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2000 U.S. Relay Team Loses Gold

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The Associated Press

Published: August 3, 2008

BEIJING - The International Olympic Committee stripped gold medals Saturday from the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Olympics in the aftermath of Antonio Pettigrew's admission that he was doping at the time.

The IOC executive board disqualified the entire team, the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.

Three gold and two bronze were previously removed after Marion Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Saturday's decision was almost a formality after Pettigrew gave up his gold medal in June. During a trial involving former track coach Trevor Graham, he admitted in May that he used EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

Five of Pettigrew's teammates also lose their medals: Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison ran in the final; Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor ran in the preliminaries.

It was Johnson's fifth gold medal of his stellar career. He already has said he was giving it back because he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by Pettigrew's testimony. Johnson still holds world records in the 200 and 400 meters.

Three of the four runners from the relay final have been tainted by drugs.
Alvin Harrison accepted a four-year ban in 2004 after admitting he used performance-enhancers. Calvin Harrison tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2003 and was suspended for two years. Young was banned for life for doping violations.

"We support the action taken today by the IOC," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "Athletes who make the unacceptable choice to cheat should recognize that there will be consequences. Those consequences can be severe including the loss of medals and results. We're in full support of this action. In other matters like this in the past we've worked with the IOC to make certain medals will be returned, and we'll do so again."

The IOC also disqualified Pettigrew from his seventh-place finish in the individual 400 meters in Sydney. And the committee banned him from attending the upcoming Beijing Games "in any capacity," including as a competitor, coach or technical official. Pettigrew has retired from competition, and the U.S. Olympic Committee said there were no plans for him to be in Beijing.

The IOC has put off any decision on reallocating the U.S. medals until later this year when it takes into account all the files from the BALCO investigation in the United States.

No time frame for a decision on medal redistribution has been set, although an eight-year statute of limitations expires Oct. 1.

Lighting Of Flame Remains A Secret

Some secrets are out for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. One big one remains.

Video shot by South Korean television at a dress rehearsal this week was leaked, offering a first glimpse of the elaborate production.

Spoiler alert: Viewers can expect a dramatic countdown, giant whales, an illuminated globe and performers flying above the audience.

What remains a mystery is how the organizers - led by China's most famous filmmaker Zhang Yimou - plan to light the Olympic cauldron. The identity of the final torchbearer has been guarded like a state secret and a mock cauldron lighting was not a part of recent rehearsals.

There were no great surprises from the video shot in the darkened stadium, although it showed the lavishness of Friday's 31/2-hour ceremony, expected to boast a cast of 10,000. Zhang spent three years designing the spectacle, seeking to boil 5,000 years of Chinese history into a 50-minute show.

The leaked rehearsal footage showed undulating white columns apparently simulating a waterfall and giant blue whales projected onto the roof. An enormous blue-and-green illuminated globe appears on the floor of the stadium.

Bolt Double

Usain Bolt will enter the 100 and 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics, after all.

The Jamaican sprinter broke the world record in the 100 by finishing in 9.72 seconds May 31. But he had said he would leave it up to his coach, Glen Mills, to decide whether it made sense to compete in that event in addition to the 200, which had been considered Bolt's specialty.

"I can confirm that Usain will run both the 100m + 200m in Beijing," Bolt's agent, Ricky Simms, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Hardy Wants Her Suspension Reduced

Swimmer Jessica Hardy will try to have her possible two-year suspension "reduced substantially" after a failed drug test cost her a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Friday the 21-year-old sprinter had withdrawn from the team nearly a month after she tested positive for a low level of clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent, at the Olympic trials.

"She accepts the fact that the testing was properly done and the results properly reported," her lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said in a statement released late Friday night.

He said investigations were trying to determine the source of the clenbuterol. Once those are completed, Jacobs said, Hardy "will seek to have her period of suspension reduced substantially" by presenting evidence to an arbitration panel.

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