Marion Jones
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Today we paint a fuller picture of Marion Jones, an unforgettable athlete whose accomplishments are now mired in uncertainty and corruption.
Going for Broke
Embroiled in drug allegations for several years, Olympic sprinter and gold medalist Marion Jones finally confessed in October of this year to doping during the Sydney Olympics, when the track-and-field star performed some of her most memorable accomplishments. Jones was allegedly involved with a California sports lab called BALCO, which dispensed a steroid known as “the clear” to Jones and others.
Jones’s confession only involves the period 2000-2001, but it has cost her all five Olympic medals and will likely cost her financially, though MSNBC recently reported that the athlete is “broke”.
Source: MSNBC
Broken Promise
What makes her confession so shocking is recalling how promising Jones was as a teenager. For a list of all of Jones’s accomplishments in track and field, you can read her profile at the official site of IAAF (the International Association of Athletics Federation), which shows her progression to world elite status in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and long-jump events.
Source: IAAF
Jones’s knockout adolescent career was inspired by fellow African-American Olympians Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who competed in the Seoul games the year Marion was in eighth grade. But the career began to unravel in the late ‘90s. Sports Illustrated tracks this transgression online with a chronology of Jones’s career.
Source: Sports Illustrated
Flashback
Three years ago, Victor Conte, founder of BALCO, the lab involved Jones’s recent incrimination, revealed in a 20/20 interview that Jones had taken “the clear” (a combination of growth hormone and insulin) and that he had taught her how to inject herself. You can read excerpts from the interview in a December 2004 article in USA Today.
Source: USA Today
Recent and Long Ago
National Public Radio has a recent article on Jones that also links to a 1995 NPR interview between Jones and Robert Siegel on All Things Considered, as well as related articles on the Jones case and pieces that discuss doping in sports.
You can listen to several audio programs via this link, including a discussion with John Hoberman, an essayist and author of the book Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping.
You can listen to several audio programs via this link, including a discussion with John Hoberman, an essayist and author of the book Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping.
Source: NPR
© 2012 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
