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Saturday, September 23
Nott eventually gets her gold medal
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The first American gold medal in
weightlifting in 40 years arrived with little fanfare. There was no
"Star-Spangled Banner," no cheering throng -- not even the winning
athlete herself.
|  | | Tara Nott will accept a gold medal in weightlifting that will have gone through three ceremonies before getting to her. |
As a recording of a baroque trumpet concerto played over
loudspeakers in place of the American anthem, IOC vice president
Dick Pound handed a gold medal to U.S. delegation chief Sandy
Baldwin, who stood in for Tara Nott in a ceremony Friday at the
Olympic athletes' village.
Nott took the gold when the International Olympic Committee
decided earlier in the day to strip Bulgaria's Izabela Drangava of
the medal because of a positive drug test following the competition Saturday in the 105-pound women's weightlifting category.
The timing of the ceremony angered the American weightlifting
team because it occurred as Nott's teammate Cheryl Haworth was
competing in the 165-pound-plus competition, where she won a
bronze.
Nott and coach Michael Cohen said they were upset that Olympic
officials were inflexible.
"There was no way I was going to miss Cheryl winning our second
medal and none of the people supporting me would have been there to
see the ceremony," Nott told a news conference later.
"It all would have been jumping up on that first place stand by
myself in the village," said Nott, of Colorado Springs, Colo.
"I really, really appreciate it," said Haworth, a 17-year-old
high school senior from Savannah, Ga.
U.S. team officials said Baldwin would present the gold medal to
Nott in a ceremony Saturday. Nott said her parents had delayed a
visit to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to attend.
The 28-year-old Nott took up weightlifting only in 1994 after
being a high-level gymnast and soccer player. She said she was
happy to get any medal at all.
"When I came here I was thinking bronze," Nott said.
"Goodness! I never thought gold. ... To get the silver, I was
ecstatic."
The event at the little open-air theater was the second this
week, signaling the possible start of a tradition of awarding
medals stripped from drug violators in ceremonies at the athlete's
village.
In the past, there apparently was little fanfare when medals
from disqualified athletes were handed on to the eventual victors.
"I think it's very important," Pound told reporters. "I think
it's time that we publicly recognize the athletes who have been
cheated and to give them the honor in front of their peers here at
the village."
He said such ceremonies would continue.
"If we have to do it every day, if we find somebody who has
tested positive and who has cheated the results of the Olympic
Games, yes, we'll do it," he said.
Most of the Americans were at the weightlifting competition, so
a few dozen supporters of the Indonesian silver and bronze
medalists dominated the crowd.
Pound slipped the silver medal around the neck of Raema Lisa
Rumbewas and gave the bronze to Sri Indriyani shortly after the
flags of the United States and Indonesia were hastily raised on
small flagpoles.
He then gave the bronze medal in the 137-pound class to Gennady
Oleshchuk of Belarus.
"I am very happy because it was the right thing to do, to find
the truth about the medal," Rumbewas said through a translator.
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ALSO SEE
Finally: Nott has her golden moment
Teenager Haworth grabs a bronze medal
More Bulgarians test positive, leaving a gold for the U.S.
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