The Olympic Games have not even started yet, and the U.S. is already being stripped of a gold medal for doping. Today, the International Olympic Committee stripped gold medals from the U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Olympics thanks to Antonio Pettigrew’s admission that he was doping at the time.

Pettigrew, who admitted in court in May that he used EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003, along with teammates Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison who ran in the final along with Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor who ran in the preliminaries were all stripped of their gold medals. FOX NEWS.COM reports, this is “the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.”

Johnson, the world record holder in 200m and 400m and probably the only member of this team who didn’t need to sell his gold medal for a sandwich or HGH, “already said he was giving it back because he felt ‘cheated, betrayed and let down’ by Pettigrew’s testimony.

Actually, Johnson and Taylor were the only members of the team to not have admitted to using illegal performance enhancers.  Alvin Harrison accepted a four-year ban in 2004 after admitting he used performance-enhancers. Calvin Harrison tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2003 and was suspended for two years. Young was banned for life for doping violations.

For those of you keeping score at home, the U.S. medal count is currently at negative one. Let’s just hope the tests of our athletes come back negative so we can actually keep a few of our medals this year.