While the Olympic torch route is currently being inundated with protests and political jargon, an Olympic blunder from the past is adding to the turmoil surrounding the summer games.
The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that it's decided to disqualify and strip the gold and bronze medals from the teammates who raced with Marion Jones at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 1,600-meter and 400-meter relays.
Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in October and is currently serving a six-month prison sentence for lying about being juiced and for her involvement in a check fraud scam.
But now her teammates are feeling the repercussions of Jones' misjudgment.
The athletes have said they shouldn't be punished for Jones' violation, and their case could result in an appearance in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Despite how unpopular the decision may be, the questions swirling around what the outcome of the races would have been with a clean Jones merit the disqualification.
It's not a fair verdict, and it's a shame that others have to suffer for Jones' mistake, but perhaps this is the type of message that has to be sent to start eradicating the doping tendencies of the sports world.
