Marion Jones hands back Olympic medals

[sabadgeman]

Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones has handed over the medals she won at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the US Anti-Doping Agency has announced.

Jones has also accepted a two-year ban, although she announced her retirement last week when she admitted taking steroids to a New York court.

Jones confessed that she had taken tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) from September 2000 through to July 2001.

The 31-year-old won three golds and two bronzes at the Sydney Games.

The golds came in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4x400m relay, with bronzes in the long jump and the 4x100m relay.

It is not yet known whether these medals will now go to the athletes who finished behind her.

"The outcome of this story is a valuable reminder that true athletic accomplishment is not obtained through cheating and any medal acquired through doping is only fool's gold," said USADA chief executive officer Travis T Tygart.

Jones pleaded guilty to two felonies in the New York court case - lying to federal investigators about her steroid use, and lying about a separate fraud case.

She faces up to six months in jail under a plea bargain and will be sentenced in January.

Last week, IAAF president Lamine Diack said Jones will be remembered as "a fraud".

"If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self-sacrifice and hard work I sincerely believe that she could have been an honest champion at the Sydney Games," he said.

"Now, instead, she will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history."

BBC SPORT | Athletics | Jones hands back Olympic medals

[Woodmonkey]

I would think that anything she's "won" is open to question. I hope the ones who came in after her get those medals.