Marion Jones

For the American tennis player, see Marion Jones (tennis).

Marion Jones

File:M Jones crop.jpg Jones in 2004
Personal information
Born	(1975-10-12) October 12, 1975 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	100 meters, 200 meters, long jump
Medal record Women's athletics Representing United States Olympic Games Disqualified 2000 Sydney 100 m Disqualified 2000 Sydney 200 m Disqualified 2000 Sydney 4x400 m relay Disqualified 2000 Sydney 4x100 m relay Disqualified 2000 Sydney Long jump World Championships 1997 Athens 100 m 1997 Athens 4x100 m relay 1999 Seville 100 m 1999 Seville Long jump Disqualified 2001 Edmonton 100 m Disqualified 2001 Edmonton 200 m Disqualified 2001 Edmonton 4x100m relay Continental Cup 1998 Johannesburg 100 m 1998 Johannesburg 200 m Goodwill Games 1998 Uniondale 100 m 1998 Uniondale 200 m Disqualified 2001 Brisbane 100 m

Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and a former professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA. She won 3 gold medals and 2 bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but was later stripped of the titles after admitting to steroid use.

Jones did retain her 3 Gold Medals as a World Champion from 1997 and 1999.

At the time of her admission and subsequent guilty plea, Marion Jones was one of the most famous athletes to be linked to the BALCO scandal. The case against BALCO covered more than 20 top level athletes including Jones' ex-husband shot putter C.J. Hunter and 100 m sprinter Tim Montgomery, the father of Jones' first child.

Personal life

Jones was born to African-American George Jones and his Belizean wife, Marion, in Los Angeles, California. She holds dual citizenship with the United States and Belize (her mother's home country). Her parents split when she was very young, and Jones' mother remarried a retired postal worker, Ira Toler, three years later. Toler became a stay-at-home dad to Jones and her older half-brother, Albert Kelly, until his sudden death in 1987. Jones turned to sports (running, pickup basketball games, and anything else her brother Albert was doing athletically) as an outlet for her grief, and by the age of 15 she was routinely dominating California high school athletics both on the tracks and the basketball courts.

Jones is a 1997 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there, she met and began dating one of the track coaches, shot putter C.J. Hunter. Hunter voluntarily resigned his position at UNC to comply with the requirements of university rules prohibiting coach/athlete dating. Jones and Hunter were married October 3, 1998, and trained for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.

In the run-up to the 2000 Olympics, all eyes were on Marion Jones, who had announced at a press conference during her pre-Olympic book-signing tour that she intended to win gold medals in all five of her competition events at Sydney. Lost in the hoopla and the publicity was a low-key announcement that Jones' husband C.J. Hunter had quietly withdrawn from the Shot Put competition due to a knee injury, though he was allowed to keep his coaching credentials and attend the games to support his wife. However, just hours after Marion Jones won her first of the planned five golds, the IOC announced that Hunter had failed no fewer than four pre-Olympic drug tests, testing positive each time for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. Hunter was immediately suspended from taking any role at the Sydney games, and he was ordered to surrender his on-field coaching credentials. At a press conference where Hunter broke down in tears as a subdued Marion Jones sat by his side, Hunter denied taking any performance-enhancing drugs at all, much less the easily detected nandrolone (which showed up in all four tests in amounts over 1000 times normal levels); Victor Conte of BALCO, who was regularly supplying "nutritional supplements" to Graham's athletes, blamed the test results on "an iron supplement" that contained nandrolone precursors and tied previous positive nandrolone tests from Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey and British sprinter Linford Christie to the same supplement. As late as 2004, Hunter was still denying the charges and was attempting to gain access to the results to see if they could be analyzed further. Jones would later write in her autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane, that Hunter's positive drug tests hurt their marriage and her image as a drug-free athlete. The couple divorced in 2002.

On June 28, 2003, Jones gave birth to a son (Tim Montgomery Jr.) with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery, a world class sprinter himself. Because of her pregnancy, Jones missed the 2003 World Championships but spent a year preparing for the 2004 Olympics. Montgomery, who did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic Track and Field team due to poor performance, was charged by USADA, as part of the investigation into the BALCO doping scandal, with receiving and using banned performance-enhancing drugs and sought a four-year suspension for Montgomery. Montgomery fought the ban but lost the appeal on December 13, 2005, receiving a two-year ban from track and field competition; the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) also stripped Montgomery of all race results, records, medals, etc., from March 31, 2001 onward. Montgomery later announced his retirement. The investigation into Montgomery's illegal substance use once more called into question Marion Jones's own protests about not using steroids and never having been tested positive for steroids, especially in light of former trainer Trevor Graham's increasingly visible role in the BALCO case.

On February 24, 2007, Marion Jones married Barbadian sprinter and 2000 Olympic medalist (bronze, 100 m sprint) Obadele Thompson. Their first child together was born in July 2007. She gave birth to daughter Eva-Marie on June 28, 2009.

Sports career

Track and field

In high school, Jones won the CIF California State Meet in the 100 m sprint four years in a row, representing Rio Mesa the first two years and Thousand Oaks high school the last two. She was successfully defended by attorney Johnnie Cochran on charges of doping during her high school track career. She was selected the Gatorade Player of the Year for track and field three years in a row, once at Rio Mesa and twice at Thousand Oaks. Angela Burnham preceded her with the award at Rio Mesa, Kim Mortensen followed her with the award at Thousand Oaks. Those schools joined Jesuit High School (Sacramento) and Long Beach Polytechnic High School in having two athletes win the award. She was Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1991 and 1992. She was the third female athlete to achieve the title twice, immediately following Angela Burnham at Rio Mesa High School, who was the second to achieve the title twice.

She was invited to participate in the 1992 Olympic trials, and, after her showing in the 200 meters finals, would have made the team as an alternate in the 4×100 meters relay, but she declined the invitation. After winning further statewide sprint titles, she accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina in basketball, where she helped the team win the NCAA championship in her freshman year. Jones "red shirted" her 1996 basketball season to concentrate on track. After Jones lost her spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury.

File:Tgalindo-100sevilla99.jpg

Marion Jones (far left) during the 1999 World Championships

She excelled at her first major international competition, winning the 100 m sprint at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, while finishing 10th in the long jump. At the 1999 World Championships, Jones attempted to win four titles, but injured herself in the 200 m after a gold in the 100 m and a long jump bronze.

At the Sydney Olympics Jones finished with three gold medals (100 metre sprint, 200 metre sprint and 4x400 relay) and two bronze medals (long jump and 4x100 relay). However, she was later stripped of these medals after admitting that she had used performance-enhancing drugs. Her ex-husband Hunter, an Olympic shot-putter and confessed steroid user, testified under oath that he had seen her inject drugs into her stomach in the Olympic Village in Sydney, which implicated baseball player Barry Bonds, sprinters Tim Montgomery, Chryste Gaines, Kelli White, and others, many of whom admitted to using illegal drugs while competing. Jones vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs until her confession in 2007.

A dominant force in women's sprinting, Jones was upset in the 100 m sprint at the 2001 World Championships, as Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block beat her for her first loss in the event in six years; Pintusevich-Block was one of the names revealed by Victor Conte during the BALCO scandals. Jones, however, did claim the gold in both the 200 m and 4x100 m relay.

On her 2004 Olympics experience, Jones said "It's extremely disappointing, words can't put it into perspective." She came in fifth in the Long Jump and competed in the women's 4x100 m relay where they swept past the competition in the preliminaries only to miss a baton pass in the final race. Jones promised that her latest defeat would not be the end of her Olympic efforts, and reasserted in May 2005 that winning a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics remained her "ultimate goal."

May 2006 saw Jones run 11.06 at altitude but into a headwind in her season debut and beat Veronica Campbell and Lauryn Williams in subsequent 100 m events. By July 8, 2006, Jones appeared to be in top form; she won the 100 m sprint at Gaz de France with a time of 10.93 seconds. It was her fastest time in almost four years. Three days later, Jones once more improved on her seasonal best time at the Rome IIAF Golden League (10.91 seconds), but lost to Jamaica's Sherone Simpson, who clocked 10.87.

Personal bests

Date	Event	Venue	Performance
September 12, 1998	100 m	Johannesburg, South Africa	10.65A
August 22, 1999	100 m	Seville, Spain	10.70
September 11, 1998	200 m	Johannesburg, South Africa	21.62A
August 13, 1997	200 m	Zürich, Switzerland	21.76
April 22, 2001	300 m	Walnut, California	35.68
April 16, 2000	400 m	Walnut, California	49.59
May 31, 1998	Long Jump	Eugene, Oregon	7.31 (23' 11¾")

Individual achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing the United States
1992	World Junior Championships	Seoul, South Korea	5th	100m	11.58 (wind: +0.3m/s)
			7th	200m	24.09 (wind: +0.3m/s)
			2nd	4×100m relay	44.51
1997	IAAF World Championships	Athens, Greece	1st	100 m	10.83
			10th	Long Jump	6.63 m
1998	IAAF World Cup	Johannesburg, South Africa	1st	100 m	10.65A
			1st	200 m	21.62A
			2nd	Long Jump	7.00A (22' 11¾")
1999	IAAF World Championships	Sevilla, Spain	1st	100 m	10.70
			3rd	Long Jump	6.83 (22 ft 5 in)
2000	2000 Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	dq	100 m	10.75
			dq	200 m	21.84
			dq	Long Jump	6.92 (22' 8½")
2001	IAAF World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	dq	100 m	10.85
			dq	200 m	22.39
2002	IAAF World Cup	Madrid, Spain	dq	100 m	10.90

• The IOC and IAAF stripped Jones of all medals, points and results received after September 1, 2000, after Jones admitted to using steroids prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics.

WNBA

Marion Jones

Personal information
Born	(1975-10-12) October 12, 1975 Los Angeles, California
Listed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight	150 lb (68 kg)
Career information
High school	Thousand Oaks (Thousand Oaks, California)
College	North Carolina (1993–1997)
WNBA draft	2003 / Round: 3 / Pick: 33rd overall
Selected by the Phoenix Mercury
Playing career	2010–2011
Position	Point guard
Number	20
Career history
2010–2011	Tulsa Shock

In November 2009, it was reported that Jones was working out for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA. She had previously played basketball while in college at the University of North Carolina, playing on the team that won a national championship in 1994. Her number 20 jersey had been honored by the school and hangs in Carmichael Auditorium. She had previously been selected in the 3rd round of the 2003 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury. On March 10, 2010, the Tulsa Shock announced that Jones had signed to play with the team, making the professional minimum (about $35,000) in her first season. Jones made her debut on May 15 when the Tulsa Shock played their inaugural game at the BOK Center against the Minnesota Lynx. In 47 WNBA contests, Jones averaged 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.

Jones was waived by the Shock on July 21, 2011.

Top Speed film

Marion Jones was showcased in the 2003 film Top Speed. Directed by Greg MacGillivray and shot in IMAX format, it covers details from races to any mistakes she has made within her performances, Marion is profiled amongst other speed specialists including racing driver Lucas Luhr, mountain biker Marla Streb, and Stephen Murkett, one of the designers of the Porsche Cayenne.

Use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs

Throughout her entire athletic career—even in high school—Marion Jones had been accused, either outright or by implication, of taking performance-enhancing drugs, a common allegation surrounding athletes involved in the sports under the "Track and Field" umbrella. Until 2007, Jones routinely denied—in almost every way possible and in almost any venue where the question arose—ever being involved with performance enhancers in any way, shape, or form. One of Jones's frequent statements in her own defense was that she had never tested positive for performance-enhancing substances; in her autobiography, she blamed the 2002 breakup of her marriage to C.J. Hunter in part on the fact that Hunter had tested positive for steroids four times before the 2000 Olympics, tainting her own drug-free image. However, the rumors and accusations that started when Jones missed a random drug test in high school in the early 1990s (Jones claimed she never received the letter notifying her of the required test; attorney Johnnie Cochran successfully got the four-year ban from track and field competition, the penalty for missing a random drug test, overturned) continued to follow her through two Olympiads and several championship meets. Soon, a pattern of Jones choosing to train with both coaches and athletes who were also being dogged by rumors and accusations of performance-enhancing drugs began to emerge.

The BALCO investigation

Jones running at the 2006 Meeting Gaz de France in Paris

On December 3, 2004, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, appeared in an interview with Martin Bashir on ABC's 20/20. In the interview, Conte told a national audience that he had personally given Jones five different illegal performance-enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In the course of investigative research, San Francisco based reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported Jones had received banned drugs from BALCO, citing documentary evidence and testimony from Jones's ex-husband C.J. Hunter, who claims to have seen Jones inject herself in the stomach with the steroids.

According to Hunter's 2004 testimony before a federal grand jury, Jones' use of banned drugs began well before Sydney. Hunter told the investigators that Jones first obtained EPO (Erythropoietin) from Graham, who Hunter said had a Mexican connection for the drug. Later, Hunter said, Graham met Conte, who began providing the coach with BALCO "nutritional supplements", which were actually an experimental class of "designer" steroids said to be undetectable by any drug screening procedures available at the time. Graham then distributed the performance enhancers to Jones and other Sprint Capitol athletes. Still later, Hunter told federal agents, Jones began receiving drugs directly from Conte.

Jones had never failed a drug test using the then-existing testing procedures, and insufficient evidence was found to bring charges regarding other untested performance-enhancing drugs.

2006 EPO tests

The Washington Post, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of drug results from the USA Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, IN, reported that on June 23, 2006, an "A" sample of Marion Jones' urine tested positive for Erythropoietin (EPO), a banned performance enhancer. Jones withdrew from the Weltklasse Golden League meet in Switzerland, citing "personal reasons", and once more denied using performance-enhancing drugs. She retained lawyer Howard Jacobs, who has represented many athletes in doping cases, including Tim Montgomery and cyclist Floyd Landis. On September 6, 2006, Jones' lawyers announced that her "B" sample had tested negative, which cleared her from the doping allegations.

Admission of lying during BALCO investigation

On October 5, 2007, Jones admitted to lying to federal agents under oath about her use of steroids prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics and pleaded guilty at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (in White Plains). She confessed to Judge Kenneth Karas that she had made false statements regarding the BALCO case and a check-fraud case. She was released on her own recognizance but was required to surrender both her US and Belizean passports, pending sentencing in January. Although a maximum sentence of five years could be imposed, the prosecution recommended no more than six months as part of Jones' plea bargain.

After her admission, Jones held a press conference, where she finally publicly admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, to various sports agencies, and to two grand juries. One was impaneled to investigate the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) "designer steroid" ring, and the other was impaneled to investigate a check fraud ring involving many of the same parties from the BALCO case. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition issued by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and announced her retirement from track and field on October 5, 2007. She broke down in tears during the press conference as she tearfully apologized, saying "...with a great amount of shame...I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust...and you have the right to be angry with me... I have let my country down and I have let myself down."

The US Anti-Doping Agency stated that their sanction "also requires disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes". On October 5, 2007, Jones formally pled guilty to lying to federal agents in the BALCO steroid investigation in the US District Court. On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008, and was released on September 5, 2008.

In the BALCO case, she had denied to federal agents her use of the steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone, known as "The Clear", or "THG", from 1999, but claimed she was given the impression she was taking a flaxseed oil supplement for two years while coach Trevor Graham supplied her with the substance. In a published letter, Jones said she had used steroids until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when federal agents questioned her in 2003 because she panicked when they presented her with a sample of "The Clear".

USOC demands return of Olympic medals

Peter Ueberroth, Chairman of the US Olympic Committee, reacted to the news of Jones' confession and guilty plea on perjury charges by issuing a statement calling on Jones to "immediately step forward and return the Olympic medals she won while competing in violation of the rules". Ueberroth added that her admission "is long overdue and underscores the shame and dishonor that are inherent with cheating." IAAF president Lamine Diack said in a statement that, "Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history."

On October 8, 2007, a source confirmed that Marion Jones surrendered her five medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics. On the same day, Peter Ueberroth said that all the relay medals should be returned, and on April 10, 2008, the IOC voted to strip Jones' relay teammates of their medals, as well, though this decision would successfully be appealed by seven of Jones' teammates and overturned in 2010. Jones was ordered by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to forfeit all awards and medals received after September 1, 2000.

Formal IOC disqualification

On December 12, 2007, the International Olympic Committee formally stripped Jones of all five Olympic medals dating back to September 2000, and banned her from attending the 2008 Summer Olympics in any capacity. The IOC action also officially disqualified Jones from her fifth-place finish in the Long Jump at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

On October 28, 2008, Marion Jones was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and stated that she would have won gold at the Sydney Olympics without the drugs that led to her disgrace.

Financial troubles

Seven years after winning a women's record five Olympic track and field medals and receiving multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, Marion Jones was broke. According to the Associated Press, Jones was heavily in debt and fighting off court judgments, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. In 2006, a bank foreclosed on her $2.5-million mansion near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Michael Jordan was a neighbor. She was also forced to sell two other properties, including her mother's house, to raise money. In her prime, Jones was one of track's first female sports millionaires, typically earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a race, plus at least another $1 million from race bonuses and endorsement deals.

Alleged involvement in check fraud

In July 2006, Jones was linked to a check-counterfeiting scheme that led to criminal charges against her coach and ex-boyfriend Montgomery. Documents showed that a $25,000 check made out to Jones was deposited in her bank account as part of the alleged multimillion-dollar scheme. Prosecutors allege that funds were sent to Jones' track coach, Steve Riddick, in Virginia, then funneled back to New York through a network of "friends, relatives and associates." Riddick was arrested in February on money-laundering charges. According to the indictment and subsequent documents filed with the court, the link to Jones was made through one of Riddick's business partners, Nathaniel Alexander.

On October 5, 2007, Jones pled guilty to making false statements to IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky leading the ongoing BALCO investigation in California. Jones claimed she had never taken performance-enhancing drugs. "That was a lie, your honor," she said from the defense table. The federal government, through grand juries, had been investigating steroid abuse since 2003.

Jones also pled guilty to making false statements about her knowledge of a check-cashing scheme to New York US Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Erik Rosenblatt, who has been leading a broad financial investigation that has already convicted the father of Jones's child, former world record holder and "World's Fastest Man" Tim Montgomery, sports agent Charles Wells, and her coach, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Steve Riddick.

Criminal sentencing

File:CarswellFMCFortWorthTX.jpg

Federal Medical Center, Carswell, where Jones was incarcerated

On January 11, 2008, Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in jail resulting from her involvement in the check fraud case and her use of performance-enhancing drugs. She was ordered to surrender on March 11 to begin her jail term. Jones reported to the Federal Medical Center, Carswell prison facility in Fort Worth on March 7 and was assigned Federal Bureau of Prisons register no. 84868-054. She was released from prison on September 5.

In legal filings prior to sentencing, lawyers for the defense requested US District Judge Kenneth Karas limit her penalty to probation and community service. Part of their argument was that Ms. Jones had been punished enough by apologizing publicly, retiring from track and field, and relinquishing her five Olympic medals. Lawyers for the prosecution had suggested any sentence between probation and six months would be fair (with the maximum penalty being five years in prison). Judge Karas sought advice as to whether he could go beyond the six-month sentence suggested by the prosecution.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Karas admonished Jones in the courtroom, stating that she knew what she was doing and would be punished accordingly. "The offences here are serious. They each involve lies made three years apart," said Judge Karas, also adding that Jones' actions were "not a one-off mistake... but a repetition in an attempt to break the law."

External links

• Marion Jones at WNBA.com
• Marion Jones profile at IAAF
• Marion Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• New York Times Topic: People: Marion Jones
• 10-05-2007 Federal Plea Bargain Agreement
• 12-28-2007 Marion Jones' Legal Filing Requesting Parole
• Complete text, audio, video of Marion Jones-Thompson apology speech
• California State Records before 2000

Awards
Preceded by Svetlana Masterkova	Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1997–1998	Succeeded by Gabriela Szabo
Preceded by Marie-José Pérec	Women's Track & Field ESPY Award 1998–2002	Succeeded by Gail Devers
Preceded by Gabriela Szabo	Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Stacy Dragila
Preceded by Inaugural Awarded	World Sportswoman of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Cathy Freeman
Preceded by Jenny Thompson	USOC Sportswoman of the Year 2000	Succeeded by Jennifer Capriati
Achievements
Preceded by Marie-José Pérec Mary Onyali	Women's 200 m Best Year Performance 1997–1998	Succeeded by Inger Miller
Preceded by Lyudmila Galkina	Women's Long Jump Best Year Performance 1998	Succeeded by Maurren Higa Maggi
Preceded by Inger Miller	Women's 200 m Best Year Performance 2000	Succeeded by Debbie Ferguson LaTasha Jenkins