Marion Jones comes clean

[rainbowgirl28]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/o ... nes04.html

Report: Track star Marion Jones admits doping before 2000 Olympics
The Associated Press
Marion Jones admitted using steroids before the 2000 Olympics in a recent letter to close family and friends, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Jones, a triple gold medalist in Sydney, said she took "the clear" for two years, beginning in 1999, and that she got it from former coach Trevor Graham, the newspaper reported. Graham told her it was flaxseed oil.

"The clear" is a performance-enhancing drug linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of a federal steroids investigation. Until now, Jones had steadfastly denied she ever took any kind of performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones also said she will plead guilty Friday in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter, the Post reported.

"I want to apologize for all of this," the newspaper reported, quoting a person who received a copy of Jones' letter and read it to the paper. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

No one answered the door at Jones' Austin home Thursday evening.

The admission could cost Jones the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics. Though she fell short of her goal of winning five gold medals, she came away with three and two bronzes and was one of the games' biggest stars.

But her career has been tarnished by doping allegations since then. Victor Conte, head of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, repeatedly has accused Jones of doping.

Jones was one of several athletes to testify in 2003 before a San Francisco federal grand jury that's investigating BALCO, and former boyfriend Tim Montgomery was given a two-year ban for doping in late 2005.

In December 2004, the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into doping allegations against Jones.

Last year, a Jones urine sample tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO. Jones immediately quit a European track tour and returned to the United States. Although she was cleared when a backup sample tested negative, she missed at least five major international meets, forfeiting an estimated $300,000 in appearance and performance fees.

In her letter, Jones said she'd used performance-enhancing drugs until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when federal agents questioned her in 2003, panicking when they presented her with a sample of "the clear," which she recognized as the substance Graham had given her.



"Red flags should have been raised when he told me not to tell anyone," the Post reported, quoting the letter.

Graham was indicted in the BALCO case last November on three counts of lying to federal agents. He has pleaded not guilty, and a trial is set for Nov. 26.

A woman who answered the phone at Graham's home in Raleigh, N.C., declined to identify herself, but said Graham was not home before refusing to answer any other questions. There was no answer at the door of Graham's north Raleigh home on Thursday.

The Post also reported that in her letter, Jones said she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by Montgomery, who pleaded guilty in New York this year as part of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and money-laundering scheme. Jones' former agent, Charles Wells, and coach, Steven Riddick, were also part of the scheme.

Documents filed in a federal court in Manhattan show that Jones received the check from a Virginia man who prosecutors have accused of enlisting friends and business partners to help launder the proceeds of the multimillion-dollar plot.

The money was drawn on an account established with one of $5 million worth of stolen, forged or doctored checks that investigators said the conspiracy attempted to cash over three years.

Though Jones told investigators she knew nothing about the check, the Post reported that she said in her letter that Montgomery told her it was from the 2005 sale of a refurbished vehicle and was partial payment for $50,000 she had loaned him.

"Once again, I panicked," the Post reported. "I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away as possible."

In her prime, Jones was one of track's first female millionaires, typically earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a race, plus at least another $1 million from race bonuses and endorsement deals.

In 2000-01, she competed in 21 international events, including the Sydney Olympics, where she won five medals -- three gold.

[SlickVT]

Not surprised.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ule&sub=AR

"This is a shame," World Anti-Doping Agency Chairman Dick Pound said in a telephone interview yesterday. "This was America's darling at the 2000 Summer Olympics. . . . I hope this will have a deterrent effect. It's not merely cheating in sports, but now she has lied her way to exposure to penal sanctions."

In the letter, Jones, who will turn 32 next Friday, said her former coach, Trevor Graham, gave her the substance, telling her it was the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and that she should take it by putting two drops under her tongue. Graham, contacted by telephone yesterday, declined to comment.





Jones said she "trusted [Graham] and never thought for one second" she was using a performance-enhancing drug until after she left Graham's Raleigh, N.C.-based training camp at the end of 2002. "Red flags should have been raised in my head when he told me not to tell anyone about" the supplement program, she said. She also said she noticed changes in how her body felt and how she was able to recover from workouts after she stopped taking the substance in 2001.

Jones, who recently married former sprinter Obadele Thompson, said in her letter that she planned to fly from her home in Austin and meet her mother in New York, where she was scheduled to enter the plea today in U.S. District Court. She said she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a maximum of five years in prison for one count of lying to federal agents.

Reached at their Austin home, Thompson declined comment on the letter, portions of which were read to him, saying, "the process has to go through before you can make any comments. . . . I'm sure at the appropriate time, all necessary comments will be made." He did not dispute the contents of the letter. He said Jones was unavailable to comment.

[master]

This is truly sad, but what I'm about to do is probably irreverent.

I read through these posts and as I was looking back at the topic title, I burst out laughing at what I saw. The ads that were chosen to be shown just cracked me up. See below...

- master

[rainbowgirl28]

This is truly sad, but what I'm about to do is probably irreverent.

I read through these posts and as I was looking back at the topic title, I burst out laughing at what I saw. The ads that were chosen to be shown just cracked me up. See below...

- master

LOL that's awesome!

[SlickVT]

Well, this is going to do nothing but hurt track and field and make it even more difficult for rising elites to make it in the sport.

I am not sure what is more disappointing, that fact or the fact that athletes are downright stupid enough to think that flaxseed oil will dissolve under your tongue.

[AVC Coach]

I teach 7th grade health. During our chapter on Drugs and Alcohol, I show a video that stars Marion Jones expressing how important it is to "stay clean" and "not give into to peer pressure". What a joke! Who's next?

[vault3rb0y]

Am i wrong in thinking that a lot more performance enhancing drugs are used in the NFL than Track and Field, but its not being cracked down on as hard?
Just one of the high school rumors going around. Anyone know of evidence of this?

[rainbowgirl28]

Am i wrong in thinking that a lot more performance enhancing drugs are used in the NFL than Track and Field, but its not being cracked down on as hard?
Just one of the high school rumors going around. Anyone know of evidence of this?

NFL players are not Olympic athletes and have completely different rules on banned substances and penalties for infractions.

In other words their drug testing program is kind of a joke.

[swtvault]

It appears my suspicions have also been true. In the past--despite my better judgment--I would give positive testers the benefit of the doubt, but now it is painfully clear that you can't trust anyone; no matter how vehemenentely they deny the charges. What a crock. If you want to use drugs, be prepared to be held accountable and take responsibility for it it. To think she actually lied to the kids too.....

[SlickVT]

Ummmmmm... who didn't see this coming?

[invert07]

The book "Game of Shadows" came out in 2006 and its basically the confession of the man who owned Balco Industries. It talks all about Jones and the other people who took the same drug "the clear" like Bill Romanowski and Barry Bonds , the book is really interesting if anyone would look to know more about what went on you should deff. get it