IOC to probe Montgomery's Sydney Games drugs claim

The IOC will investigate an admission by jailed US sprinter Tim Montgomery that he used drugs before winning a gold medal with the 4x100 metres relay team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Montgomery, 33, who has been sentenced to almost nine years in jail on heroin and cheque fraud charges, made the confession in an interview for the HBO television "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" scheduled to be broadcast today.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said the IOC would look into the matter as part of its open file on the BALCO case.

"Back in 2004, the IOC set up a disciplinary commission with a view to investigating how the case might have affected Olympic Games' competitions," she said.

Montgomery, a former world 100 metres record holder, was banned for two years for taking drugs supplied by the San Francisco laboratory BALCO. His former partner Marion Jones was stripped of her five Sydney Games medals and jailed for lying to investigators.

Moreau said the IOC also backed the US Olympic Committee's call for Montgomery's medal to be returned voluntarily.

Montgomery said he had used banned substances several times before the 2000 Games race.

"Prior to the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia I broke the rules," said Montgomery in a transcript provided by HBO. "I have a gold medal I'm sitting on that I didn't get with my own ability."

Brazil were second and Cuba third in the Sydney relay.

In 2002, Montgomery set a 100 metres world record of 9.78 seconds that was later erased after the US anti-doping agency found he had received steroids. He was barred from competition in 2005.

The IOC has already forced the US men's 4x400 relay team who took Sydney gold give up their medals after Antonio Pettigrew, one of the relay members, admitted to doping earlier this year.

The medal-winning relay teams in Sydney, which included Jones had their results wiped out after she admitted to doping violations.

The IOC has yet to re-allocate any of the stripped medals involving US sprinters and relay teams as the investigation in the BALCO affair continues.