Marion Jones' Teammates Win Back Relay Medals
In a relay, if one person goes down, everyone goes down. But in the case of Marion Jones' Olympic teammates from the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney an exception has been made.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Switzerland ruled that the IOC wrongfully stripped LaTasha Colander Clark, Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, Andrea Anderson, Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson of their relays medals. Clark and her teammates ran on the relay team with admitted doper Marion Jones. The IOC purged the team from the record books and asked for their medals to be returned.
Clark contended that the medal was hers and no one could take it away from her. She believed that she and her teammates competed in good faith and that Jones doping was out of their controll. Clark refused to return her medal and joined with her teammates in contesting the decision of the IOC. Last Friday, the Court of Arbitration agreed and Clark was vindicated.
"I was crying, because it's been two years," Colander Clark said, The Virginian-Pilot reports. "It's been a long time. It's been an emotional, stressful time ... We had a good case, and we won it ... You're not going to let somebody take something from you when you fought for years to get there ... It has been a story, and now it's a better story and a beautiful story ... It restores a lot of faith."
USA Track and Field issued a statement supporting the teammates, "[we are]sympathetic to any clean athlete who was robbed of something because of Marion Jones' cheating."
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