The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Marion Jones’ teammates of medals won at 2000 Sydney Olympics on April 10, 2008.
Her teammates on the 1,600 squad were Jearl-Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson. The 400-relay squad also had Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson.
Seven of the eight teammates have set up a legal defense fund called the “Innocent Olympic Athletes Defense Fund” to raise $200,000 in anticipated legal cost for the appeal for their defense attorney Mark Levinstein of Williams and Connolly Firm in Washington DC.
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) refused to pay for the athletes’ defense if they chose Mark Levinstein because Levinstein wasn’t nice to them
(“Williams & Connolly Partner Suffers Setback in Olympic Medals Appeal,” April 24).
Washington attorney Mark Levinstein suffered a frustrating setback Wednesday in his effort to keep seven of the eight women who ran with admitted steroid user Marion Jones from losing their Olympic medals. On April 23, the U.S. Olympic Committee declined to fund their appeal because a letter Levinstein sent the committee used “threatening” language.
The USOC offered to pay for defense offering the athletes a choice of three other lawyers. Instead, the athletes chose to stay with Levinstein and raise funds privately by establishing the Innocent Athletes Defense Fund.
The USOC previously spent $200,000 on a similar defense case involving the 4×400 Men’s Relay team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In a similar case involving U.S. men who ran on the 4×400-meter relay at the 2000 Olympics tainted by the presence of Jerome Young, who should have been ineligible, the U.S. Olympic Committee financed the successful appeal that allowed all but Young to keep their gold medals.
The USOC agreed that the Young decision in the 4×400 relay should establish precedent in the Marion Jones case too.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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