Jones always steadfast in doping denials
05.10.2007 14:02
Sport and Travel
- Source: USA Today
She said it loudly and for a long time. Marion Jones was as aggressive as any athlete in denying the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The greater the controversy, the more emphatic her denials.
She dared the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to charge her in 2004, after the BALCO steroid scandal, and suggested they back off if they did not. She boasted she had never failed a test. ARCHIVED AUDIO: Jones proclaims innocence She took the offensive again in her 2004 autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane. Taking up all of page 173 in large red letters, she wrote: I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN UNEQUIVOCAL IN MY OPINION: I AM AGAINST PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS. I HAVE NEVER TAKEN THEM AND I NEVER WILL TAKE THEM. Now, though, according to a story on The Washington Post website, Jones is saying those denials are not true. Friday afternoon, the Post says, she is planning to plead guilty to lying to federal investigators about her use of banned drugs from 1999 to 2001. Her involvement with drugs such as anabolic steroids and human growth hormone might turn out to be as described by Victor Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, in late 2003. Jones later sued him for $25 million for defamation before settling in 2005 without being paid. "Marion Jones used performance-enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Olympics and through the 2001 season," Conte, who spent four months in prison on BALCO-related charges, told USA TODAY on Thursday. "I don't feel any sense of vindication. I feel sad for Marion as well as all the other athletes associated with BALCO who were banned or had legal consequences. Marion's not a bad person. "She's someone who made a mistake, much like myself, and now has to suffer the consequences for her poor decisions." According to the Post, Jones claims she thought she was taking flaxseed oil, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, another former BALCO client, was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle to have testified to a federal grand jury. Jones, who this year married sprinter Obadele Thompson of Barbados, could have to forfeit more than her five Olympic medals and four medals from the world championships she earned in 1999-2001. It's possible the international track federation could seek reimbursement of prize money. Nike paid her hundreds of thousands in medal bonuses through the years. "People ask me … if her achievements are tainted," Conte said. "In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of athletes Marion competed against in 2000 were also using performance-enhancing substances. So I believe she deserves the medals. "We need to change the focus and put the spotlight upon Olympic governing body officials, owners of pro sports teams and players' union representatives — those that control the money in elite sport." Jones, who turns 32 on Oct. 12, was a sprint prodigy. In 1991, after her sophomore year of high school, she took fourth in the USA Championships in the 200. She was fourth in the 200 at the '92 Olympic trials, declining a berth on the Olympic team as a relay alternate. In college at North Carolina, she emphasized basketball more than track, starting as a freshman point guard on the 1994 team that won the NCAA title. Jones never won an NCAA track title. In 1997, after twice breaking her foot, she quit basketball and within four months won U.S. and world titles in the 100. She had a brush with drugs while in high school in 1992. She missed an out-of-competition drug test — an overnight package informing her of the test was misplaced in her coach's office — but was exonerated in a hearing at which her representative was famed lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Jones was linked to drugs in 2000, the year she won five medals at the Sydney Olympics — golds in the 100, 200 and 4x400 relay and bronzes in the long jump and 4x100. During the Games, the news broke of her then-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, testing positive for steroids. The drug suspicions increased in 2003 after BALCO was raided and Jones was linked to Conte's operation. Jones hired high-priced attorneys and a public-relations team in the buildup to the 2004 Games, where she failed to medal. She called USADA "a kangaroo court" and suggested a Senate hearing would be a good forum to prove her innocence. When USADA banned athletes based on drug-use records obtained in the BALCO raid, Jones claimed the BALCO charts with her name weren't about drug schedules. "I'm not going to sit down and let … an organization take away my livelihood because of a hunch," she said. With the information in the federal case, USADA won't be relying on a hunch. Her own words could be evidence enough for a ban. The international track federation and the International Olympic Committee have precedent to remove her medals. Jones could testify against Trevor Graham, her coach from 1997 to 2001 and the instigator of the BALCO case who gave drug testers a sample of the undetectable steroid THG. He's scheduled for trial in November for lying to federal investigators. ****** Contributing: Andy Gardiner, Joe Fleming, Jill Lieber Steeg, Indianapolis Star
| 
Add comment