The World Competes

According to the USA Today, Crystal Cox, who is probably best known for her performance on Survivor Gabon, but who also received a gold medal in the women’s 4×400 relay in Athens, admitted to using steroids during the time she competed in the Olympics.

During her time on Survivor, she didn’t perform like an Olympic athlete. At the time, I thought that perhaps she had just let herself go over the years. I know that I used to be a lot more athletic when I was in the military. However, if she had been using steroids during the time that she was an Olympic athlete, perhaps that offers another explanation of her performance on Survivor.

The next question is: will the other athletes that received gold medals in the relay race have theirs taken away too? In 2000, the United States faced the same problem when Marion Jones was determined to have used steroids at the time that she was a part of the gold-medal relay team. All of the other athletes ended up losing their medals in that instance. The other athletes appealed, but it doesn’t look like their appeal will be accepted.

The 2004 case with Crystal Cox is a little different. Cox ran in the preliminary heats of the race, but she did not run in the final race. Olympic teams often do this for a couple of reasons: it gives the B-team athletes a chance to compete and get medals, and it also gives the A-team athletes a chance to rest a bit. So the question that the IOC will have to ask is whether the American team would have made it to the finals without Crystal Cox running in the heats. More than likely they would have. The US team won the final event without the help of Crystal Cox, so hopefully they will not take away their medals.

Another athlete from Athens, Jerome Young, lost a medal for doping in a relay, but his teammates did not lose their medals. Like Cox, he ran in the preliminary heats and not the final event.