The US 4x400 metres team who won the 2000 Sydney Olympics final should lose their gold medals, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decided today.
The world governing body's ruling council agreed at an extraordinary meeting in Grosseto, Italy, that results of the race should be annulled because world 400 metres champion Jerome Young had tested positive in the previous year for an anabolic steroid.
Young was cleared to compete in Sydney by a USA Track & Field Doping Hearing Panel despite a positive test for nandrolone in the previous year. The team included five-times Olympic champion Michael Johnson who ran the anchor leg in the final.
"The council decided that the period of ineligibility should include all relays," said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies.
Nigeria are the new gold medallists with Jamaica promoted to silver and the Bahamas bronze.
The recommendation, which follows a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Young should not have been allowed to compete, will now be considered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board which meets in Athens next month before the 2004 Games opening on August 13.
The other members of the team were the Harrison twins Alvin and Calvin, Antonio Pettigrew and Angelo Taylor.