The IOC had a message on Tuesday for Marion Jones' relay mates on the medal winning 4 x 400 and 4 x 100 relay teams: turn 'em in.
The fallout continues...it looks like the IOC will ask for the medals back from her teammates---the thinking being, if one medal is tainted, then they all are.
I have a problem with that.
It's a little something called "due process." Her fellow relayers aren't getting that. One of the people that ran with Marion is a university administrator and is mad as blazes.
There are innocent victims of Marion's lying. By all accounts, they ran clean. It isn't fair to them that they are presumed guilty, all because one person decided that they could bend the rules, and thinking she could get away with it.
Everyone wants heads to roll. But we're all forgetting one thing: there ARE athletes who compete clean, who have trained for years for this one moment, and now are caught in a situation they had no knowledge or control over. Shouldn't their rights be preserved? Not everyone is tainted, but according to the USOC and IOC, they all are if they ran with Marion.
Let's step back, take a deep breath, and do this the right way. The aftermath could be a lot more damaging in years to come versus one dirty athlete who thought the rules didn't apply to her.
I am not defending Marion or what she did. But the USA's reputation in international athletics is on the line here, and that will still be around, many years after Marion is long gone on the scene.
