When she was caught using the steroids, all her
medals were taking from her.
Marion Jones
America's worlds fastest women
Marion Jones born on
October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, is an
American athlete, winner of five medals at the 2000
Summer Olympics. She holds dual citizenship from the USA
and Belize (where her family is from) and she marks her
victories with the flags of both nations. Excelling in
both basketball and athletics (she was a participant in
the 1992 World Junior Championships), Jones focused on
basketball, playing on the North Carolina team that won
the NCAA Women's Championship in 1994. When Jones lost a
spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury, she
decided to concentrate on athletics. She immediately won
her first major international championships, becoming
the 100 metre World Champion in Athens in 1997, 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. Off the track, Jones married
shot putter C.J. Hunter, who was a coach on the
University of North Carolina track team, in 1998. Hunter
was required to resign his position at UNC because of
school rules that prohibited coach-athlete dating. She
won both the 100 m and 200 m with remarkable ease, but
placed third in the long jump to Heike Drechsler, in an
event where she had the necessary speed but lacked
technique. The two relay events yielded her two more
medals, but only one gold. The Bahamas and Jamaica both
beat the American team in the 4 x 100 m, but the
American victory in the 4 x 400 m was comfortable. Her
husband was banned from the same Olympics after having
tested positive for nandrolone. They divorced a year
later. A dominant force in women's sprinting, Jones was
upset in the 100 m at the 2001 World Championships, as
Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block beat her in the 100
m, her first loss in the event in years. In the 200 m
and 4 x 100 m, Jones did win the gold. In 2003, Marion
Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Jr., named after his
father Tim Montgomery, who broke the 100 m World Record
in 2002. Because of her pregnancy, Jones missed the 2003
World Championships, but spent a year preparing for the
2004 Olympics. On her 2004 Olympics experience, she came
in fifth in the long jump and competed in the women's 4
x 100m relay where they swept past the competition in
the preleminaries only to miss a baton pass in the final
race. Jones promised that her latest defeat is not the
end of her Olympic efforts.
PICTURES
realclearsports.com
atletismoenmexico.com
technologyreview.com
telegraph.co.uk
hubpages.com
VIDEOS
MISTAKES
On
January 11, 2008, U.S. District Judge
Kenneth Karas sentenced Jones to six
months in prison and 200 hours of
community service for
perjury
relating to her using of steroids and
for a check-fraud scam. She was also
sentenced to two years probation
following her prison term. Jones
reported to the Federal Medical Center-Carswell
prison facility in Fort Worth, Texas on
March 7, 2008 and was assigned
Federal Bureau of
Prisons
Register no. 84868-054. She was released
from prison on September 5, 2008.
abcnews.go.com
AFTERLIFE
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.
