Marion Jones

As we enter the “steroids fall-out” era with the Mitchell Report, the BALCO Investigations and the numerous drug labs busts, we will begin to see countless high-profile athletes be found out for their past mistakes and it will get ugly.
Marion Jones is one of the first to go down hard, and we mean hard, for her actions. The story of her performance-enhancing substances use supposedly goes something like this.
Jones admitted to using steroids leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Apparently Jones got her drugs from Victor Conte (surely you remember him) along with several other trainers. She passed all her drug tests so no one suspected anything. But like all other users, eventually the past catches up to these people and it wasn’t long before everything became a mess. She committed one of the worst sins when speaking to Federal Investigators: she lied. Learn this lesson from people like Michael Vick and even Martha Stewart. Do something wrong and that’s bad but once you lie to the Feds it’s a whole new ballgame. So when Jones admitted to lying, it was no surprise that that kind of activity carries a maximum sentence of five years.
To make the situation even more interesting, Jones’ former husband Tim Montgomery was also found to be using steroids. Jones then became involved in a check counterfeiting scheme and lying to an IRS special agent. All this trouble eventually caused Jones to sell off her mansion in North Carolina along with other properties.
Jones was stripped of her five medals won at the 2000 Olympics by the IOC and being called a fraud by the IAAF president. Then this past Friday, Jones was sentenced to six months in prison and two years in probation.
It was a sad ending for one of the most iconic track stars and female athletes of her generation. She was idolized by some many young people only to be found out to be a cheater. It will be the ending that many athletes will face in the coming years and as their history with drugs comes to light.
The use of drugs in the sporting world all but guarantees a quick success and even faster fall; the higher profile the athlete, the louder the crash. And while the drugs will always be ahead of the testing, the users will never be able to outrun their past as it only takes one old friend to bring them down. It is path that rarely leads anywhere but destruction.
Marion Jones is the first big time athlete to run the full course of the “fallout period”. She used, rose to world famous heights, lied about her actions, was found out and eventually lost her career, achievements, reputation and livelihood. The cat is out of the bag and people are going to start being found out and paying the price. Let the performance-enhancers hit the fan.