Johnson wins right to keep gold medal
Thursday, 21 July 2005 10:22Five years after the Sydney Games, US sprinter Michael Johnson has been told by a Swiss court that he can keep the last of his five Olympic gold medals.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by US athletics officials to end a lengthy battle over the golds won by Johnson's squad in the 4x400 metres relay in 2000.
Athletics world ruling body, the IAAF, had recommended to the IOC that the US squad be stripped of their medals because of a doping violation by squad member Jerome Young in 1999.
Today's decision means Johnson and four other members keep their gold medals from the event, but the court recommended that Young should lose his.
The IAAF said it was extremely disappointed with the decision, which it regretted but would accept as final and binding.
In the ruling, the court said IAAF rules in force at the time of the Sydney Games did not allow for a whole team to be disqualified because of the actions of one of its members.
Lausanne-based CAS had ruled in 2004 that Young should not have been allowed to run in Sydney because of the 1999 positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone, which carried a two-year ban at the time.
