Marion Jones Can Only Admit So Much -- Even to Oprah

After her tearful and self-flagellating speech on the day she copped a plea to perjuring herself, I thought Marion Jones, former world class sprinter, would come out of prison and begin where she left off. Apparently even six months in a Texas jail cell hasn't diminished her hubris.

Jones, who appeared in her first televised interview on the Oprah Winfrey show told Winfrey's audience that she likes to think she could have won all those medals in the 2000 Olympics despite having a desginer steroid, nicknamed "The Clear", in her system. She continues to maintain her pre-incarceration position that she thought the steroid was merely flaxseed oil, as she says she was told by her coach, Trevor Graham. Graham has just begun his twelve-month home confinement sentence for his own crimes of perjury in connection with the BALCO Labs steroid investigation

While she says she told her kids she was guilty of perjury because she was too weak to stand up and tell the truth, she hedged in her apology to her Olympic relay race teammates who lost their gold medals because of her crime. She is sorry she lied and got them booted out of the record books but she will not admit she knew what she was taking was a banned substance that gave her an edge over her competitors. Do any of us know if she is telling a lie when she says that? No, but her associations tell us much that we might want to know about the extent of her knowledge. Her ex-husband juiced up for his sporting events during the time surrounding the 2000 Olympics and together they denied Jones' involvement despite him having tested positive more than once. She chose a coach who was known in elite ahtletic circles as a guy who trained athletes (including her then husband and her future boyfriend) that pushed the envelope on the doping rules. Even her next romantic interest, Tim Montgomery was heavily involved in using human growth homone care of Graham and fell even farther than Marion by taking part in a money laundering operation and dealing heroin for which he is currently doing hard prison time. Jones was not charged with participating in the money laundering crimes although Montgomery was actively engaged in commiting them while he and Jones were a couple.

In saying she believes she could have triumphed in the 2000 Sydney games without the help of chemicals she ignores the lost races and her lack of medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics when she was already under suspicion about her suspected drug use and by her own admission was running clean. I will grant you that she was four years older than the young sprinter who piled up the medals in the 2000 Sydney games but it is highly speculative at best and egotistical at worst for her to say she could have won. I guess there's only so much truth our systems can take.

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Follow Paula Duffy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jurisdiva

Comments

[Puller58]

06:42 AM on 11/03/2008

Those who would enable Jones are ignoring the fact that she impacted other people. Her fellow relay team members were screwed by her actions. Kind of hard to let her off with that being the case.

[sedum]

03:03 PM on 11/01/2008

I don't get it. Her fellow athletes would not have won if she hadn't been doped and whatever team that was second was robbed of their instant glory.

We should be feeling sorry for them and not the team that needed a cheat to strut around with finger in air bragging "we're no one".

[KickerBoard]

01:39 AM on 11/01/2008

While I agree with much of the article, Marion Jones has paid her debt - and been punished in life as much as her transgressions might require. Let her move on - it's going to be as hard as anyone might imagine. We know what she did - and she, more than anyone, knows we know. She doesn't need to be crushed at every turn.

[johnlee]

09:10 PM on 10/31/2008

Great article Ms Duffy. It doesn't take any courage to admit you're a lair and a cheat after doing time in jail. Even before that the only reason she confessed was because the justice dept was breathing down her back My sympathies goes to those innocent young ladies in the relay team who had to give there hard earn medals up. Marion Jone knowing took steroids and still lying about it on Oprah. I certainly didn't expect any challenging in dept probing interview from the likes of Oprah. Every woman is a victim in her book.

[cre8ive]

08:12 PM on 10/31/2008

Geez, cut the woman some slack, why don't you. She has paid plenty for her mistakes. She blew it. Big time. She went to prison. She will never run again. It is possible that she's not telling the truth about what happened. It's possible that she is. We have no way of knowing, as you said.

Still, she had the courage to admit that she didn't have the confidence to believe that she was anybody other than "Marion Jones Athlete." As one who has lived with that kind of inner fear, I can believe that holding onto the only identity she knew was worth lying for. I repeat. She blew it. Big time. Perhaps, Ms. Duffy, you have never lied, been lied to, or been petrified of losing everything. Perhaps you feel qualified to pass judgments. I'm not that woman.

The great thing about that interview was seeing that Jones is learning the most important lesson of all. Her life is not "Marion Jones Athlete." She is not her successes or failures, and she's not made or destroyed by the grade-givers of the world. She can, and does, move on. And I think she's a better woman today than she was 6 months ago. She still has more to learn in this. But she's young. If she were my daughter, I'd have high hopes for her.