Susan Brownmiller on Marion Jones

My esteemed friend Susan Brownmiller sends the following fascinating paragraphs:

I adored watching Marion Jones break the tape at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. And I followed her career closely enough afterward--her marriages and divorces, her sudden and strange withdrawals from competitions--to get the idea she was one troubled lady.

I believe athletes should not take performance-enhancing drugs, and I believe even more strongly that an athlete should not deny to a grand jury that she took the clear, or the steroid, or whatever, when a former husband, a former boyfriend, a former coach, a former supplier, and a failed urine test are on hand to indicate she did.

But the Marion Jones story breaks my heart. The swift, beautiful Black Atalanta with the hard body and soft smile wanted all the golden apples as far back as high school when suspicion first reared its head and Johnnie Cochran stepped in to defend her. Marion beat that early rap, maybe honestly--who knows? My point is that I have no difficulty understanding that she wanted to be the best in an era when more and more athletes are using performance enhancers and in some sports, like pro basketball, the steroid ban is so weak that it's laughable. The current scramble to find clean runners-up to receive the three golds and two bronzes that Marion copped in Sydney is a sad commentary on what a gifted, competitive athlete feels she must do to win. And gifted she was.

Suppose we look at it another way. Suppose we demand that all Oscar winners who deny they've had facial enhancements be stripped of their golden statuettes? Oh, but that's the entertainment world, you say, where you must have enhancements to stay competitive. Athletes should be purer than actors. Should they? I see no difference in the Hollywood race for the gold and the Olympic race for the gold, especially since the Olympic Committee decided to let in professional athletes in 1986 and that was a long time ago. What's ethically troubling, of course, is that some athletes (I hesitate to gauge how many) are still running, biking, skiing, and hitting home runs without enhancers, and the pressure on the holdouts has to be enormous. I can relate to that. I'm not a celebrity in the public eye yet I feel the pressure to do some enhancing from every beaming face of every celebrity who denies using enhancements. O tempora! O mores! And how gifted she was.

Comments

[GeeBee]

I remember my wife coming back from a High School track meet where our daughter was competing, talking about this girl on the other team who could run like the wind. We followed Marion Jones' career from then, all the way to her present disgrace. We were talking about her the other night, and both agreed we felt robbed, for surely we will now never know just what she could have done without the juice. Sad.

[hollyo]

Brownmiller always has an original, interesting take on things leading to some insightful posts. Thank you.

[bigfated]

It's difficult not to feel sorry for Ms. Jones....b­ut the fact is----she's both a cheater AND a liar. Examples of Olympians? I hope not. But to me the most egregious sin by Jones is that her cheating will now result in causing some of her teammates to suffer---tho they have been accused of no wrongdoing. Their Olympic medals must also be returned..­..so...Ms. Jones----what shall these victims of your cheating tell their grandkids about the Olympic medals they no longer have? I didn't cheat...bu­t my "friend" Marion did....and now I too must suffer? Gimme a break. Jones deserves all the ridicule, disgust, and derision that that OTHER great cheat---Barry bonds---deserves. Screw the cheaters and liars!!!

[emjay1954]

How can you defend Jones? Because she was charismatic or personally appealing? She cheated, just as surely as if she got a head start in her races. You defense of her is an insult to all athletes who try to win in an honest fashion.

[sedum]

You do such disservice to real athletes in attempting to defend cheaters.

[Spookcatcher]

Looking closely at Jackie joiner's career, I could be persuaded that she had a little taste for steroids. Mark McGuire appeared to me to have had a "Budweiser" beer barrel full. The NFL today, if they took them off of steroids, and went back to natural pure bred beefsteaks, would probably look anorexic to us on TV.

[glebourhis]

I'm not sure I accept the Oscar argument either.
But the pressure to enhance one's performance is a dreadful blight on the culture.

I used to admire Lance Armstrong, giving him the benefit of the doubt on his use of drugs. But now that he's contributing his energy to defending all bicyclists charged with taking performance enhancers and blaming the media and the professional associations for having a personal vendetta against him, I've lost all respect for the champion he used to be. I wish Lance could put his energy into supporting the athletes that don't rely on those drugs.

[boopteedo]

Poetically said. Marion Jones is an honorable woman in dishonorable times. She admits and openly apologizes in a time when other athletes knowingly use and deny, deny, deny...

Marion, you have friends and fans... still.

[DaveMacaray]

A few years ago, Malcom Gladwell made the case in the New Yorker magazine, concluding that Lance Armstrong was as guilty of doping as guilty could be. Why wasn't he caught? The exotic drugs and enhancers he was taking didn't show up in standard urine tests, and Armstrong and his team of doctors and trainers knew it. Anyone who doubts his guilt should go back and read the astounding---and depressing---story. It's a slam-dunk.

Same for Jones. A tragedy, really, but totally self-imposed. As for Braudy's attempt to compare Hollywood actors using cosmetic surgery to athletes using performance enhancers, that's one piss poor analogy.

[schwinnrider]

There has never been a rule or a law regarding elibility for acting awards and cosmetic surgery. When Marion Jones (et al) took performance enhancing drugs, they knew they were breaking the rules.

Perhaps a better example would be to compare corporate executives who knowingly broke rules and laws to make their companies appear profitable when they knew they were not. Those people, too, felt they had to cheat to achieve.