A ruling on whether U.S. sprinter Jerome Young will be stripped of his gold medal from the 2000 Summer Olympics should be handed down by Oct. 1, Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said on Thursday.
A joint panel from the agency and the International Olympic Committee is investigating allegations that Young, a member of the gold medal-winning men's 4x400 relay team, had tested positive for the steroid nadrolone in 1999, but was cleared by U.S. track officials and allowed to compete in Sydney.
After the allegations surfaced in the Los Angeles Times, Pound wrote to IOC President Jacques Rogge demanding a joint investigation. Pound said he was confident a decision will be rendered before the October 1 deadline for dealing with cases stemming from the Sydney Olympics.
"I have instructed our representatives to make sure that happens and I am certain that Jacques Rogge has instructed the IOC members to do the same thing, so I am confident that there will be something definitive before the deadline expires," Pound said during a conference call with reporters.
Young, 27, did not compete in the final in Sydney, but was awarded one of the six gold medals because he ran in an earlier round. Pound has indicated that if Young is found to have run afoul of doping regulations, his relay teammates could also lose their medals.
Deploring what he called the "cone of silence" surrounding the allegations, Pound said the U.S. governing body, USA Track & Field, had not explained why U.S. officials reversed an initial decision to disqualify Young despite his positive lab test for nadrolone.
"Covering it up and maintaining this conspiracy of silence is what adds fuel to the fire on this," Pound said.
Responding to suggestions that as a Canadian, he may be prejudiced against U.S. athletes, Pound said the anti-doping agency simply wants to find out what happened.
"If everything was done according to the rules, then that's the end of it," Pound said.
"If not, then what has happened is that there are a whole bunch of people out there wearing Olympic gold medals that they don't deserve."
Last year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and USA Track & Field agreed to independent arbitration after the U.S. body refused to release the names of five athletes who competed in Sydney despite failing dope tests. One of the cases involved a steroid.
