The Rise and Fall of Marion Jones

By Keith Boykin, in sports
Tuesday, October 9 2007, 10:39AM

There's something about Marion Jones that I've always liked. For all her success on the running track, she still came across as humble and normal. Maybe I was wrong all along, but I always got the impression that she was a nice person. Maybe she was and still is, but Jones's announcement last week that she used illegal steroids before winning 5 medals in the 2000 Olympics stunned many observers in the sports world.

In just over a week, Jones dropped from legend to fallen hero as she pleaded guilty to federal charges and agreed to forfeit all results and prizes dating back to Sept. 1, 2000. The final blow came yesterday when the U.S. Olympic Committee announced that Jones had returned her medals, which will now will returned to the International Olympic Committee. That had to hurt.

At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Marion Jones won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and the 1,600 relay and took home bronzes in the 400 relay and long jump. For years, Jones denied that she ever had used performance-enhancing drugs to win at the Olympics. But then last Friday she came clean. Jones admitted that she'd taken the designer steroid "the clear" from September 2000 to July 2001. "It's with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust," she said.

Jones' admission came as she pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about using steroids. She accepted a two-year ban from competition and agreed to forfeit any results dating back to September 2000. She will be sentenced on January 11, and faces a likely prison term of six months.

As a former 400 meter runner in high school and college, I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am in Jones. I thought she was one of the "good guys." Long after I had left the sport, she inspired me with her speed on the track and her grace and agility soaring into the sand pit of the long jump.

Just last week I watched Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis on CNN as he called for Jones to return her medals. I wasn't sure she would do so, but I'm glad that she agreed to do so, although I'm not sure she had much choice in the matter in return for her plea agreement.

Jones's fall from grace should serve as a cautionary tale to all who seek to rise to fame and fortune by cutting corners. There is no substitute for hard work, and although cheaters sometimes win, they must live with the knowledge that their victory is tainted.

We live in a very blame-centered culture, and I myself have participated in that from time to time. But I also believe very strongly in forgiveness. Not that it matters, but I forgive Marion Jones. I do so because she confessed to her sins and expressed what appears to be genuine remorse.

Of course one could argue that Jones only fessed up when she was caught, and that may be true. But confession and contrition are still important. It is not as easy to offer forgiveness to those who continue to lie even when they're caught and never apologize for their behavior. We're all human and we all make mistakes. Sometimes we follow the wrong path. But eventually we have to come clean with ourselves and those around us.

Finally, it seems increasingly clear that one of the long-term targets of the steroids investigation is still San Francisco Giants player Barry Bonds. Only Bonds himself may know if he really used steroids, but if he did, he may want to think about preparing a confession now before he has no choice later. If Marion Jones has anything to teach Bonds and the rest of us, it is this: you can't cheat forever and get away with it.

Comments (32) reveal

Comments conceal

Liquid Fonts
October 9 2007, 11:18AM

That is sad news, I imagine she let the pressure of wanting to be the best get to her but you don't have to be wishing on the brightest star in the sky to fall into cutting corners and fabrications like that story on Marilee Jones who didn't even have a community college degree apparently injected her resume with false credentials from institutions she never attended and became the Dean of Admissions at MIT

Equalnox
October 9 2007, 11:19AM

Oops! Her bad.

J
October 9 2007, 11:24AM

Many of us rely on a few dozen cups of coffee to get through our days and keep up with demands. Some of us have managed to reach a certain point through some very significant hookups. We're all on something and cheat a little to get ahead.

We don't really need to go after people like her anyway.

The idiots that put that crap in their bodies will pay for it. Those medals and that money won't reverse the damage to your organs or help you live past middle age, if you even make it there.

Ostend Street
October 9 2007, 11:26AM

I don't know Marion Jones' entire story, but is it true that she initially said that she did not know that she was taking performance enhancing drugs. Whatever the reason, she's admitted that she was wrong and I sincerely hope that she continues to move in a positive direction. Such a great talent and seemingly a nice person.

Luther
October 9 2007, 12:08PM

I wish her luck in trying to get on with the next phase of her life, but, this was totally avoidable, and she knew it. It isn't fair to the other athletes she competed against, nor the fans of the sport, and, she should be banned for life, cheating is just wrong. And, it makes women who execel without the use of 'roids always have innendo about if they did based on her misguided use.

Joan
October 9 2007, 1:21PM

The sad part is that she probably would have won most of her medals without using the performance enhancing drugs.

edvince
October 9 2007, 1:22PM

But when you think about it, watching her successful track-n-field meets it always startled me how she out of all the surpurb atheletes who make it to Olympic trails would like a super-human win, win and win. However as sad and her new realites are now, the Olympic Cmmtte should go after the vendors of these enhancing drugs that everyone during these times were using, also their coaches who advised them to use them. Now I wonder if Lance really did DOPE. American culture is win, win, win and we seem to do anything that will get us there but fail to consider the consequences. Marion Jones will go on and make another successful career and give back to society in another way. This is not the last we're heard of her!

Nene
October 9 2007, 1:30PM

Divorced from CJ Hunter who was banned from the 2000 Olympics for steroid use.

Has a child with Tim Montgomery who was banned from track for life and had his 100m World Record revoked after admitting steroid use.

Insists she had nothing to do with Conte giving her steroid injections.

Her coach Trevor Graham was implicated in a steroid scandal in 2005.

Slams her ex husband Hunter, calling him a liar, after he came forward and testified under oath that he eye-witnessed her giving herself injections in her stomach.

And now she suddenly remembers it all? Did she decide to admit it, or did she finally get caught?

Now my brother and I get to do a lot of explaining to my niece who is a high school athlete and looked up to Jones as a hero.

Thanks, Marion!

Blue
October 9 2007, 1:37PM

A classic case of 'when in Rome' ... I mean come on. As the above poster stated this chick has been surrounded by doping negroes for years. I always thought she was lying. I don't have any sympathy whatsoever for her. Now I wonder what is going to happen with members of those relay teams she ran on - because if you get technically, they did not win fair and square.

alicia banks
October 9 2007, 2:40PM

i am so sorry...

she is human

i really believed her

i owe her ex hubby an apology...
he told us so...

she is even more gorgeous now

i still respect her

peace
ab

Anonymous
October 9 2007, 2:58PM

Having run cross-country and sprinted in my day this item appealed to me.

I still respect Marion Jones and wish her well. Lord knows we all have made some mistakes--some of them pretty darn major.

We have a bad habit in our world of persecuting people for mistakes. A role model is still a role model if she or he admits to and learns from mistakes.

You can still sit your children down and tell them what a real role model is: how it takes courage sometimes to admit that you did awful things and seek atonement. How else do we teach our children and young relatives how to be a decent yet fallible human beings?!

We should not excuse Jones' for apparently cheating. However, anyone who has ever been an athlete or a dancer knows how we all take all sorts of legal things to maintain our performance standards. The product Jones took was illegal but I can see how she thought that it was okay.

More athletes than you think take performance enhancing drugs--both legal and illegal.

Leave Jones alone.

Gordon
October 9 2007, 3:09PM

Track and Field has been ladened with cheaters/steroid users for years. But I did notice one thing, that Americans are the main athletes being investigated, when clearly European athletes start doping in high school.

What about Flo Jo, Gail Dever's, Maurice Greene, these are people that are rarely talked about when it comes down to doping. But I truly do believe that based on their performances in their latter career, they used something...Gail and Maurice fall off's weren't even gradual like most "regular" athletes. They just shut down, sort of like Marion did after she stop taking the drugs.

Track and Field is tainted, and I can barely watch it anymore because you see no real athlete's. Asafa Powell...PLEASE.

Missing
October 9 2007, 4:17PM

Uh, GORDON? Gail Devers will be 41 this November. Don't you think it's time her performances "fall off?" Four years ago, she was a strong runner, but couldn't make it through a season uninjured. Her times were still there, though, becaouse she was a fast starter and her hurdling technique got better as she got a little slower (she didn't get as close to the hurdles).

Maurice Green? Come on, how many male 100-meter men are gonna put up sub-10 second times consistently once they're past 30?

In case you missed my points, they're about AGING.

Anonymous
October 9 2007, 4:45PM

Missing: I completely agree. People are so quick to judge and label others. They haven't a clue what it's really like to be a competitive athlete and the toll that it takes on one's body at any age.

American track and field is a great sport and it will always be so. It produced Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis. Every sport, including cycling and baseball, contends with the specter of performance enhancement. It is the nature of competition. But such things do not blight a very old sport.

So people should stop making generalizations, you know what I mean?!

Gordon
October 9 2007, 4:45PM

@MISSING You have a valid point...but I truly do believe that a lot of track runners use performance enhancing drugs, or have used them in the past. Gail and Maurice included.

GQ
October 9 2007, 7:23PM

I'm a little baffled that many "observers" are stunned about Jones' admission. With her ex-husband, peers and her coach admitting steriod use and accusing her of participating as well, can anyone think that she and only her can be clean? That's beyond being naive. Despite her past denials, at least she came clean and returned the medals. Better late than never. I wished everyone else, who are still continually deceiving us and are in denial about their personal actions, can follow her lead. In terms of her punishment, prison time is unnecessary. Instead she should provide public service announcements to promote fair play, sportsmanship and the true love of the sport. It may start to change the culture of sport away from the "win at all cost" mentality.

Nathan James
October 9 2007, 7:40PM

Does anyone here remember when Ben Johnson got caught? I thought his shame would have been a wake-up call for today's athletes, but sometimes the need to win (and all those megabucks endorsements that go with the gold medals) overcomes common sense. It's just sad that because Marion Jones succumbed to that hunger for glory, she now faces having everything taken away from her...

Nene
October 9 2007, 7:54PM

GQ - I disagree about the issue of prison time. She's pleading guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators about the use of steroids as well as pleading guilty to one count of lying to investigators about her role in a check-fraud scheme that nailed Tim Montgomery, her ex-boyfriend and father of her child. She's not as nice as she may seem to be - this is some deep s**t.

She took many opportunities to defend herself with lies about her use of steroids while defaming others, including ex-husband CJ Hunter. I bet a few libel suits come out of this as well. Had she been silent about the whole issue and then came forward to straighten out her past, that would be one thing. But she didn't.

I keep remembering that American Express TV commercial with her running through the streets of a city, and thinking, "damn - she is getting paid some big money."

Nene
October 9 2007, 8:27PM

And P.S. - as of June of this year, she's busted broke, having to sell off her own mother's house to pay debt.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19404801

And here's the article from Sports Illustrated about her multi-million dollar check-forging scam (don't want Midwest Guy beating me up like B-Boy. I'll call uncle and post links!)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/10/06/jones.bad.checks.ap/index.html


indastix
October 9 2007, 9:54PM

I agree. I thought that Ben Johnson would have taught everyone a lesson. But he was caught so soon after his Olympic victory that he never really got elevated to hero status. Not to mention that he was Canadian, and frankly no one really cared. I guess all that happens when people get caught is that others learn to be more skilled at avoiding testing positive.

Sandy
October 9 2007, 11:17PM

Marion took her chance and was caught. For me, I feel she is not the only one in her sport who has taken steroids. I don't know why some athletes are chosen for investigation. There wlll be more
My feeling is that all of sports took part in the use of steroids. For me, the 1980's were the demarcation when athletes changed. Basketball players were ripping the back board off the baskets. Tennis players women and men started hitting over 100 miles an hour balls. Bjorn Borg couldn't beat the today's top ten women's player in his prime. Their too fast, too strong. Football players were able to run like the wind on broken legs.
And finally track and field. The males and females started looking like race horses. And running like race horses. For me a sports fan of many years, all sports records set during and after the 1980's should have an asterick next to it.

J
October 10 2007, 1:32AM

I think we give these drugs a little too much credit.

They're more so for keeping people in the game after smashing a limb than they are for turning someone with absolutely no talent into supernegro.

It seems like just another way to smoke screen the public. I honestly don't see Marion any differently.

If we should be concerned about anything it would be those nasty pictures she took a while back trying to be sexy with a gallon of baby oil on her roided up frame. No Marion, no.

GQ
October 10 2007, 3:30AM

@ Nene. Thanks for informing me about the check fraud scam. I didn't know about that. so.. my bad. She has to be held accountable for that and prison time is appropriate.
@ Indastix, you're right about the fact that after Ben Johnson, more athletes are skilled in how to avoid the positive outcome. But i disagree with your comment about "no one cared" about Johnson's incident. As a Canadian, we will always remember Johnson's fall from grace. I was disappointed. Even though I got over it, it's not forgotten. Not even Donovan Baileys' gold medal win in 1996 can totally erase the memory of Ben Johnson.

Anonymous
October 10 2007, 9:38AM

What's up with this ignorant use of the word "negro"? Can black folks have an intelligent conversation without calling each other negroes, supernegroes, doping negroes, niggas, and other implicit, veiled negative references to blackness?!

White athletes dope just as much as any other cultural group. It's not a race thing, people!

Why do people always play the goddamn race card. That is what's wrong with some black folks--gay included...when something negative happens to some black folks it is immediately an indictment of all black people...or as the ignorant people say: all the "doping negroes"...

Fools...

J
October 10 2007, 1:12PM

Anonymous negro, I feel your pain bruh, but if I sit up here and call white folk, cracker, whiteyMcwhite, ghost, PWT and every other pet name, I don't think negro is all that bad. It's certainly not in the same league as n***er, but to make you happy I will now refer to us as wearers of the proof.

cward[TypeKey Profile Page]
October 10 2007, 2:00PM

Marion Jones took her fame and abused it; she was caught and that is the end of that story. I feel nothing for her but there is a slight chuckle in my heart for her troubles.

There are far too many people in the world that are working honest jobs without any recognition or elevated salary and the nation talks about this abuser.

Of course she is currently financially poor because where it really counts in her heart and soul she was the poorest of all.

May she disappear from the American landscape as she has created doubt around her rise to prominence with a scandalous and self-imposed decline.

ChicagoChild
October 10 2007, 9:48PM

I forgive you, Marion. You are still terrifc!

Ron Lee
October 11 2007, 3:09PM

I knew something was up with this gurl ,when I noticed she never wore the regular outfits the rest of the America female contigent would wear. She was never my hero;however,I do feel sorry for her and realize this is a sad day for Track/Field in America. I miss Lewis,Ashford,Moses,Neimier. They were my heros. Ever since the Flo-Jo days many of our athletes have been dirty. How can anyone run track for two or three year and be on a world class level. Peace.

Anonymous
October 11 2007, 5:46PM

I hope she can bounce back!

honeyp62002
October 13 2007, 10:55PM

Marion should have just gone into the WNBA when she was drafted out of North Carolina. She may not have made as much money as she made in Track but what difference does it make if you're broke 7 years later anyway?

ray
October 17 2007, 11:11PM

i don't know why i'm commenting so much later, but as keith does i do feel a lil sad for Marion. I never liked her when she competed cuz I felt she was cheating, but now that she's admitted it I guess I feel kinda sad for the turmoil she must be going through. Regardless, I'm sure a lot of other athletes took drugs. I'd bet all of my money that Flo Jo did, Carl Lewis.. I'd bet good money he did, even Gwen Torrence maybe. People said Gail Devers, but I don't think so.. she had a long career and was always a big meet performer. Who knows who does what though.. it's gone too far.

Louis
October 30 2007, 11:55PM

Let's all be real. Doping did not start in the 80's. The whole scene kicked off in the seventies with the European teams. I am willing to bet that all the top athletes have taking some type of performance drug. To get to the top you are going to have only a few tenths of a second seperating everyone. And, if you believe Flo Jo was on juice, than you have to believe that Jackie Joyner Kerse and Gail Devers were juiced as well. Since Bobby coached these young ladies, and Flo was married to Jackie's brother and they all trained together. And, for Ms. Carl. We know he was drugged up. Take a look at his horrible acne in the 80's.


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