Jones was banned for two years by the IAAF

The International Olympic Committee has formally stripped Marion Jones's relay team-mates of their medals from the Sydney Olympics eight years ago.

Jones won 4x100m bronze and 4x400m gold in 2000 but had already lost her individual medals after admitting she took steroids before the Games.

IOC legal adviser Francois Carrard says the US Olympic Committee has been ordered to return the medals.

But her team-mates may take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The 4x400 relay squad included Jearl-Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson.

The sprint relay team comprised Jones with Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson.

The athletes had previously argued that it would be unfair to punish them for Jones's violations.

606: DEBATE I really can't see the point of taking back medals and retrospectively changing the results SP

But IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies explained: "The decision was based on the fact that they were part of a team, that Marion Jones was disqualified from the Sydney Games due to her own admission that she was doping during those games.

"She was part of a team and she competed with them in the finals."

The IOC has delayed the reallocation of the medals, however, while it determines whether any other athletes from the Games were caught up in the Balco scandal which led to Jones's downfall.

Balco boss Victor Conte distributed performance-enhancing steroid THG to sports stars including Jones, Dwain Chambers and Kelli White.

Jones is serving a six-month jail sentence for lying about steroid use to federal investigators and has retired from the sport.

The American had been the first woman to claim five medals in an Olympics when she won three golds and two bronzes in Sydney.