Oct 06:Jones also announces her official retirement outside the court
Marion Jones, who ended up winning a record five track-and-field medals by any female at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, confessed about the use of performance-enhancing drugs and pleaded guilty of making sham statements to federal agents about the use of steroids and also in link with a separate check fraud case at the United States District Court on Friday.
She had won three gold medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x400 meter relay race along with two bronze medals in the long jump and the 4x100 meter relay event. Jones also announced her official retirement from the track and field outside the court.
Jones is alleged to have used two designer steroids in the beginning of 1999 “the cream," a lotion laden with testosterone, and "the clear," a steroid, which is like the cream and designed to avoid detection.
She cried as she stood outside the courthouse after pleading guilty and told the media gathering that she had disappointed her family, friends and supporters.
“I have let them down,” she said. “I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust.”
“I recognise that by saying I’m deeply sorry, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and hurt I’ve caused you. Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” she added.
Jones, who will be sentenced on January 11, 2008, will most likely to face a maximum sentence of six months in jail. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Jones had told her family and close friends that she would be sentenced three months imprisonment under a plea- bargain agreement.
Jones read a statement in front of United States district judge Kenneth Karas in which she said, “She mistakenly took performance-enhancing drugs from the summer of 2000, before the Sydney Games began, through July 2001.”
She continued in her pleading statement that she also lied to Internal Revenue Service agents and U.S. attorneys from California on Nov. 4, 2003, who were investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) case that she had never taken performance-enhancing drugs. “That was a lie, your honor,” she said in the courtroom.
About the fraud case, she said that she also misled by lying to Homeland Security officials and U.S. attorneys from New York, denying any knowledge related to check-cashing scheme that involved her ex-husband sprinter Tim Montgomery. They both had already pleaded guilty and would be facing the sentence on November 1.
She is now expected to be a witness against her former coach, Trevor Graham, who trial is pending in San Francisco levying charges against him that he lied to federal agents. The trial is scheduled to begin on November 26 next month.
With her admittance, Jones joined the list of athletes who were found to have cheated, including the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 1988 Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters and Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist in the 100 meters, who tested positive for testosterone and other steroids in April 2006.
Jones became the only athlete convicted in the cases arising out of the four-year Balco investigation. Five men who manufactured, marketed or supplied the drugs to athletes have pleaded guilty, and three of them have served time in prison.
Jones gave up the European track tour after testing positive for EPO but was cleared when a ‘B’ sample tested negative. She had also sued Victor Conte, the Balco founder, for a $25 million for openly saying that she had used drugs in 2004. They settled out of court.
While Conte opined, “She made a choice, and there were consequences.” He added, “I feel bad for these athletes and their families who made mistakes and I feel bad for every athlete associated with Balco.”
An open admission and confession like this could possibly lead to Jones being stripped of her five medals by International Olympic Committee, which she won in 2000 Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said, “The organisation will look into this matter and then decide the course of action”, "Doping is cheating and our position is unequivocal. It will absolutely not be tolerated," he said. "Any athlete who chooses to cheat is making a decision that is a complete contradiction to what the Olympic movement stands for," he added.
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