Relay runners stripped of 2000 medals aren’t standing still

Seven of the eight women who ran with admitted doper Marion Jones on relays at the 2000 Olympics have begun a fund-raising campaign to finance an appeal of the International Olympic Committee’s April 10 decision to strip them of their medals.

The athletes must file the appeal by May 1.

In a similar case involving U.S. men who ran on the 4-by-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 has decided not to finance the women’s appeal because of a disagreement with their current attorney, Mark Levinstein, who had argued the men’s case.

USOC officials felt language in a letter Levinstein wrote them in December about the women’s case was threatening. The USOC offered to provide a different attorney, giving the relay members three attorneys to choose from. They have stayed with Levinstein.

A review of the letter by a reporter and an observer from another media outlet found its language pointed but not threatening.

“We have offered to pay the expenses associated with any of the attorneys we offered in filing the appeal and representing the athletes,” USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Wednesday.

The USOC spent approximately $200,000 on the men’s appeal.

In a cover letter included when it submitted the women’s written defense to the IOC disciplinary commission that reviewed the case, the USOC said it felt the women should give up their medals but also noted that the precedent set in the Young decision should have covered this case as well.

Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson (prelims) won bronze medals on the 4-by-100-meter relay. Andrea Anderson (prelims), LaTasha Colander-Clark, Monique Hennagan and Jearl Miles-Clark ran on the gold-medal-winning 4-by-400 relay.

“It is a sad day for the Olympic movement,” Colander-Clark said of the IOC’s decision in a statement. “To divert attention from the problems plaguing the [2008] Beijing Olympics, the IOC is trying to take medals from innocent Olympic athletes.”

Levinstein contends the IOC violated its own charter provisions on the right to fair hearings because neither the athletes nor a representative were permitted to present their case in person to the IOC executive board before it disqualified them.

Perry is not part of the appeal effort because efforts to locate her have been unsuccessful.

Anyone wishing to donate can write to the Innocent Olympic Athletes Defense Fund, c/o Mark Levinstein, Williams & Connolly LLP, 725 12th St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20005.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and Chicago Tribune.