She was the unrivaled queen of the track, the brightest star of the Sydney Olympics, transcending her sport with majestic athletic achievements and a sensational smile. The only thing Marion Jones couldn’t outrun was trouble.
Trouble is about all she has now.
Having endured more than a year of skepticism about her accomplishments as an outgrowth of the BALCO steroid investigation, Jones has stunned the track world this season with a series of dismal performances. Some are wondering if this week’s U.S. championships in Carson, Calif., will mark the end of her career.
After her most recent performance, a fourth-place finish June 11 in Monterrey, Mexico, when she ran the 100 meters in a pedestrian 11.40 seconds, Jones conceded she is a longshot to make the U.S. team for this year’s world championships.
“I think it’s tragic that an athlete with so much talent and so much ability to have a great career in this sport, and to have longevity, has plummeted so quickly to such a low level,” said retired sprinter Michael Johnson, the star of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, who holds world records in the 200 and 400 meters.
The International Olympic Committee is investigating Jones, as did the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. European meet promoters blackballed her this spring because of concerns over where the investigations might lead, and now they don’t want her because she’s so slow. With boyfriend Tim Montgomery facing suspension as a result of his alleged involvement with BALCO, Jones’ poor performances fuel suspicion against her, the inference being she’s running poorly because intense international scrutiny has forced her to stop cheating.
In Milan on June 1, Jones ran her slowest 100-meter time (11.67 seconds) in 11 years. At the Mount SAC Relays on April 16 in Walnut, Calif., she ran a 400 in 55.03 seconds, nearly a second slower than she ran there as a freshman in high school more than a decade ago.
“When an athlete with such superior talent – an athlete who is talented enough to win five medals at the Sydney Olympics just five years ago – could get to this point so quickly, to the point where she is performing at such a poor level, it is surprising,” Johnson said.
Retired hurdler Renaldo Nehemiah regrets how the controversy surrounding Jones figures to overshadow other athletes at the championships, particularly at a time when U.S. track and field is brimming with exciting young stars who have yet to register with the mainstream sports fan. But he knows Jones is bound to be a focal point because of the way her career has imploded.
“The clock and your training sessions don’t lie,” said Nehemiah, who was ranked No. 1 in the world from 1978 through 1981 in the 110-meter hurdles. “If you’re that far away from where you need to be, and you’re Marion Jones – she set the bar so high – I think you owe it to yourself, if nothing else, to be ready to run. Right now she’s not running competitively. It’s one thing to get second place, but when you’re losing by two-tenths of a second, and you’re Marion Jones, that’s significant.”
Repeated attempts to reach Jones and her agent, Charles Wells, were unsuccessful. Nike spokesman Dean Stoyer, whose company pays Jones a reported $3 million per year, defended her and denied media reports the company will drop her when her contract expires.
“We think Marion is a tremendous athlete, and one of the greatest of her generation,” Stoyer said. “As far as supposition or accusation goes, we won’t play that game. We don’t support the use of banned substances, and Marion has been pretty clear on that as well.”
Jones has repeatedly and emphatically denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but the public has plenty of reason to wonder.
Her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, was a shot-putter who was sanctioned for steroid use in 2000 and reportedly told the BALCO grand jury he watched Jones inject banned substances. BALCO owner Victor Conte told ABC he supervised Jones’ doping program for more than a year. Jones sued Conte for defamation.
Jones and Montgomery also had a brief association with Charlie Francis, a disgraced sprinting coach who supplied steroids to Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. They severed the relationship only after an international outcry in the track and field community.
“There’s no doubt it’s done damage to her because that’s what she’s in the news for,” Michael Johnson said. “Unfortunately people who don’t know track and field know Marion Jones, and she’s at the center of a scandal that involves steroids.”
Against that backdrop, her recent performances make matters worse.
“The way to do away with the rumors is through performance,” Nehemiah said. “She’s not running sub-10s or close to 11.1s or 11.0s. Most people say, ‘Well, potentially, without performance-enhancing that’s what happens.”‘
Casey Malone agrees. The former Colorado State discus thrower finished seventh in the Athens Olympics and improved one position after Hungary’s Robert Fazekas was stripped of his gold medal for a doping violation.
“It just seems to be really poor timing,” Malone said of Jones’ struggles. “Now that BALCO has disappeared, and the source of what everyone believes was the source of her success … It definitely has hurt her case of trying to prove to the world that she was clean when she won all of her gold medals.”
Malone watched her last-place finish at Mount SAC and could hardly believe what he was seeing.
“She got beat by 5 or 10 meters by everybody,” Malone said. “It was just a strange sight. You’re used to seeing her on the other side of that pack, beating everybody by 10 meters. It was like watching a whole other athlete.”
Jones turns 30 in October, and all of her personal-best performances were achieved in 1998. She failed to qualify for last year’s Olympic team in the 100. She withdrew from the 200 at the Olympic trials after looking overmatched in the first heat, finished fifth in the long jump at the Olympics and cost the U.S. a relay medal with a botched baton exchange.
“I think for all kinds of reasons you could be looking at the end of her career,” said former University of Colorado sprint coach Mike Gilbert.
“I hope that’s not the case. I’d hate to see her go out on this kind of note, based on what she’s done for the sport.”
A look back at Marion Jones’ career
1992: While in high school finished fourth in the 200 meters and fifth in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic trials.
1993: Won the 100 and 200 at the California high school state meet for fourth consecutive year.
1994: Second in the long jump, sixth in the 200 at NCAA championships; starting freshman point guard for North Carolina’s NCAA championship basketball team.
1995: 11th in the long jump at U.S. championships.
1996: Broke foot, did not compete.
1997: Won the 100 at world championships; ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100 and 200 by Track & Field News.
1998: Won every competition she entered until the final event of the year when Germany’s Heike Drechsler edged her in the long jump.
1999: Won the 100 at the world championships and a bronze medal in the long jump.
2000: Became the first female track and field athlete to win five medals in the same Olympics (gold in the 100, the 200 and the 1,600 relay, bronze in the long jump and the 400 relay).
2001: Won the 200 at the world championships and a silver medal in the 100.
2002: Ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100 and 200 by Track & Field News.
2003: Did not compete.
2004: Failed to qualify for the Olympics in the 100 meters; withdrew from the 200 at the Olympic trials; qualified for the Olympics in the long jump, finishing fifth.
