The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of the women, who appealed against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to disqualify them from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The 4x400 and 4x100m teams who had won gold and bronze medals respectively had them taken away in 2008 by the IOC at the same time that Jones was stripped of her medals she had won at those Games, including the gold won in the 100m and 200m, following her admission that she had been using banned performance-enhancing drugs supplied by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO).

But the court said that athletics rules in 2000 did not allow teams to be affected by one member's doping.

In Sydney, Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander Clark and Andrea Anderson were part of the squad that won gold in the 4x400m relay.

Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson were on the 4x100m bronze medal squad.

All but Perry joined the appeal.

CAS claimed that at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games there was no express IOC or International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule in force that clearly allowed the IOC to annul the relay team results if one team member was found to have committed a doping offence.

The decision overturns a preliminary CAS hearing in December 2009 that the medals should not be returned.

But they then scheduled a full hearing which has found in the athletes' favour.

The CAS said in its ruling: "The Panel found that at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games there was no express IOC or IAAF Rule in force that clearly allowed the IOC to annul the relay team results if one team member was found to have committed a doping offence.

"The Panel...acknowledges that the outcome of this case may be unfair to the other relay teams that competed with no doped athletes helping their performance; however, such outcome exclusively depends on the rules enacted or not enacted by the IOC and by the IAAF at the time of the Sydney Olympic Games.

"As a result, the Panel is unanimously of the opinion that, on the basis of the IOC and IAAF Rules applicable at the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the appealed decision of the IOC Executive Board is incorrect and must be set aside."

Richardson said: "From the beginning it has been clear that the IOC, with the assistance and cooperation of the US Olympic Committee, has been violating all Olympic rules and principles in a misguided attempt to punish innocent athletes so it will appear they are tough on doping. 

"We are thankful that the court's decision resolves once and for all that we earned our medals and no one can take them or the results we achieved.'"

The decision, however, appears to go against the precedent that the CAS set last August when they stripped the US men's 4x400m relay team, including Michael Johnson, of the gold medals they won in Sydney following the admission by another member of the team, Antonio Pettigrew, that he was using banned performance-enhancing drugs at the time.

"That was the second occasion that the CAS had heard an appeal involving that team.

In 2005 they had overturned the IOC's decision to strip the team of the medals after Jerome Young, who had run in the heats, because he should have been banned at the time having failed a drugs test earlier but had been incorrectly cleared by USA Track & Field.

There will be widespread disquiet at this latest decision to allow the US to keep their medals, particuarly in the 4x100m, as Gaines and Edwards both served drugs bans of their own following Sydney.

Like Jones, Gaines was implicated in the BALCO scandal and Edwards tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Both were banned for two years, although Edwards' suspension was later commuted to a year.

The US are also facing the prospect of being stripped of the gold medals they won in the 4x400m relay at Athens in 2004 after Crystal Cox was banned after it emerged she was taking banned performance-enhancing at the time.

To read the full CAS eport on the latest judgement click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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