United States Olympic Committee announce its men's relay have been disqualified from the 4x100-metre race at London 2012 Olympic Games
The entire United States men’s 4 x 100 metres team have been stripped of their silver medals from the London 2012 Olympics due to Tyson Gay’s drugs ban, it was announced on Wednesday night.
Gay, a double world champion and the second fastest 100m runner of all time, served a one-year ban after testing positive for an anabolic steroid in June 2013. He had already returned his London 2012 medal when the suspension was announced last May, but the International Olympic Committee has now ordered the entire team to be stripped of their medals.
Justin Gatlin, who has also twice tested positive for drugs during his career, Trell Kimmons and Ryan Bailey will now be forced to return the silver medals they won in London, as well as Jeffery Demps and Darvis Patton, who ran in the heats.
“As expected, following Usada’s [US Anti-Doping Agency] decision in the Tyson Gay case, the IOC today confirmed that the US team has been disqualified from the 4 x 100m race,” said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky. “We will begin efforts to have the medals returned, and support all measures to protect clean athletes.”
All of Gay’s results from July 2012 – the month before the London Games – had been annulled as a result of his ban and a USA Track and Field spokesman said the decision to strip the entire team of the medals was no surprise.
The US team set a national record time of 37.04 sec in the final, finishing behind Jamaica, who broke the world record anchored by Usain Bolt.
If the relay medals are reallocated Trinidad and Tobago would be upgraded from bronze to silver, while France would take their bronze medals.
While the IOC has varied in the past on stripping medals from relay squads, the IAAF rule in place for London 2012 stated that all relay members would lose their medals if there was a doping violation.
Gay was given a reduced ban for co-operating with Usada – a decision that Bolt last month labelled “the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard”.
He said: “I was really upset about that. He got a year just because he talked to the authorities about how it was done and who helped him. That sends the wrong message: ‘If you do it and get caught, just tell us all you know and we’ll lower your ban.’ It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. The message should be: ‘If you cheat you’re going to be kicked out of the sport.’