Americans Who Lost To Dopers Won’t Get Medals

Beyond I-told-you-so satisfaction, China’s longtime swimming critics aren’t likely to get what they want: the Chinese booted out of the sport and their past global medals stripped.

International Olympic Committee and swimming federation officials say a team ban would punish the innocent with the guilty. And the IOC will soon pass a rule that any protests of Olympic results must be made prior to the following Games.

That’s a blow to the Americans, who have been pushing to get a medal for any U.S. swimmer who was beaten by a doped East German in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“It is not our policy to rewrite history,” says IOC director general Francois Carrard.

One thing seems certain, though: Beijing has no chance at hosting an Olympics as long as there’s a drug cloud over the country.

“I think they would be in trouble,” IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch conceded last week.