Lausanne, Switzerland (World Wide Gamble) - The teammates of disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones won their appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will retain their medals won at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Jones had her medals from the Sydney Olympics stripped by the International Olympic Committee in December of 2007 after finally coming clean about past steroid use. The IOC, in April of 2008, then decided to take away the relay medals won by Jones' teammates in the 4x100-meter and the 4x400-meter races.

Andrea Anderson, LaTasha Colander-Clark, Jearl Miles-Clark, Torri Edwards, Chryste Gaines, Monique Hennagan and Passion Richardson had claimed that Jones' penalties should not be applied to them.

The athletes asked the CAS to declare that the IOC was prevented (time-barred) from withdrawing their medals on the basis of Rule 25.2.2.4 of the Olympic Charter in force in 2000, according to which "no decision taken in the context of the Olympic Games can be challenged after a period of three years from the day of the closing ceremony of such Games."

Since the IOC took initial action against Jones in December of 2007, it marked seven years after the Sydney Games.

The initial ruling went against the athletes because the distribution of medals, which occurs immediately after the race, is not in itself a "decision."

In the winning their appeal, however, it was ruled there "was no express IOC or IAAF Rule in force that clearly allowed the IOC to annul the relay team results if one team member was found to have committed a doping offence."

Miles-Clark, Hennagan, Colander-Clark and Anderson were part of the squad that won gold in the 4x400 relay, while Gaines, Edwards, Perry and Richardson are allowed to keep their 4x100 bronze medals.