Don't Take It Away, Sam (or IOC)

More fall out from the Marion Jones steroids debacle. Her admission truly has affected more than just her, as now her teammates from the 4x400 relay are being asked to return their medals. Two of those teammates are already serving bans for doping since the 2000 Olympics. But one of her "clean" teammates, Passion Richardson, has voiced her opinion that she should be entitled to keep the medals that they won:

"I competed fairly, and I should not have to suffer the consequences for someone else's bad decisions and choices," Passion Richardson said Wednesday on the CBS "Early Show."

She continued later:

"I mean, you don't know what was going on on the other teams, so how do you really rectify that situation?" Richardson said. "There's really no positive outcome in either way that it goes."

(Watch her interview on the Early Show here).

Apparently it's up to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to decide whether she gets to keep her bronze medal, while the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decides the results of the Olympics. The IAAF rules state that all members of the relay team are disqualified if one member is, but it's uncertain whether this rule was in effect at the time of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

On the other hand, I understand their side: 1) They don't want to in any way sanction a result in which a drug-violating athlete wins a medal; 2) the assumption is that if the team had not had the doped up athlete, they may not have won, especially in track where every millisecond counts; and 3) it's not fair to the other teams who might have won had the doped up athlete not competed.

This is a difficult one to call. It is only made more tough by the fact that two other teammates were doping around the same time. I think I might use the same "innocent spouse" defense they use in some forfeiture matters. In those cases, if one commits a crime which subjects one's assets to forfeiture by the federal government, the innocent spouse may be able to retain those assets if s/he (ok, mostly "she's") can show that the illegal activity occurred without her knowledge or consent. The same rule should apply here, and Richardson should be able to keep the medal if she didn't know what was going on.

I know it's more simple and cleaner to just yank everyone's medals upon a doping finding, but medals are a big deal and shouldn't be taken away lightly. And if need be, give the runners-up medals, too, and also recognize that the 4th place team won the bronze and the American team didn't, but let the woman, and her other innocent teammates -- Jearl Miles-Clark (who also wants to keep her medal), Monique Hennagan, La Tasha Colander-Richardson, Andrea Anderson, and Nanceen Perry -- keep the medal.