Sprinter Crystal Cox suspended; relay team could lose gold medals
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American sprinter Crystal Cox agreed today to a four-year suspension and a disqualification of her previous results after she admitted to doping during the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Cox will probably lose the gold medal she was awarded for being part of the 1,600-meter relay team in Athens. Because Cox ran in the preliminaries and not the final, it is unclear whether Olympic officials will strip the entire team of its medals. Sanya Richards, DeeDee Trotter, Monique Henderson and Monique Hennagan ran in the final.
Marion Jones’ teammates from the 2000 Olympic Games lost their gold medals after she admitted to doping.
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Chief Executive Travis Tygart applauded Cox for coming clean.
‘You’ve got to give her credit for accepting responsibility,’ he said. ‘Hopefully this sends a strong message that if you’re going to succumb to temptation, you have to remember the terrible position you’re putting your teammates in.’
Cox is suspended through January 2014 and will forfeit all of her results from 2001 to 2004.
-- Austin Knoblauch
