Con

Chryste Gaines, MBA, Olympic gold and bronze medal sprinter and former teammate of Marion Jones in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, was quoted in the Dec. 15, 2007 article "Gaines Continues Struggle to Come Back," posted on the Universal Sports website, as having stated:

“I’m not considering giving anything back…

If the IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federation] or IOC [International Olympic Committee] contacts me, I still will not give it [the medal] back. It’s not fair to us who didn’t do anything.”

[Editor’s Note: In a Dec. 22, 2008 email to ProCon.org, Chryste Gaines provided additional details to her above “Con” statement:

“We are being unfairly punished. If the drug testing agencies cannot determine if an athlete is taking performance enhancing drugs how are the teammates supposed to know? The whole battle should be a moot point because the men’s 4 x 400 relay team fought the same battle over the Jerome Young allegations and there were no rules in place that said if one teammate tests positive that everyone gets disqualified. The IOC added that statement after the Jerome Young verdict which still shouldn’t affect us because that was 5 years after the Sydney Games. Here we are 8 years later still fighting a battle that the statute of limitations has been expired on. Does it make sense? No? Will it clean up the sport? No.

What good is it other than to get Marion Jones back in the spotlight after her jail sentence and give her material to base a second book on. What does that do for the innocent athletes that competed with her? Nothing! Do we gain anything for our hard work, sacrifice and perseverance? No! It negates all the family functions, church functions, and social events we missed in the name of winning an Olympic medal.”] Dec. 15, 2007