March 15 - The United States should be stripped of the gold medal it won in the 4x400 metres at the 2004 Olympics after one of its squad, Crystal Cox (pictured), was banned after it emerged she was taking banned performance-enhancing at the time, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said today.


If the case is upheld, it could be the second consecutive Olympics that the US have been stripped of the title in the event because of drugs and would see Britain's squad upgraded to the bronze medals.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) earlier this year claimed Cox had admitted to using anabolic steroids given to by the Bay Area Labratory Co-Operative (Balco) and accepted a four-year suspension and disqualification of her results from 2001 to 2004.

If the US is stripped of its medal, Russia would move from silver to gold and Jamaica from bronze to silver.

Sanya Richards, Dee Dee Trotter, Monique Henderson and Monique Hennegan ran in the Athens final.

Moushaumi Robinson joined Cox in the qualifying heat.

Under IAAF rules, an entire relay team can be disqualified because of the doping of one member, even though they may not run in the final.

Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president, is heading a three-man panel into the case.

Past panel decisions have resulted in the IOC stripping national relay teams of medals retroactively - including three US teams from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The IAAF deals with official results and placings at the Olympics but had no specific rule in place in 2000 for dealing with a relay team in the event of doping by a single member.

However, at the Athens Games four years later the IAAF had a rule specifying that the entire team should be disqualified and lose medals.

"It was always going to be clear to us," said spokesman Nick Davies after the ruling IAAF Council had discussed the matter at its meeting in Doha today.

"The rule was in effect in 2004."

The IOC and IAAF are still waiting for the results of an appeals case involving US women's relay runners from the 2000 Games.

The US was stripped of the gold medal in the 4x400m relay and bronze in the 4x100m relay following Marion Jones' admission of doping.

Jones returned her medals, but her teammates appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in an attempt to keep theirs.

CAS is due to rule on the case this year.

The IOC also stripped the US men's 4x400 relay team of their Sydney gold after Antonio Pettigrew admitted doping.

The IAAF also rejected a request from Justin Gatlin for an early return to competition following his four-year doping ban.

Gatlin wanted to return early in the outdoor season because of "substantial assistance" to the IAAF in dealing with doping.

"It was rejected, I can confirm that," Davies said.


Related stories
February 2009: Exclusive - Blackmun promises US will do right thing over drug-tainted Athens medal
February 2010: IOC disciplinary panel could give Britain Olympic medal from Athens 2004
January 2010: Exclusive - Fraser dreaming of elusive Olympic medal after latest US drugs revelations