LONDON -- U.S. officials have failed to explain why Jerome Young was cleared to compete at the 2000 Olympics after flunking a drug test the year before, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Monday.

The International Olympic Committee is investigating whether Young and the rest of the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team should be stripped of the gold medal because of his positive test for steroids.

"I'm disappointed," Rogge said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We do not have the full information and data. This is a sad story."

The U.S. Olympic Committee notified the IOC executive board in September that Young tested positive for nandrolone in 1999 but was cleared on appeal -- in a secret process -- by USA Track & Field.

Young went on to win a gold medal in Sydney as part of the relay team, which was anchored by Michael Johnson in the final. He has said he never committed a doping offense.

Under international rules, a confirmed steroid offense is punishable by a minimum two-year ban. Such a penalty would have ruled Young out of the Sydney Games.

USATF spokeswoman Jill Geer declined comment, referring queries to the USOC. Messages left for USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel were not immediately returned Monday.

The IOC opened disciplinary proceedings on Sept. 30 to try to find out the reasons for Young's exoneration and consider "all possible consequences," including removal of the medals.

USATF has repeatedly declined to provide the requested information, citing confidentiality rules in place at the time. USATF also says it is bound by an arbitration court ruling upholding its decision to maintain secrecy on doping acquittals.

"What we do not know is whether the exoneration was valid, that is the whole key," Rogge said. "We don't have any document on that. They are saying he's been exonerated. We are saying, `Prove it and tell us why he was exonerated.'

"If there is a good reason to exonerate him, that's the end of the case. We say, 'fine, no problem.' "

Thomas Bach and Dennis Oswald, two senior IOC members and lawyers investigating the Young case, will present an interim report at IOC executive board meetings Thursday and Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rogge said the board will consider what action to take if USATF doesn't cooperate.

The board will also review the report submitted in September by the USOC detailing its drug-testing program from 1985-2000 in a bid to dispel long-standing international suspicions of U.S. doping cover-ups.

On another doping issue, Rogge said the executive board is likely to authorize the retesting of hundreds of samples from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to check for THG, a previously undetectable steroid.

Rogge said the IOC was considering the legal issues, as well as the state of the frozen samples.

"I expect that to be OK," he said. "If that's the case, we'll retest."