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| Birth Name(s) : Marion Jones |
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Full Marion Jones Biography
Marion Jones, also known as Marion Jones-Thompson (born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California), is an American former athlete in track and field. She was the winner of five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which she later relinquished after admitting to steroid use.
In October 2007, Jones admitted to having taken steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. As a result of these admissions, Jones has accepted a two-year suspension. The United States Anti-Doping Agency stated that the 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, she pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators in the BALCO steroid investigation in the U.S. District Court. She announced her retirement from track and field the same day.
Then in Sydney, Jones told the press that she was aiming for five gold medals. As it was considered a possibility by fans and pundits alike, she was a media darling during the Olympics. However, she finished with three golds and two bronzes, still an astonishing feat which had never been achieved by a female athlete before.
A dominant force in women's sprinting, Jones was upset in the 100 meter 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 200m and 4 x 100m.
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 4 x 100 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.
For years, Jones was coached by controversial speed coach Trevor Graham, whose Sprint Capitol running organization in North Carolina has been wracked by drug suspensions and who himself is being investigated by a federal grand jury. For a time, Jones also worked out with renegade Canadian coach Charlie Francis, who admitted providing drugs to Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter who tested positive for steroids after setting a world record in the 100-meter race at the 1988 Games in Seoul. She then worked with Steven Riddick, who has coached other athletes involved in drug scandals, including Tim Montgomery, Myriam Léonie Mani and Aziz Zakari.
Allegedly, Jones stopped receiving services from BALCO when her trainer became upset with Conte. Jones has 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.
On October 5, 2007, Jones admitted to lying to federal agents about her use of steroids prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics and pled guilty at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (in White Plains). She confessed to Judge Kenneth Karras that she had made false statements regarding the BALCO case and a check-fraud case.
In the BALCO case, she had denied to Federal investigators 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".
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, but it is up to the International Olympic Committee to make that decision. In addition Jones has now been ordered to forfeit all awards and medals received after September 1, 2000 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. The IOC has yet to determine what will be done with the forfeit medals at present.
In July 2006, Jones was linked to an 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 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.
Jones also pleaded guilty to making false statements about her knowledge of a check-cashing scheme to the New York U.S. Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Erik Rosenblatt leading a broad financial investigation that already convicted Jones' father of her child, former world record holder and "World's Fastest Man, Tim Montgomery. Montgomery was striped of this title after he recieved a 2 year ban for steroid use learned during the BALCO investigation; her sports agent, Charles Wells, and her coach, 1976 Olympic gold medalist, Steven Riddick. |
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