IOC may investigate Crystal Cox’s doping admission

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That didn’t take long...

Less than a week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced relay runner Crystal Cox had admitted to doping during the 2004 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee said it’s considering opening an investigation into the matter.

An IOC spokesman said Monday that it is ‘considering setting up a disciplinary commission’ to determine the fate of the women’s 4X400-relay team that won the gold medal in Athens. The ruling council of the International Assn. of Athletics Federations also plans to tackle the issue at its meeting in March.

Cox, who accepted a four-year ban from competition and a disqualification of all her results from 2001 through 2004, will almost certainly be stripped of her gold medal. However, because Cox ran in the preliminaries and not the finals, it remains to be seen if her Olympic teammates will lose their medals.

Three U.S. relay teams were stripped of their medals from the 2000 Olympic Games because of doping. An entire team can be disqualified if one of its competitors -- even an alternate -- is found guilty of doping.

-- Austin Knoblauch

The Associated Press contributed to this report.