Crystal Cox

American track and field athlete

Crystal Cox
Personal information
Birth name	Crystal Shinelle Cox^[1]
Born	(1979-03-28) March 28, 1979 (age 45) Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.

Crystal Shinelle Cox (born March 28, 1979, in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American track and field athlete who was on the national team at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and appeared as a contestant on the seventeenth season of the reality series Survivor.

Career

Cox won a gold medal in the women's 4x400 m relay at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. She was later stripped of the gold in 2012 after she admitted to doping.^[2] In Athens she ran in the preliminary round but not in the final. DeeDee Trotter, Monique Henderson, Sanya Richards and Monique Hennagan ran in the final. In 2004, she was the American indoor 200 m champion.

On January 29, 2010, the Associated Press and ESPN.com reported that Cox admitted to using anabolic steroids from 2001 to 2004. As a result, she forfeited all of her results from that time period, and agreed to a four-year suspension that ended in January 2014.^[3] The IAAF has recommended that the whole U.S. women's 2004 Olympic 4x400 metres relay team be stripped of their medals.^[4] In 2013, both the IAAF and the IOC announced that the American squad (except Cox) would be allowed to retain their gold medals.^[5]

Survivor

Cox was one of the contestants in Survivor: Gabon, which premiered in Fall 2008.^[6] Despite her Olympic training, Cox lost 11 of the 13 tribal challenges, though she made it to the final six. Her main alliance consisted of Kenny Hoang, Jessica "Sugar" Kiper, Susie Smith, and Matty Whitmore. On the December 11, 2008, episode, Cox was voted out and became the fifth member of the jury.

References

^ "Crystal Shinelle Cox". Ancestry Institute. Ancestry. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
^ "American sprinter Crystal Cox stripped of 2004 Olympic Gold Medal in 4X400 relay".
^ "Relay team member suspended 4 years". ESPN.com. Associated Press. January 29, 2010. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
^ Cherry, Gene (March 15, 2010). "IAAF to recommend US relay team be stripped of gold". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
^ "USA allowed to keep Athens 2004 relay gold". BBC Sport. May 31, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
^ "Crystal Cox bio". CBS.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved August 27, 2008.

External links

Crystal Cox at World Athletics
Crystal Cox Archived April 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at Trackandfield.com
Crystal Cox biography for Survivor: Gabon at CBS.com
American sprinter Crystal Cox stripped of 2004 Olympic Gold Medal in 4X400 relay at nj.com