The sentencing of disgraced sprinter Marion Jones offered a lesson to young people “about the importance of making good choices and honoring the value of clean competition,” United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr said on Friday.
Olympic medalist Jones was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the sentence after Jones pleaded guilty to two charges last October, when she retired from athletics and tearfully confessed to betraying the trust of her fans after years of denying she used performance enhancing drugs.
“Today’s sentencing is illustrative of just how far-reaching and serious the consequences of cheating can be,” Scherr said in a statement e-mailed to Xinhua.
“The fact that an athlete with so much talent and promise, who so many people looked up to, made the decision to cheat is a terrible disappointment,” he said.
“This unfortunate situation does, however, offer a lesson to young people about the importance of making good choices and honoring the value of clean competition.”
Karas gave Jones six months for lying about steroid use and two months — to run concurrently — for misleading federal investigators about a check fraud case involving her ex-boyfriend, former 100 meters world record holder Tim Montgomery.

Jones, 32, has been stripped of the five athletics medals she won in the Sydney Olympics, three of them gold. All her performances as of September 2000 have been erased from the record books.

from: beijing2008.cn

Justin Gatlin, the 100m Olympic champion, has been banned for four years for a positive drug test in 2006, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Tuesday.
The suspension through to May 24, 2010, which was determined by an arbitration panel of three officials in the United States and is half the term initially suggested by the USADA, could end the career of Gatlin if he does not successfully appeal to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Gatlin confessed that he had tested positive for the banned hormone testosterone at the low-key Kansas Relays meeting in April 2006.
The revelation came as a shock, since Gatlin, an outspoken critic of drugs, appeared to have the world at his feet. He was the Olympic champion, the world champion of the 100m and 200m and had equaled Asafa Powell’s world 100m-record of 9.77 sec.
Gatlin failed a drug test in 2001 for a prescribed medication for Attention Deficit Disorder. He was reinstated by the International Association of Athletics Federations the following year.
A four-year ban ends any hope Gatlin had of defending his Olympic 100m title in Beijing in August.
If there is a lifeline for the 25-year-old, it is in the CAS in Lausanne. The disgraced sprinter can launch an appeal against the ban to the CAS, whose decision is final and binding. However, the IAAF would not let any action by Gatlin go unchallenged.

from: beijing2008.cn 

The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today concluded its proceedings with a series of important decisions.

The EB disqualified Marion Jones from the five events in which she competed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (100m - 1st place, 200m - 1st place, 4 x 400m relay -1st place, 4 x 100m relay – 3rd place, and Long Jump - 3rd place), and from the event in which she took part in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games (Long Jump - 5th place). Jones has already returned her medals, which are now in the possession of the IOC.
The EB also decided that Marion Jones is ineligible for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, not only as an athlete but also in any other capacity. Pending the outcome of the BALCO investigation, the IOC also reserves its right to consider possible further sanctions against her, including banning her from taking part in any capacity in future editions of the Olympic Games.
As soon as the BALCO story came to light, the IOC was keen to understand fully the degree to which the affair might have affected Olympic Games’ competitions and set up a Disciplinary Commission with this aim in mind. Despite concerted efforts, sufficient information has not been forthcoming to date and therefore, with a full picture still not clear, the EB decided today not to adjust the rankings that might be impacted by Jones’s disqualification: The IOC Disciplinary Commission will keep the BALCO file open and await greater access to documentation related to the case from which to make subsequent recommendations to the EB.

from: beijing2008.cn