The Americans who raced in the women’s 4×400m relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics have a reason to smile today: they will not have their medals taken away from them, even though their teammate Marion Jones did lose her medals for doping.

It wasn’t until 2003 that the IOC decided to take the medals away from all runners if one of the racers was disqualified. This case also follows precedent: on the gold-medal winning men’s relay team, US runner Jerome Young was retroactively banned from competing in the Olympics after it was discovered that he had been using steroids in 1999.

No word yet as to whether Crystal Cox’s relay teammates from 2004 will lose their medals: it was after the IOC decided to disqualify all of the medalists for the doping violations of one person, but she was an alternate on the team.

Although the swimming world was focused on Michael Phelps in 2008, another swimmer had an impressive year as well. This swimmer was Natalie Coughlin. In any other era, her accomplishments would seem amazing.

Coughlin’s first Olympics was in Athens in 2004. There, she won two gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze. In 2008, while everyone was paying attention to Michael Phelps, she won one gold, two silver, and three bronze medals, for a total of 11 medals total. In Beijing, she was the first female athlete to win six medals at one Olympics.

Coughlin is currently 27 and still practices at the pool; hopefully we will see her return in 2012. Outside of swimming, she has been on Dancing with the Stars (Season 1). She got married in 2009. She likes to cook; she has been a judge on Iron Chef America, and recently appeared on “The View From the Bay” as a guest chef. Click on the link to see her on View from the Bay.

The weather is starting to warm up around here (maybe not everywhere, but I live in Arizona), and I’ve started to think about my summer plans. It’s a good time to start thinking about some summer Olympians. While the summer Olympics has some excellent sports, when you think about summer, you can’t help but to think about swimming.

If you were to ask 100 Americans to name a summer Olympian, more than likely, most of them would say Michael Phelps. While athletes like Shawn Johnson and Usain Bolt also come to mind, Phelps piqued the interest of quite a few people in 2008, when he broke the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics.

Phelps’ first turn at the Olympics was in 2000, where he competed in the Sydney Olympics at age 15. He didn’t win any medals that year, but he did get some valuable experience, that he put to good use in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he won six gold and two bronze medals. In 2008, he beat that total, winning eight gold medals, and beating Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in one Olympics.

Phelps is an ambassador for this summer’s first Youth Olympic Games. He also plans to compete in the 2012 Olympics, but he has said that he doesn’t plan on trying to repeat or better his feat.

Vancouver is only 6 days away, and athletes and officials alike are scrambling to get ready for the games.

One particular concern is the amount of snow on Cypress mountain. Vancouver has seen unseasonably warm temperatures, and helicopters are bringing in snow from other parts of the province. This massive undertaking should work… as long as it doesn’t rain. Fortunately, the weather seems to be cooperating for now. Because of the snow situation, snowboarders have had their training time cut from the normal five days to three. During World Cup competition, athletes only get two days of training before competition. In the meantime, some athletes are staying at home longer to train there, while others are training at nearby Whistler Mountain. Contingency plans are in place if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

The IOC is meeting starting Sunday to discuss the snow situation, along with other events, including the doping violation of Crystal Cox. She was an alternate who ran in the preliminary heats of the women’s 4×400 relay in Athens in 2004.

The Australian athletes may be asked to take down their flag of the boxing kangaroo, which you can see at JohnBollWitt.com. It is a trademarked picture, and athletes are not supposed to hang anything commercial from their balconies. Aussies have been flying the flag in athletic competitions since 1983 (when they won the America’s cup). They’re not trying to use it for commercial purposes… let them have their flag!

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.