Marion Jones

Marion Jones was first invited to participate in the 1992 Olympic trials upon her performances in high school but she declined the invitation. After winning further statewide sprint titles, she accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina in basketball, where she helped the team win the NCAA championship in her freshman year. Jones hung up her basketball jersey in 1996 to concentrate on track. Jones, however, lost her spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jones finished with three gold medals and two bronze medals.

Marion Jones has been accused of doping throughout the course of her whole athletic experiences, including high school. She always downright denied everything, up until 2007. In high school, she even missed a random drug test which stirred up some rumors which continued to tag her as she ran in the championships and the Olympics. Rumors also arose linking Jone's coaches and teammates with doping.

The BALCO investigation started with Victor Conte in December, 2004. In an interview on ABC, he told the audience that he supplemented Jones with five varied steroids during and after the Sydney Olympics. Additionally, he got the drugs from a man named Graham, who had connections with a Mexican drug dealer. Conte gave Erythropoietin (EPO) to Jones coach with supposedly BALCO nutritional supplements. In reality, these so-called supplements were actually steroids that went undetected by the drug screening procedures. These drugs were disbursed among Jones and her teammates. After, Jones continued obtaining the drug directly from Conte. This was verified by Jone's ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, Olympic shot-putter and confessed steroid user, who watched Jones inject the ...

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...igh standards. She was in a tense environment where a lot were expected out of her as she performed and people around her were doping, putting her at a disadvantage unless she took the drug to enhance her own performance. I am glad authorities only took away her wins from 2000 onwards instead of tking away all of her wins and medals altogether. Also, I would have done what the US Olympics Committee did and have banned her from the Olympics as well because if I let her still participate in the Games after this big doping incident, I would contradict how anti-doping the Olympics are. I know this is tricky to say but Marion Jones could have altogether refused the steroids and avoided this whole incident from happening. That is very much possible. But it is silly to ponder over the “what-ifs” at this point. I believe authorities appropriately handled this doping issue.