OLYMPICS IOC could strip U.S. team of 1600 relay gold medal
Relay member Jerome Young tested positive for steroids in 1999.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Three years later, the U.S. victory in the men's 1600-meter relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics may be in jeopardy.
With the U.S. Olympic Committee confirming that Jerome Young tested positive for steroids in 1999, international officials could consider stripping the gold medal from Young and the rest of the relay team.
"We are totally committed to have the full truth be revealed," IOC president Jacques Rogge said Thursday. "We want this case to be solved as soon as possible."
The USOC provided Young's name to the International Olympic Committee executive board during a review of its drug-testing program from 1985-2000.
Young was named as one of 24 athletes who won Olympic medals during that period after previous positive doping tests. The USOC said the other 23 cases were all handled properly.
"We want to dispel the notion that the USOC was involved in a conspiracy of silence or doping cover-up," USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said.
Investigation
The IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency have been investigating accusations -- first reported last month by the Los Angeles Times -- that Young tested positive for nandrolone in 1999 but was cleared on appeal by the U.S. track and field federation.
Young, who won golds in the 400 and 1,600 relay at last month's World Championships in Paris, said he never committed a doping offense.
USOC acting president Bill Martin said the USOC confirmed Young's identity based on a review of the committee's records and Young's own reported admission in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 29.
"Before there was suspicion on all American track and field athletes participating in Sydney," Rogge said. "Now we know 99 percent of the U.S. team is innocent and that one person is suspected. I think this is a relief for all the other athletes."
Young ran in the opening round and semifinals heats of the relay in Sydney. The U.S. team, anchored by Michael Johnson, won in the final ahead of Nigeria and Jamaica. All six members of the relay squad collected gold medals.
Punishment
Under international rules, a confirmed positive test for steroids is punishable by a two-year ban. Such a sanction would have kept Young out of the Sydney Olympics.
WADA chairman Dick Pound, saying the legitimacy of the U.S. victory was undermined by Young's positive test, has pushed for the gold medals to be stripped. If that happens, Nigeria would move up to gold and Jamaica to silver. The Bahamian team, which finished fourth, would get the bronze.
There is recent precedent for retroactive removal of Olympic medals for doping. In June, the IOC stripped Russian cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina of two silver medals from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
Lazutina had tested positive for a banned drug months earlier and shouldn't have been eligible for the games. She also tested positive during the Olympics and was stripped of a gold medal then.