The Marion Jones Scandal

ones gave back the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics yesterday and agreed to forfeit all other results dating back to Sept. 1, 2000, further punishment for her admission that she was a drug cheat.

The three gold medals and two bronzes were turned over to U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials at her attorneys' office in Austin, Texas. They are en route to USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, and the USOC will return them to the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to strip medals and nullify results. In Jones' case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600 relay and bronze in the long jump and 400 relay.

The standings normally would be readjusted, with the second-place finisher moving up to gold, third to silver and fourth to bronze.

Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas was the silver medalist in the 200 meters, and Tatiana Kotova of Russia was fourth in the long jump. The silver medalist in the 100 meters in Sydney was Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, at the center of a major doping scandal at the Athens Olympics.

Jones stands to lose more than her Olympic medals, too. The International Association of Athletics Federations can strip athletes of results and medals after notification of a doping violation, and it said last week it was waiting to hear from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Jones won a gold (100 meters) and bronze (long jump) at the 1999 worlds in Seville, Spain, and two gold (200 and 400 relay) and a silver (100) at the 2001 championships in Edmonton.

IAAF rules also allow for athletes busted for doping to be asked to pay back prize money and appearance fees. British sprinter Dwain Chambers, who admitted using the clear, had to pay back a reported $230,615 before he was allowed to return to competition after a two-year ban.

It's unclear whether this would be applied to Jones, who would have earned millions in prizes, bonuses and fees from meets all over the world, including a share of the $1 million Golden League jackpot in 2001 and 2002.

Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones was released Friday from federal prison after completing most of her six-month sentence for lying about her steroid use.

Jones left a halfway house in San Antonio around 8 a.m., said LaTanya Robinson, a community corrections manager for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Jones, who has a house in Austin, will remain on probation.

Jones’ attorney did not immediately respond to a call or e-mail from The Associated Press requesting comment.

The sprinter admitted last October that she used a designer steroid known as “the clear” from September 2000 to July 2001. The drug was linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab that became the center of a steroids scandal that touched numerous professional athletes, including baseball star Barry Bonds.

Her admission of drug use in 2007 came after years of denials.