Calls for Stripping Jones' Medals After Steroid Report

Marion Jones competes during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The hue and cry for Marion Jones' Olympic medals has begun.

John Coates, chief of Australia's Olympic organization, told Reuters today that he thinks the track star should be stripped of the three gold and two bronze medals she won at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney if she admits taking steroids. "I would expect that the IOC would re-open ... an investigation which I think they did commence in respect of her at the end of 2004 and I would hope the medals would be taken away," he said.

Citing a letter Jones sent to close family and friends, The Washington Post reports that Jones will plead guilty today in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her use of steroids.

Jones has long denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Even when Victor Conte, the founder of the controversial BALCO lab accused of supplying many athletes with drugs, said he had seen her talking steroids, she found a way around it, as Shaun Assael of ESPN the Magazine writes.

Jones used her money and fame the way the mob uses muscle, and the results were pretty much the same. In 2004, before the Athens Games, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency was frothing to make a case against her. It had calendars labeled 'MJ' that showed she used insulin, growth hormone, and BALCO's infamous clear and cream. All they needed was Conte to interpret them, and she'd be cooked. Instead, Jones quietly settled her libel suit against him. Conte's cooperation never materialized.

In an interview with The New York Times, Conte showed compassion for Jones. "Is Marion Jones a bad person? ... No. Marion made mistakes. The pain and suffering she is about to endure in public is going to be devastating to her."

11:55 AM ET | 10- 5-2007 | permalink