The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday reallocated US sprinter Marion Jones’ 200m gold medal and long jump bronze from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The committee refused to give Jones’ 100m gold medal to silver medalist Katerina Thanou because of the Greek’s own involvement in doping, in what an IOC spokesman said was an unprecedented move.
Jones was stripped in 2007 of her 100m, 200m and 4x400m gold medals and her long jump and 4x100m bronzes after admitting using banned drugs. She served a six-month jail sentence for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use.
Thanou missed a third doping test on the eve of the Athens 2004 Games and still faces charges in Greece of misleading authorities and staging a motorcycle accident to avoid that test with fellow Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris.
“The IOC believes we have a strong moral case and good legal case for that,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams, adding he believed it was the first time a gold medal spot had been left vacant.
“She [Thanou] disgraced herself and the Olympic movement by avoiding three doping tests. We are not legally bound to give medals,” Adams told reporters after an IOC Executive Board meeting.
Thanou, who was banned by the IOC from competing in last year’s Beijing Games for bringing her sport into disrepute, is joined as a silver medalist by Jamaican Tanya Lawrence, who moves up from third. Merlene Ottey, who competed for Jamaica at the time and later raced for Slovenia, has been lifted to bronze.
Ottey, who was 40 at the time of the Sydney Games, has now won six bronze and two silver medals in seven Olympics.
Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas, who won the 200m silver medal is upgraded to gold and Susanthika Jayasinghe from Sri Lanka moves up to silver with Jamaica’s Beverly McDonald getting the bronze.
Russian Tatyana Kotova has been given the long jump bronze medal.
The International Association of Athletics Federations on Wednesday removed Jones’ name from the Sydney Games final rankings, but had yet to upgrade the other athletes.
An appeal by Jones’ relay team mates, who were also stripped of their medals because of her admission of doping, is still pending at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
RSS