NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — A decade after finishing second to Marion Jones at the Sydney Games, Bahamas sprinter Pauline Davis-Thompson has finally received the Olympic gold stripped from the disgraced American.
Davis-Thompson dedicated the medal for the 200 meters at the 2000 Olympics to the people of her nation.
“To the people of the Bahamas, I hope I have made you proud,'' Davis-Thompson at a June 10 ceremony, during which she put the medal around the neck of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and asked him to look after it for the people of the Bahamas.
“Each time I went out there to compete I never represented myself, I represented the entire country, each and every one of you,” Davis-Thompson said.
Jones was stripped of her medals from the Sydney Olympics when she admitted in 2007 that she had been using steroids.
The International Olympic Committee reallocated the medal for the 200 meters in December 2009. That made Davis-Thompson a double gold medalist. She was also a member of the Bahamian 4×400 relay that won in Sydney.
Davis-Thompson, a 44-year-old council member of the International Association of Athletics Federations, received her gold medal from 1976 Olympic 400 and 800 champion Alberto Juantorena of Cuba at the Government House ceremony.
Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Charles Maynard presented her with a $10,000 check – the difference between the $30,000 silver medal prize and the $40,000 gold medal prize.
Photo: Pauline Davis-Thompson
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