I.O.C Reshuffles Medals

There once was a time, kids, when the only way to re-write the records books was through human achievement, those days seem such a long time ago as another disgraced athlete, Marion Jones, had her medals redistributed by the International Olympic Committee.

The International Olympic Committee redistributed the medals won by the disgraced sprinter Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics on Wednesday, but it refused to award her gold medal in the 100 meters to Katerina Thanou of Greece, who was barred from the 2004 Games because of a missed drug test.

Jones surrendered the medals when she admitted in 2007 to lying to federal investigators about performance-enhancing drug use. Normally, the other competitors are moved up in order when medals are surrendered, but Thanou's later drug-testing problems prompted the committee to leave the top spot in the 100 meters vacant. In record books, Thanou and Tanya Lawrence of Jamaica will be listed as silver medalists and Merlene Ottey of Jamaica, who finished fourth in the race, will retain the bronze.

Its become all too common for sports bodies and event organizers to white-out the books because of cheating, sometimes the decision to do so is years in the making and thus devaluing the hard work, effort and dedication of clean, drug-free athletes. While the scales of justice sometimes move slowly in real life and in sports to right the wrongdoing, eventually they get the results correct. Sadly, the memories of competition are etched in the minds of athletes and fans, however, those can never be returned as the moment has passed.

I.O.C. Redistributes Jones's Medals and Retires One [The New York Times]