The Hindu : Sport : Jones – from grace to disgrace

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Jones – from grace to disgrace

‘Should return the medals’

WHITE PLAINS: Three-time Olympic champion Marion Jones pleaded guilty on Friday to lying when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs and subsequently announced her retirement from athletics.

Outside the courthouse, Jones broke down as she apologised for her actions.

“It’s with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust,” Jones said, pausing frequently to regain her composure while her mother stood behind her, a supportive hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

“I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let my family down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down,” she said.

In court, Jones said she lied to a federal investigator in November 2003 when he asked if she had used performance-enhancing drugs. She also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a cheque-fraud conspiracy.

Steroid use

Jones said she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was told by her then-coach Trevor Graham that she was taking flaxseed oil when it was actually “the clear” — a designer steroid.

“I consumed this substance several times before the Sydney Olympics and continued using it after,” Jones told the judge. “By November 2003, I realised he was giving me performance-enhancing drugs.”

She said she “felt different, trained more intensely” and experienced “faster recovery and better times” while using the substance.

“He told me to put it under my tongue for a few seconds and swallow it,” she said. “He told me not to tell anyone.”

“It’s bittersweet,” said Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“Any time a potential American hero admits to cheating sports fans, people who watch Olympic Games, it’s bittersweet. I think I have a sense of vindication today.”

The International Olympic Committee already has opened an investigation into doping allegations against Jones in December 2004, and said on Friday it will step up its probe and move quickly to strip her of her medals.

In her case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100m, 200m and 1,600m relay and bronze in the long jump and 400m relay.

“The fact that she was using the performance-enhancing drugs is not a surprise. People suspected strongly or knew, but couldn’t prove the use,” said Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Marion Jones shouldn’t wait to be stripped of her Olympic medals, but should return them as a gesture to athletes, who didn’t cheat, US Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth said Friday. “

“Her acceptance of responsibility does not end with today’s admission, however,” he added. “As further recognition of her complicity in this matter, Ms. Jones should immediately step forward and return the Olympic medals she won while competing in violation of the rules.

Masback disappointed

USA Track and Field chief Craig Masback voiced disappointment.

Jones faces up to six months in jail under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors and sanctions from the USADA, which will pave the way for the IOC to reclaim her five Olympic medals, three gold and two bronze.

Once the finishes are re-adjusted, one of that gold will go to Katerina Thanou, who along with fellow Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris, sparked a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Olympics when they failed to appear for drug tests.

Both Thanou and Kenteris received two-year bans. “That’s one of the disagreeable aspects,” said Pound, when asked about awarding Thanou the gold medal. “That will be hard to swallow.” — Agencies

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