Jones' 100 Olympic status uncertain, but USOC has time to determine her fate

KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Marion Jones may have to wait a while before she learns if she can defend her 100-meter dash gold medal in the Olympic Games in Athens.
And the U.S. Olympic Committee can stop sweating the Olympic roster deadline.
The International Olympic Committee deadline for national Olympic committees to submit their team rosters to Athens organizers is Wednesday. But a rule created in the past month allows nations to submit rosters later if special circumstances arise, like athletes with pending doping cases.
The provision allows nations to submit a roster as late as one or two days prior to the event. Olympic track and field begins Aug. 18 in Athens. That's five days after the opening ceremony Aug. 13. The Games end Aug. 29.
Still, while the Olympic trials in track and field concluded Sunday, a few significant loose ends remain. The USOC, based in Colorado Springs, has pronounced it will send a clean team to Athens.
In arbitration
Torri Edwards, the only female sprinter to make the Olympic team in two events -- the 100 and 200 dashes -- at the trials, tested positive for a banned stimulant in an April meet. Her case went to arbitration Monday in California.
Edwards and sprinter Calvin Harrison are on the U.S. Olympic team roster submitted by USA Track and Field to the USOC late Sunday, shortly after track and field's trials concluded. Harrison, who tested positive for the stimulant modafinil, reportedly has a July 26 arbitration hearing and faces a two-year ban. He was named to the relay pool after finishing fifth in the 400.
Jones, under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in the BALCO case, has not been charged with a doping offense and says she has never used performance-enhancing drugs.
She made the team in the long jump, but dropped out of the 200 and finished fifth in the 100. The top three get a starting spot in Athens. Edwards was second and Gail Devers was fourth. If Edwards is banned from the Olympic team, Devers would move to third and Jones fourth.
May drop event
But Devers might drop the event to concentrate on the 100 hurdles, an event she won at the trials Sunday and one in which she has dominated but never won an Olympic medal. On Sunday, Devers indicated she would wait for Edwards' hearing to conclude before making up her mind.
"I never make a hasty decision," she said.
The USOC won't have to make a sticky one. None of the four athletes formally charged by USADA with doping offenses based on circumstantial evidence made the team. Tim Montgomery, the 100 world record holder; 400 runner Alvin Harrison and sprinter Chryste Gaines failed to make the team at trials. Sprinter Michelle Collins withdrew, citing injury.
"It's certainly not as complicated as it might have been," said Darryl Seibel, USOC spokesman.
Sprinter Mickey Grimes and hurdler Larry Wade, two with recently revealed positive tests for steroid metabolites, are not on the roster. Wade withdrew from trials, citing an arm injury, and Grimes finished seventh in Sunday's 200. Accomplished distance runner Regina Jacobs, 40, retired last week, abandoning her legal challenge following her positive test for designer steroid THG.