LAUSANNE, Switzerland, CMC – Bahamian Pauline Davis-Thompson and other Caribbean sprinters are the beneficiaries after the International Olympic Com-mittee (IOC) formally re-allocated Sydney 2000 medals from drug disgraced Marion Jones on Wednesday.
Nine years after the event, Davis-Thompson is the new holder of the women’s 200-metre gold medal after Olympic leaders redistributed some of the five Sydney medals taken away from Jones for doping.
Davis-Thompson had clocked 22.27 seconds chasing Jones (21.84) in the half-lap sprint in Sydney and is now elevated to gold medal status.
Sri Lanka’s Susanthika Jayasinghe (22.28) moves up from bronze to silver and Jamaica’s Beverly McDonald (22.35) from fourth to the bronze medal third spot.
But in an unprecedented move, the IOC executive board denied Greece’s Ekaterina Thanou, the Sydney runner-up, the 100-metre gold for “moral” reasons because she was at the centre of her own drug scandal at the 2004 Athens Games.
Thanou never failed a drug test and was not linked to doping in Sydney, but she was accused — four years later — along with fellow Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris of dodging drug-testers at the Athens Olympics and faking a motorcycle crash as a cover-up.
The IOC decision means the women’s 100-metre title in Sydney will remain vacant.
Jamaican Tanya Lawrence, Sydney’s 100-metre third place finisher in 11.18 seconds, moves up to second and becomes the duplicate silver medallist with Thanou (11.12).
Jamaican Merlene Ottey (11.19) is promoted from fourth to third, now securing a sixth career Olympic bronze medal to go with two silver medals in a record seven Olympic appearances.
Jones, the current wife of retired Barbadian star Obadele Thompson, had been resounding winner in 10.75 seconds.
In the long jump, Jones had placed third and the Russian Tatyana Kotova is now upgraded from fourth to bronze.
Jones, who had long denied doping, admitted in 2007 that she used steroids at the time of the Sydney Games where she became the first woman to win five medals at a single Olympics.
She served a six-month prison sentence last year for lying about doping and her role in a cheque-fraud scam.
The IOC is yet to decide on the fate of the 4×400 relay gold and sprint-relay bronze the USA – with Jones – won in Sydney.
Jamaica (3:23.25) had placed second to the USA (3:22.62) in the 1600-metre relay and France (42.42) placed fourth in the sprint relay behind champions Bahamas (41.95), Jamaica (42.13) and the USA (42.20).
