The American was stripped of the five medals she won at those Games, including three gold, after she admitted having taken banned performance-enhancing drugs provided by Conte.

The IOC's ruling Executive Board are expected to rubber-stamp the decision when it meets here today to hand Jones's gold in the 200 metres to Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas and the bronze she won in the long jump to Tatyana Kotova of Russia.

The main controversy will centre around the decision not to give the gold medal that Jones claimed in the 100m to the runner-up, Greece's Ekaterina Thanou - due to her having served her own drugs ban after missing a series of out-of-competition drugs tests in the build-up to the 2004 Athens Olympics - but Conte questions the decision to re-award the medals at all.

He exclusively told insidethegames: "I believe the Olympic medal adjustments being made as a result of the Marion Jones case create a very difficult situation for all parties concerned.

"Back in 2000, there was no independent anti-doping federation in place for several of the countries which have female athletes that will now receive medal upgrades.

"It's simply my opinion that some of these women in the competitions in which Marion participated may have also been using drugs.

"It's certainly possible.

"Back then, it was very easy to circumvent the drug testing procedures."

Conte, the founder and owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) who drew up a doping programme for Jones in the build-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, believes that Jones came under greater scrutiny than most of her rivals.

He told insidethegames: "Most of those who competed against Marion have not been held to the same type of investigative and legal standards."

Gregory Ionnidis, the lawyer of Thanou (pictured finishing behind Jones in Sydney), has said that he will release a statement about possible legal action if the IOC do not award the gold medal to his client and decide to leave the first position unallocated but upgrade Jamaicans Tanya Lawrence and Merlene Ottey to the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Ionnidis will argue that Thanou has never failed a test in her career and that she had not been found guilty of anything when she competed in Sydney.

Conte claims that it is not fair that athletes should be upgraded when they may not have faced the same anti-doping procedures as Jones, even though she managed to pass every test she undertook in the run-up to Sydney.

He said: "Countries from the Caribbean had no type of independent anti-doping federation in place.

"When these athletes were training on their home soil, they basically had a green light to use drugs, if they chose to do so."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected].


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December 2009: Jones Sydney 100m gold medal to be left vacant
December 2009: Conte claims Jones still has not faced up to her drug past
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August 2009: Conclusion in Jones case to be speeded up promises Rogge
August 2009: Thanou rejects IOC compromise deal over Marion Jones gold