Athletes - Marion Jones

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	Athletes - Marion Jones

Marion Jones (born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is an American athlete, winner of five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She holds dual citizenship from the USA and Belize (where her family is from) and she marks her victories with the flags of both nations.

Sports career

Excelling in both basketball and athletics (she was a participant in the 1992 World Junior Championships), Jones focused on basketball, playing on the North Carolina team that won the NCAA Women's Championship in 1994. When Jones lost a spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury, she decided to concentrate on athletics.

She immediately won her first major international championships, becoming the 100 metre World Champion in Athens in 1997, while finishing 10th in the long jump. At the 1999 World Championships, Jones attempted to win four titles, but injured herself in the 200 m after a gold in the 100 m and a long jump bronze.

Then in Sydney, Jones won an astonishing 5 Olympic medals in one games - a feat never achieved by a female athlete before. She also set the 100m world record, which now stands at 10.45 seconds, knocking 0.04 seconds from Flo-Jo's 1988 record.

A dominant force in women's sprinting, Jones was upset in the 100 m at the 2001 World Championships, as Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block beat her in the 100 m, her first loss in the event in six years. Jones, however, did claim the gold in both the 200 m and 4 x 100 m.

On her 2004 Olympics experience, Jones said "It's extremely disappointing, words can't put it into perspective." She came in fifth in the long jump and competed in the women's 4 x 100m relay where they swept past the competition in the preliminaries only to miss a baton pass in the final race. Jones promised that her latest defeat would not be the end of her Olympic efforts.

On December 3, 2004, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, appeared in an interview with Martin Bashir on ABC's 20/20. In the interview, Conte alleged that Jones had used five different illegal performance enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In the course of investigative research, reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported Jones had received banned drugs from BALCO. However she has never failed a drug test, and has been cleared from all drug charges. Her coach has recently said "do not write Marion off, she is back to her best in training - ready to hit the world scene in 2006".

Personal Bests

{| class="wikitable" |- !Date !Event !Venue !Time |- |September 12, 2000 |100m |Sydney, Australia |10.45 |- |September 11, 1998 |200m |Johannesburg, South Africa |21.62 |- |April 22, 2001 |300m |Walnut, California |35.68 |- |April 16, 2000 |400m |Walnut, California |49.59 |- |May 31, 1998 |Long Jump |Eugene, Oregon |7.31m

Achievements

{| class="wikitable" |- !Year !Tournament !Venue !Result !Event |- |1992 |IAAF World Junior Championships |Seoul, Korea | align="center" |5th |100m |- |1992 |IAAF World Junior Championships |Seoul, Korea | align="center" |7th |200m |- |1997 |IAAF World Championships |Athens, Greece |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |1997 |IAAF World Championships |Athens, Greece | align="center" |10th |Long Jump |- |1998 |IAAF World Cup |Johannesburg, South Africa |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |1998 |IAAF Golden League / Grand Prix |Moskva, Russia |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |1998 |IAAF World Cup |Johannesburg, South Africa |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |200m |- |1998 |IAAF World Cup |Johannesburg, South Africa |bgcolor="silver" align="center" |2nd |Long Jump |- |1998 |IAAF Golden League / Grand Prix |Moskva, Russia |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |Long Jump |- |1999 |IAAF World Championships |Sevilla, Spain |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |1999 |IAAF World Championships |Sevilla, Spain |bgcolor="cc9966" align="center" |3rd |Long Jump |- |2000 |IAAF Grand Prix |Doha, Qatar |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |2000 |2000 Summer Olympics |Sydney, Australia |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |2000 |2000 Summer Olympics |Sydney, Australia |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |200m |- |2000 |2000 Summer Olympics |Sydney, Australia |bgcolor="cc9966" align="center" |3rd |Long Jump |- |2001 |IAAF World Championships |Edmonton, Alberta |bgcolor="silver" align="center" |2nd |100m |- |2001 |IAAF World Championships |Edmonton, Alberta |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |200m |- |2002 |IAAF World Cup |Madrid, Spain |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m |- |2002 |IAAF Grand Prix |Paris, France |bgcolor="gold" align="center" |1st |100m

Personal life

Off the track, Marion Jones married shot putter C.J. Hunter, who was a coach on the University of South Carolina track team, in 1998. Hunter was required to resign his position at UNC because of school rules that prohibited coach-athlete dating. He was banned from the 2000 Olympics after having tested positive for nandrolone. They divorced a year later.

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Athletes - Marion Jones

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