Why is marion jones famous

Simpson — she was exonerated, after he successfully argued that a letter informing her of the test had been misplaced. She went back to competing, and would soon become one of the most famous and celebrated Olympians in the world. Though it is hard to be sure precisely when Jones started taking performance enhancers, insinuations of drug use clung to her career from that point onwards. There were pointed comments from her rivals, winks and nudges amongst commentators and sometimes outright accusations from those who felt there was something seriously amiss.

Once Jones started competing at the highest level, however, she entered a world where it was increasingly difficult to triumph without chemical assistance. Speaking to USA Today about her triumphs at the Sydney Olympics, one of the men involved in Jones' downfall later said: "In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of athletes Marion competed against in were also using performance-enhancing substances.

The man in question was Victor Conte, the founder and president of the sports nutrition clinic which Jones frequented alongside boyfriend Tim Montgomery and ex-husband C. The clinic was known as BALCO, and was meant to provide athletes with supplements to improve their performances.

Instead, it ran a comprehensive doping programme, providing them with illegal steroids and other PEDs. Conte stated that he had personally given Jones several different illegal performance enhancers before, during and after the Sydney Olympics.

Hunter testified before a federal grand jury that Jones' drug use had begun well before Sydney, and before she had even met Conte. Though there was not enough evidence to bring charges against her, her reputation was rushing headlong towards the point of no return. When she finally admitted to her use of PEDs in October , there was an air of inevitability to it.

Having vehemently denied using drugs for over a decade, it must have been a small relief to finally tell the truth. She had pulled a fast one both on the track and off it, but her dubious methods had eventually caught up with her.

She conceded that she had lied to federal agents under oath about her drug use at the Sydney Olympics, and was sentenced to six months in prison. Before serving that time, she sobbed her way through a press conference, telling the nation: "I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust. With that, her achievements were decimated. The three gold medals she won in the m, m and 4x relay in Sydney were confiscated, as were the bronze medals she won in the long jump and 4x relay.

All of her victories from onwards were expunged from the record books. Her accomplishments were officially struck off, washed away by a deluge of recrimination, anger and public humiliation. Marion Jones lied, and she did so masterfully.

Not all of her competitors were clean athletes, but some of them were, and those women were cheated of their own success. Jones went from high school superstar to victorious Olympian, leaving hundreds of competitors trailing helplessly in her wake. How many of those competitors were unfairly denied their moment of glory, no one will ever know. One of the saddest things about Jones' downfall is that she could have been great on her own terms.

She had massive natural ability, even if it is difficult to know exactly when she began to complement that with something else. With her parents divorcing when she was young, she was brought up and supported by her stepfather, Ira Toler. She was also barred from next year's games in Beijing, and faces a lifetime ban from all future Olympics.

Jones - who in October admitted to using steroids before she won three gold and two bronze medals at Sydney - had already handed back the medals prior to today's announcement by the IOC president, Jacques Rogge.

Last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations erased all her results dating to September , but it was up to the IOC to formally disqualify her and wipe out her Olympic medals. Jones won gold medals in the metres, metres and the 4x metre relay in Sydney, taking bronze in the long jump and the 4x metre relay. She was the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at a single Olympics. In addition to those medals, the IOC also disqualified Jones from her seventh placed finish in the long jump at the Athens Olympics.

However, she soon left basketball to concentrate solely on track. The World Championships in Greece saw the 22 year old star winning her first meters sprint at an international competition, while also ending up on 10 th spot in the long jump category.

In only two years, her ability at the long jump drastically improved. In the summer Olympics in Sydney, Marion Jones won three gold medals later being stripped off them after admitting she had used performance enhancing drugs.

She denied these allegations quite strongly until as late as She was eventually convicted and sentenced to six months in a federal penitentiary. Her first and second husbands had also both been convicted of wrongdoing in a similar regard in the past.