Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is a former world champion track and field athlete. She won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia but has since agreed to forfeit all medals and prizes dating back to September 2000 after admitting that she took performance-enhancing drugs.

In October 2007, Jones admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, to various sports agencies, and—most significantly—to two grand juries. One was impaneled to investigate the BALCO "designer steroid" ring, and the other was impaneled to investigate a check fraud ring involving many of the same parties from the BALCO case. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition, and announced her retirement from track and field on October 5, 2007.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency stated that the sanction "also requires disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes". On October 5, 2007, Jones formally pled guilty to lying to federal agents in the BALCO steroid investigation in the U.S. District Court. On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008 and was released on September 5, 2008.

At the time of her admission and subsequent guilty plea, Marion Jones was one of the most famous people to be linked to the BALCO investigation. 41 days later, Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice and four counts of perjury linked to his own testimony before the BALCO Grand Jury in December 2003.

Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones' brief professional basketball debut for Tulsa Shock ended in an 80-74 defeat.

Having played basketball at college level a decade ago, Jones returned to the sport with the Oklahoma franchise.

But she finished with no points, rebounds or assists in only four minutes of play against Minnesota Lynx.

"It's difficult, I'm a competitor. I want to see the team win and I want to see myself contribute to a win but I understand it is a process," said Jones, who helped the University of North Carolina capture a US national championship as a freshman point guard in 1994.

"I know people kind of expect great things, they think I will be out there 40 minutes but you've got to understand it's a process."

American Jones won five track medals at the 2000 Sydney Games, including three golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay, and bronzes in the long jump and 4x100m relay.

However, these were erased when she was banned for two years from athletics and sentenced to six-months in prison for lying to US federal investigators about her use of steroids in the run up to the Games.

"This for me is a new beginning, nothing more than that," said Jones.

"Thrilled doesn't even touch the surface of how I'm feeling. It's just a gratifying feeling to know I made the right decision to attempt this."

Looking for a fresh start, Jones returned to the court for Tulsa as the Women's National Basketball Associations's oldest rookie.


Tags: marion jones, tulsa shock, wnba