More Olympians for BALCO Scandal?

IOC vice president Thomas Bach heads the Disciplinary Commission for the BALCO scandal. (ATR)(ATR) The head of an IOC commission handling the BALCO scandal says he is waiting for information from the U.S. that could lead to troubles for more Olympians.

Speaking to reporters in Lausanne where IOC meetings are taking place, Thomas Bach said that his commission, named two years ago, will continue until satisfied that no other Olympians are implicated in the BALCO designer steroid scandal.

“This is why we are requesting, through different channels, the complete information in the BALCO affair,” Bach said.

“We need more information.”

Bach says his three-member commission will meet this week to consider officially stripping Marion Jones of her medals from the Sydney Olympics, but would not speculate on the recommendations coming from the panel, including whether a redistribution of the medals will be requested.

In October, Jones pleaded guilty in the U.S. to lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO during the Sydney Olympics. She already has surrendered her five medals from those Games. Given her admission, it’s near-certain that Bach and his colleagues will recommend that she should officially lose them in the eyes of the IOC.

According to another member of the disciplinary commission, the hold-up on the medals redistribution is the status of Katerina Thanou of Greece, who took the silver behind Jones in the 100m in Sydney.

Denis Oswald confirmed that the IOC wants to be sure that Thanou is not in any way linked to BALCO before awarding her the gold medal. While Denis Oswald says the IOC wants to be certain that no mistakes are made when medals are re-awarded in the wake of the Marion Jones case. (ATR)there were suspicions about Thanou in Sydney, she has not tested positive and a Greek investigation is believed to have uncovered no BALCO links.

"We want to be 100 percent sure we have all the information about the BALCO case,'' Oswald said.

"We feel some names of athletes may still appear. We feel we don't have all the names,” he said, saying that it may take months before the IOC is sure what steps it will take.

Because five medals are at stake in the Jones case, the implications of awarding new medals affect more than a dozen athletes.

While clean for Sydney, Thanou missed drug tests ahead of her hometown Olympics in Athens and resigned from the Greek team just as the IOC was taking steps to expel her. The IAAF handed down a two-year ban on competition following the Games. The medals won by Jones’ teammates in two relay races in Sydney are in question. (Getty Images)

Bach indicated that his commission will look at the circumstances of relay team members who competed with Jones differently from those in the case of Jerome Young, who lost his Sydney relay team medal when it was disclosed he failed a drugs test a year before the Games.

Young should not have been allowed to compete in Sydney, while with Jones “we have a proven case of doping at the Games.” Bach also notes that Jones ran in the finals of the relay; Young did not.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that only Young needed to give up his medal from the Sydney relay. The IOC had sought to strip medals from all six U.S. team members.

Bach says his panel, which also includes Sergei Bubka, will present its recommendations to the IOC Executive Board on Wednesday.

Written by Ed Hula

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