Should Marion's relay teammates have to relinquish their medals from 2000?

It should depend on how much the team won by

Bad analogy. On a football team, the one player might be special teams, offense, or defense, and only play a given percentage of the game. Marion ran exactly 25% of that race. However, if the NFL would introduce a policy that says if one player cheats, the entire team loses, then "yes", I'd support that.

Marion Jones cheated, and by default, her team forfeits. That means everyone on the team must give up their medals.

The relay is a team event. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and you're DQ'd as a team. It should be treated the same as two false starts or a baton pass outside the zone. Both result in a DQ of the entire team, not just one member. Maybe it isn't fair to the other three members, but it is fair to the other teams in the race.

Omno wrote:

It should depend on how much the team won by

The 4x1 got smoked by The Bahamas and Jamaica. The 4x4 won, but Latasha Colander-Richardson almost got caught by Jamaica. What pisses me off is a gal like Passion Richardson has to give back her bronze from the 4x100. I had never heard of her before or since the 2000 trials and games but I'm sure she worked hard and It's a shame that the story she tells her grandkids of her Olympic experience is now ruined because of Marion Jones.

Passion Richardson says she shouldn't have to return her medal:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3057203

Unfortunately for her, she's wrong. Sure, she shouldn't have to suffer for Marion Jones' bad deeds, but neither should the other teams. I'm afraid her only recourse would be to sue the already-broke Jones. I guess this will motivate the athletes to push USATF to make certain that the relay members are not cheating. I don't know how much it will help, though...

hasn't two athletes from that relay team tested positive for drugs since 2000?

HMNP wrote:

The relay is a team event. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and you're DQ'd as a team.

Yes, well cross is also a team event. What do they do if (when) someone is busted for PEDs? Granted, it's a little different; they can just take that loser doper's score out of the equation and then retally. But wouldn't it suck if they came back and said "Sorry, the entire team is DQed - and we don't mean Dairy Queened."

True, but if they just subtract Marion's leg from the overall time, then we'd have a new world record.

There have been some great points brought up on this topic. The bottom line is that the as-far-as-we-know-to-be-clean athletes needlessly suffer when they're punished for Marion's transgressions. What kind of message is that sending? OK, you do everything right, you run by the rules, you're clean, and guess what, you're still punished.

They allow sharing of medals in certain instances. Why couldn't they allow the other women to keep their medals and also move the other teams up? I don't know what the best solution is, but punishing the other athletes doesn't seem like it.

It would be interesting to see how this shakes down in an official letsrun poll. Where do runners stand on this issue?

"OK, you do everything right, you run by the rules, you're clean, and guess what, you're still punished. "

The you in this case shouldn't be thought of as the individual runners, but as the USA. And in this case the USA didn't do everything right, by the rules and clean. It was unjustly rewarded.

What was the result of the Jerome Young case ? The 4x4 members did not have to return their medals, correct ?

Sorry, but - Marion's antics is akin to their team running a shorter race, or moving into the wrong lane and covering less distance. The rest of the team should relinquish their medals - I do not think that medals should be "reissued" simply - they should turn them in. The sad fact is, just like in pro cycling, the silver and bronze winners likely were or had a cheat on their teams.

The only difference in the JY case, and the reason the USOC has a different view of the two situations, is that Young didn't run in the finals. The USOC must believe that the USA would have made the finals anyway, yada.....

i say give it a rest.

there should be a statute of limitations.

mark it off the record books, but i don't feel getting a court order to get medals returned is the right way to go.

Yes, they should.

chryste gaines tested postivie so did tori edwards

Would be interesting to know if, behind closed doors, an athlete ever says to team management "Don't pick athlete X, I think he/she is on drugs and I don't want my medal taken away however many years from now when they get busted."

Obviously not picking an athlete who has never failed a test for that reason would open you up to all sorts of lawsuits, but selectors could do it when choosing between two athletes of similar standard without being found out.