Medal reallocation in action: Trinidad and Tobago get men’s 4x100m relay gold from Beijing 2008
The men’s 4x100m relay team from Trinidad and Tobago have finally received their gold medals from the Olympic Games Beijing 2008. The medals were awarded today at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Aaron Armstrong, Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Richard Thompson received them from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
Athletics
The ceremony was held in line with the Olympic Medal Reallocation Principles established in 2018 and follows the IOC Executive Board’s decision to reallocate the gold medal after the disqualification of the Jamaican team.
Thompson described the team’s emotions on receiving the medals: “I am very excited and relieved at the same time. This has been a long time coming. We should have originally won these medals 14 years ago, but the circumstances were beyond our control. We are happy that the IOC acted with immediacy and all the relevant bodies continued to do everything they could for the integrity of the sport and the Olympics in general.”
He explained how special it was to have the ceremony at The Olympic Museum: “When you see some of the names that are on the wall here, like Jesse Owens, Michael Phelps, Michael Johnson, Roger Federer – they are greats, they go beyond just sport, they have the ability to reach people from all walks of life and different parts of the globe. So, it is a huge honour for us to be here to donate items of ours as well from the final, and to have a space alongside these people.”