Olympian Marion Jones to Admit to Steroid Use

[Dion]

Track star Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and is scheduled to plead guilty today in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter, according to a letter Jones sent to close family and friends.

Jones, who won five medals at the Sydney Olympics, said she took the steroid known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999, according to the letter. A source familiar with Jones's legal situation who requested anonymity confirmed the relevant facts that were described in the letter.

"I want to apologize to you all for all of this," Jones said. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

Jones's admissions could cost her the three gold and two bronze medals she won in Sydney while enlarging the cloud of doubt hovering over Olympic and professional sports, which have been tarred in recent years with accusations of performance-enhancing drug use, steroids busts and positive drug tests by prominent athletes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100401666.html

[looooob]

well I hope any medals or records she owns go the same way as Ben Johnson's

I'm not going to really either blame or defend Johnson but it does seem as if he took more of a fall in this sport than anyone else, when its likely each of the other guys at the starting line in Seoul in 88 were doing the same stuff...just better at hiding it

its all so sad. I like track because it has the potential to be so pure...line up and run (or throw, or jump) and fastest (farthest, highest) wins...yet so tainted at the same time

[Dion]

LONDON (AP) — The IOC is ready to move quickly to strip Marion Jones of her five Olympic medals following her reported doping confession — although her most prized gold could wind up going to a runner involved in a major drug scandal herself.

The International Olympic Committee said Friday it will step up its investigation into the Jones case and the possible removal of her three gold and two bronze medals from the 2000 Sydney Games.

"We welcome that there is now some light to be shed on the whole affair," IOC vice president Thomas Bach told The Associated Press. "Now, with this admission, we can accelerate and speed up the procedures."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...GVBUQD8S36SLO1

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by looooob

well I hope any medals or records she owns go the same way as Ben Johnson's

I'm not going to really either blame or defend Johnson but it does seem as if he took more of a fall in this sport than anyone else, when its likely each of the other guys at the starting line in Seoul in 88 were doing the same stuff...just better at hiding it

its all so sad. I like track because it has the potential to be so pure...line up and run (or throw, or jump) and fastest (farthest, highest) wins...yet so tainted at the same time

Her losing her medals would be a big a joke as was Johnson losing his. He was the fastest plain and simple --won the race and won it by competing by the rules at the time and now. The rules of the game were long since established --want to win then you do what EVERY other guy/girl does to win. Judging them on who has the best pharmacist/lawyer is crap.

As is putting your head in the sand and not acknowledging the score. They ALL cheat so that in effect makes it a level playing field. Thus the winner IS indeed the winner. She beat the other cheats so whoppee she got so called caught -she still won!!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

Her losing her medals would be a big a joke as was Johnson losing his. He was the fastest plain and simple --won the race and won it by competing by the rules at the time and now. The rules of the game were long since established --want to win then you do what EVERY other guy/girl does to win. Judging them on who has the best pharmacist/lawyer is crap.

As is putting your head in the sand and not acknowledging the score. They ALL cheat so that in effect makes it a level playing field. Thus the winner IS indeed the winner. She beat the other cheats so whoppee she got so called caught -she still won!!

Except Johnson like Jones didn't compete by the rules period. If Steroids were in the rules then there wouldn't be testing. Now you can counter argue in the case of Johnson that Carl Lewis who eventually got the medal was exposed as a cheater as well, however at the time he tested negative for any performance enhancing drugs.

They may all cheat, but the proof is in the pudding for a lot of athletes in that they either don't get caught, or don't use the stuff because it dosen't show up in the testing. If your going to be fair, you've got to be fair on the side of the people that don't break the rules.

I've always been a proponent of having 2 Winter Olympics and 2 summer Olympics once every 2 years on a rotating basis. One Olympics is for clean athletes. Strict rules and stricter testing are used with strict punishment. The other allows you to use performance enhancing drugs, genetic engineering, bionic implants, cruel methods of punishment, whatever it takes to win.

Imagine a swimmer with webbed feet and a blow hole. Or a sprinter with spring mounted titanium bionic legs, or a high jumper with legs 6 feet long, or a boxer with a 7 inch thick skull.

You could also exterminate the losers because thier experimentation was a failure.

Thinking about that, it would be pretty damn cool to see a woman marathoner who weighed 40 pounds and had three lungs. or a high diver with a bullet shaped head.

Cool.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Except Johnson like Jones didn't compete by the rules period. If Steroids were in the rules then there wouldn't be testing. Now you can counter argue in the case of Johnson that Carl Lewis who eventually got the medal was exposed as a cheater as well, however at the time he tested negative for any performance enhancing drugs.

.

I believe at minimum it has come out that both Lewis (and Lindford Christie too I believe) tested positive for stimulants leading up to Seoul but this was buried by their local Olympic committees...rumors I've heard (unfounded of course) suggest there may have been positive steroid tests for other runners in that race from countries less 'powerful' than Canada

I think Johnson took the fall hard for a tainted sport

I'm close to agreeing with Johnnyflame...no question Ben Johnson was the fastest man in the world in that era. may or may not have been the 'dirtiest' but ...

[Dion]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

Her losing her medals would be a big a joke as was Johnson losing his. He was the fastest plain and simple --won the race and won it by competing by the rules at the time and now. The rules of the game were long since established --want to win then you do what EVERY other guy/girl does to win. Judging them on who has the best pharmacist/lawyer is crap.

I don't see anything in the rules that says using steroids is allowed. The joke was those 2 who thought they would never get caught.

As is putting your head in the sand and not acknowledging the score. They ALL cheat so that in effect makes it a level playing field. Thus the winner IS indeed the winner. She beat the other cheats so whoppee she got so called caught -she still won!!

What she won was public embarassment and shame. That and she's probably lost any endorsements she may have had.

Those that don't cheat are the real winners.

[Bobblehead]

Jim Rome asked this question on his show today:

Is there any athlete that it would still surprise your if they were caught doing steroids?

With all the athletes that have been caught, all the ones who have admitted after the fact that they were doing them and didn't get caught, and the belief that only a small percentage are ever caught, is there an athlete that you would still surprise you if they were caught (other than surprise that they actually got caught)?

[CaptainCrunch]

John Daley?

[Dion]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801369.html?hpid=topnews

In the mid-1990s, sports medicine specialist Robert Goldman dropped a poisonous question in the locker rooms of Olympic athletes, informally wondering the following:

"If I had a drug that was so fantastic that if you took it once, you would win every competition you would enter, from Olympic decathlon to the Mr. Universe, for the next five years. But it had one minor drawback: It would kill you five years after you took it. Would you still take it?"

Fifty-two percent of those he asked said they would.

[Dion]

You wanted to believe her. She made you believe. She was good like that. Marion Jones, TIME cover girl, winner of five medals — three gold — at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and now an admitted steroid user, sat in a sweltering press tent at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials in Sacramento, and put on an Oscar-worthy show.

I guess you could give Jones a smidgen of credit for finally coming clean. As Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees has proven, those who apologize for using steroids will eventually be forgiven. But even now, it seems, Jones is trying to have it both ways, resorting to the Barry Bonds defense that she didn't know the flaxseed oil her coach was giving her was actually the steroid known as "the clear." Jones is too smart for that, and given all her lies of the past, it's not as if we have any reason to believe her.

So maybe she'll set up another charm offensive, to tell us how she lied because she was scared, how in a way she's a victim of track and field's sordid culture of steroids and suspicion. Like all her performances, I'm sure it will be a doozy, but I, for one, will be skipping that one.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...rss-topstories

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by Dion

I don't see anything in the rules that says using steroids is allowed. The joke was those 2 who thought they would never get caught.



What she won was public embarassment and shame. That and she's probably lost any endorsements she may have had.

Those that don't cheat are the real winners.

What rules? The antiquated ones that only the naive think apply? None of them that WIN go by those rules. They are irrelevant. As for shame then there would be a stinkin long lineup of atheletes who be up for the so called shame. Top players in every sport are doing roids, hormones or whatever. Jumping on some high horse and dreaming they aren't is comical. Those that don't cheat ---Yep and who the fart are they?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

What rules? The antiquated ones that only the naive think apply? None of them that WIN go by those rules.

So we should just toss out all the banned substances rules?

So eveyone that WINS cheats? Got proof of that?

As for shame then there would be a stinkin long lineup of atheletes who be up for the so called shame. Top players in every sport are doing roids, hormones or whatever. Jumping on some high horse and dreaming they aren't is comical. Those that don't cheat ---Yep and who the fart are they?

I find it comical that you think top players are ALL guilty. Guess innocent until proven guilty doesn't mean much to you.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by looooob

well I hope any medals or records she owns go the same way as Ben Johnson's

Yup, just like what happened to Carl Lewis.

[Dan02]

I'm still suprised that people still thought she was clean before this, I totally agree with Rome, it would barely suprise me if anyone was found out to be doping at this point. for example, armstrong, very little other then rumour to support the fact he was doping, but his biggest rivals have admited at the time they were doping and got away with it. I find it hard to believe personally that he was dominating a sport that was so heavily doped while clean.

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by Dion

So we should just toss out all the banned substances rules?

So eveyone that WINS cheats? Got proof of that?



I find it comical that you think top players are ALL guilty. Guess innocent until proven guilty doesn't mean much to you.

What is comical is how naive you are. Just go on believing that there are a just few bad apples who happen to be cheating and denying those poor types who are clean. HO HO HO!!!!! Meanwhile they will be canceling the Tour de France while they desperately try to find ANYBODY who isn't cheating, MLB will be trotting out more asteriks, NFL football isn't even worth mentioning as it's too obvious, wait till you see the Chinese team in the Oly's in 08 (nothing like nation sponsored roiding, doping).

But hey you go right ahead believing in a fantasy world if that's what makes your day!!!

[Dion]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

What is comical is how naive you are. Just go on believing that there are a just few bad apples who happen to be cheating and denying those poor types who are clean. HO HO HO!!!!! Meanwhile they will be canceling the Tour de France while they desperately try to find ANYBODY who isn't cheating, MLB will be trotting out more asteriks, NFL football isn't even worth mentioning as it's too obvious, wait till you see the Chinese team in the Oly's in 08 (nothing like nation sponsored roiding, doping).

But hey you go right ahead believing in a fantasy world if that's what makes your day!!!

I'm not niave, trust me. It's just that I believe in innocent until proven guilty. If an athlete is proven to be guilty of steroid use, fine, ban him and strip away his or her medals.

What's comical is how you'd like to strip medals away from athletes because you 'suspect' they cheat. Lets ban the Chinese team, cancel the Tour De France, better yet cancel the whole Olympics to calm your fears. Good luck with that btw.

Still waiting for your proof that eveybody cheats?

[Dion]

Marion Jones has turned in all her medals.

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by Dion

I'm not niave, trust me. It's just that I believe in innocent until proven guilty. If an athlete is proven to be guilty of steroid use, fine, ban him and strip away his or her medals.

What's comical is how you'd like to strip medals away from athletes because you 'suspect' they cheat. Lets ban the Chinese team, cancel the Tour De France, better yet cancel the whole Olympics to calm your fears. Good luck with that btw.

Still waiting for your proof that eveybody cheats?

I'm not calling for them to take away medals. Heck just realize that all that happens is who gets caught and who does not. Innocent until proven guilty --whatever. How about just have a grasp of the obvious and not stick your head in the sand by doing the high and mighty schtick!

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Is there any athlete that it would still surprise your if they were caught doing steroids?

Joe Sakic.