MADRID, SPAIN (AP) — Future record books may show there was no winner of the women's 100 meters at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

IOC officials said Thursday they are considering the unprecedented step of leaving the gold-medal spot vacant following Marion Jones' confession that she used performance-enhancing drugs.

"That could be a solution," said IOC board member Denis Oswald, a member of the three-man disciplinary commission dealing with the Jones case.

Although the original second-place finisher normally would be upgraded to the gold, the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to give the medal to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou because she was caught up in a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Games.

"In a way, it's logical and consistent that we should just move her up, but there is another feeling," Oswald said in an interview during a break in the world anti-doping conference. "We'll see how insistent she (Thanou) is. The best way would be not to do anything and just leave it as it is and there is no gold."

IOC president Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press no final decision had been made but that "anything was possible," including leaving the result blank.

Last week, Rogge said the IOC only would upgrade athletes who were determined to be "clean."

Jones won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 and the 1,600-meter relay in Sydney, as well as bronzes in the 400 relay and long jump. After acknowledging last month that she started doping before those Olympics, Jones returned all five medals to the IOC.

Thanou and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris set off a major scandal at the Athens Games when they failed to show for drug tests on the eve of the opening ceremony and said they were injured in a motorcycle accident. They eventually withdrew from the games and later were suspended for two years.

Oswald, a Swiss lawyer, said Thanou's situation presented tricky legal and moral issues.