If One Cheated, Then They All Cheated

The IOC’s decision to retroactively strip Marion Jones’ teammates of their medals from the 1600 and 400 meter relays at the 2000 Olympics poses a fascinating question to the sports fan in the age of roids: Does one doping apple spoil the achievements of the bunch?↵↵In this instance, the answer would seem to be “without question”, tragic though it is for Jones’ (presumably) clean teammates. If you watch the video below, you’ll see that Maid Marion’s blistering pace has quite an impact on the outcome of the race. Running the third leg, she takes the baton with the U.S. in almost a dead heat with the Jamaicans, and proceeds to open about a 10 meter-lead by the end of her run, one that Latasha Colander-Richardson keeps through her final leg for the American victory.↵

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↵↵It doesn’t even matter, however, how dramatically Jones’ efforts affected the finish. She was dirty, she was on the team, the team was dirty. There’s just no other way to see the thing. It’s a terrible truth for her teammates to face, but there it is. Just as we’ll never know how Jones would have fared in her individual events without dope, we’ll never know for these relays either.↵

↵↵And harsh though it is, stripping the medals is the right move for the IOC to send an overwhelming zero-tolerance message to drug-cheats. To heap shame upon yourself is one thing, but to heap shame upon your innocent colleagues and invalidate their achievements at the same time, well, one would imagine that this is an entirely different and more excruciating brand of shame indeed.↵

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