THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) faces the embarrassing prospect of handing Marion Jones’s 100m gold medal to a woman who brought shame to the 2004 Games.

As Jones won gold in Sydney in 2000, Ekaterini Thanou, of Greece, was second, a mere spectator to the power of the American’s triumph. But on the eve of the Athens opening ceremony four years later, the host country was plunged into controversy when its star sprinters – Thanou and defending men’s 200m champion Konstantinos Kenteris – failed to attend a drugs test in the Olympic village.

Their excuse was that they had been in a motorcycle accident, they needed hospital treatment and they were not available when the testers called. Days later, with serious doubts raised about their story, Thanou and Kenteris pulled out of the Games. It emerged that this missed test was the third time they had not been available that summer. Later the Greek authorities ruled that the accident had been stage-managed.

In December 2004 the pair were banned for two years by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) but Little Miss Moped returned to the sport last March at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham. She finished sixth in the final of the 60m and was booed when she was introduced to the crowd.

Yet the IOC may be left with no choice but to stick with its procedure in such cases and promote her from second place to first when it back-dates the results from 2000 if Jones has her five Olympic medals removed from the Games. She won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 400m relay and bronze medals in the long jump and 4 x 100m relay.

Awarding the 100m gold to Thanou would leave the IOC in an unhappy position, but if it decided not to, it would enter a legal nightmare. Thanou was not under suspicion in 2000, even though her doping violation in Athens became notorious, clouding her whole career.

She showed little remorse when she returned this year, winning on her comeback race at the Greek Indoor Championships and insisting: “I’m not happy or unhappy about my time. All I wanted was to be on the starting line again. I never stopped training, all I could think about was returning.”

But first the IOC will look at all the files from the US as it seeks to close a long-running investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (Balco) scandal, the source from which Jones allegedly received her illegal substance, tetrahydrogestrinone.

Jones pleaded guilty in New York on Friday to lying about her steroid use to US federal investigators. The IOC president, Jacques Rogge, said: “The only good that can be drawn from today’s revelations is that her decision to finally admit the truth will play, we hope, a key part in breaking the back of the Balco affair. The IOC has, since 2004, wanted to ascertain the extent to which the case has had an impact on the Olympic Games.

“Our disciplinary commission, which has been working on this file, will now glean what it can from her comments and work with the IAAF and the USOC [US Olympic Committee] on how to finally get to the bottom of this sorry case.”

IOC vice-president Thomas Bach believes that Jones’s revelation will bring its Balco investigation to a quicker conclusion: “With the admissions, the facts are quite clear. I think it can be finalised by the end of the year.” Prosecutors have indicated to Jones that she will face a maximum prison term of six months, even though the maximum sentence on each count is five years and a $250,000 fine.

Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said: “Any time a potential American hero admits to cheating US sports fans, people who watch Olympic Games, it’s bittersweet. Similarly, clean athletes who do it right, who do it ethically, who play by the rules, and honourably, have a sense of vindication.”

USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said: “As further recognition of her complicity in this matter, Ms Jones should immediately step forward and return the Olympic medals she won while competing in violation of the rules.”

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