GROSSETO, Italy -- Track and field's governing body recommended Sunday that the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team, led by Michael Johnson, be stripped of its gold medal from the Sydney Olympics as part of the Jerome Young doping case.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to endorse the recommendation by the International Association of Athletics Federations, probably before next month's Athens Olympics.
"The IOC told us that 'We follow your decision,"' IAAF president Lamine Diack said.
USA Track & Field said it "regrets" the decision and will "continue to work through all appropriate channels on behalf of the affected athletes."
The recommendation came 2 1/2 weeks after the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Young, the 400 world champion who ran in the relay's opening and semifinal rounds, should be stripped of his gold because of a positive doping test for the steroid nandrolone on June 26, 1999.
Young, who has denied taking a prohibited substance, was exonerated by a USATF doping appeals board on July 10, 2000.
USATF officials had said confidentiality rules blocked them from releasing information about the Young case before this year. But some international sports officials accused the USATF of protecting drug cheats.
IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai said after Sunday's ruling that if USATF had "informed the IAAF about the decision that exonerated Jerome Young in accordance with IAAF rules, the situation would have never arisen."
The gold was the fifth and final for Johnson, who ran the anchor leg in the relay final. Other members of the team were twin brothers Alvin and Calvin Harrison, Antonio Pettigrew and Angelo Taylor.
They will be invited to present their case to the IOC at a hearing, in person or in writing. If the IOC sticks to the IAAF's recommendation, Nigeria would be upgraded to gold, Jamaica to silver and the Bahamas to bronze.
The last American to have an Olympic gold medal taken away for a similar offense was swimmer Rick DeMont in 1972. Demont, then 16, finished first in the 400 freestyle. He tested positive for a banned substance in his asthma medication.
Jim Thorpe was stripped of his medals in 1912, when it was revealed he earned $25 a week playing minor league baseball. The IOC lifted the ban on Thorpe in 1982 and returned his gold medals for the pentathlon and decathlon to his children.
More than a half dozen Americans are under doping suspicion with the Olympics less than a month away. Four, including 100 world record-holder Tim Montgomery and Alvin Harrison, face possible lifetime bans after being accused by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of offenses. All four have denied the charges, and all failed to make the U.S. Olympic team.
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