Athletics: Marion Jones has been stripped of her five Olympic medals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after admitting she took banned substances.
The American sprinter had become the first woman athlete to win five medals at the 2000 Sydney Games. However, all her results from 2000 are no longer recognised after she admitted to a US court in October to taking banned substances.
"She is disqualified and scrapped from the results," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters after an executive board meeting. "We disqualified Marion Jones from the five events she took part in Sydney and for one event in Athens (2004 Olympics) which is the long jump where she was fifth."
Jones won gold in Sydney in the 100metres, 200m and 4x400m relay and took bronze in the long jump and 4x100m relay. She could now go to jail for lying to federal investigators.
Rogge made the announcement after the board's three-day meeting.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) applauded the IOC's decision.
"We welcome this decision on Marion Jones' Olympic medals since it is in line with the recommendation made by the IAAF Council last month," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told Reuters via e-mail.
The upgrading of athletes, though initially expected at this meeting, has been delayed pending legal issues that may involve Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, the silver medallist in the 100 metres behind Jones.
Rogge said he would contact the US Department of Justice for more information regarding an ongoing investigation into the San Francisco-based Balco laboratory that supplied banned substances to several prominent athletes, before awarding any of Jones's medals to athletes who were runners-up.
"We will also wait to redistribute the other rankings... because other names may come up (in the Balco probe)," Rogge said. "We can only redistribute rankings when we are sure that the Balco case will not reveal further issues."
Thanou was banned for two years after failing to appear at three dope tests, the last on the eve of the 2004 Games in Athens. Former Balco chief Victor Conte was due to meet World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) chief Dick Pound later today to provide names of other "Olympic-calibre" athletes involved with the lab.
Rogge said he had also started a process that could lead to the other members of the two US relay teams with whom Jones won medals - gold with the 4x400m and bronze with 4x100m - being stripped of their medals.
"I have initiated the procedure with regard for the possible disqualification of the two USA women's relay teams in which Marion Jones participated in Sydney," Rogge said. "The (IOC's) disciplinary commission will of course respect the rights of natural justice and will give the United States Olympic Committee the opportunity to be heard before the disciplinary commission."
Rogge said a decision on those medals could be taken during the IOC's Executive Board meeting in Beijing in April.