion."
Coates also said he expected the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) - whose doping control methods are sure to enter the spotlight after this latest controversy - to hand back the medals won by the women's 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams.
Two of Jones's team mates in the 4x100m squad which finished third in Sydney, Torri Edwards and Chryste Gaines, have also served doping bans.
The US women's 4x100m relay team won the gold medal ahead of Jamaica and Russia.
"On the relays, it's my expectation that the United States Olympic Committee will be required to also hand back the medals won by the other ladies who competed with Jones in the two relays," Coates said.
"That is normal practice," he added
The United States Olympic Committee has publicly apologised to the organisers and competitors of the 2000 Sydney Games and the Australian public for Jones's actions. But this will not diminish the pressure on them for next year's Olympics. Already, however, as part of the USOC's apology, president Peter Ueberroth pledged that the US would send a clean team to Beijing.
Apology
"We have written a letter of sincere and humble apology to the 205 national Olympic committees and in addition, a more extensive letter to the people in Australia, apologising to the organisers, the volunteers and the Australian people," he said.
"This event should not be tarnished by what has happened." said Jones, who faces a six-month jail sentence for lying to federal investigators -- and who won a total of five medals at Sydney's Olympic Games in 2000.
Ottey, meanwhile, who became a Slovenian citizen in 2002, may add to her 35 medals in major championships. She tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in July 1999 but was cleared by an IAAF panel which criticised the laboratory involved.
Her haul of eight Olympic medals began with a 100m relay bronze at her first Games in Moscow 27 years ago.
At the Sydney Olympics, Ottey, still competing for Jamaica, became the oldest women's Games track and field medallist with a silver in the relay.
Chance
Djordjevic added that Ottey hoped to participate at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which would be two years short of her 50th birthday.
"But she has some problems with an allergy," he said, conceding that "she no longer has a realistic chance of a medal".
Ottey is currently on holiday in California.
