MARION JONES REPORTS TO TEXAS JAIL: Former Olympic track champ begins sentence on perjury conviction.

Just before noon on Friday, former sprinter Marion Jones checked into a Fort Worth, Texas jail to begin her six-month sentence for lying to the feds about her use of steroids and about a check-fraud scheme that involved her former partner - Tim Montgomery.


The 32-year-old athlete reported to the Federal Medical Center-Carswell correctional facility, where she was assigned inmate number 84868/054, according to AFP.

Jones, who was stripped of the three gold and two bronze medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, had been told she had until March 11 to begin her sentence.


All Jones' results since September 1, 2000, have been stricken from the records and Jones has been banned from competition by the IAAF, the sport's governing body, even though she announced in October her decision to retire.

MARION JONES' MEDALS OFFICIALLY SNATCHED

IOC lowers the final hammer on track star following steroid admission.




Marion Jones was officially stripped of her five Olympic medals Wednesday by The International Olympic Committee following her admission that she lied about using performance enhancing drugs.

The IOC also banned the former track star from attending next year's Beijing Olympics in any capacity and said it could bar her from all future games. Last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations erased all of Jones' results dating to September 2000, but it was up to the IOC to formally disqualify her and erase her Olympic medals.

Jones won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay in Sydney, and bronze in the long jump and 100-meter relay. She was the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at a single Olympics.


In addition to the Olympic medals, the IOC also disqualified Jones from her 7th-place finish in the long jump at the 2004 Athens Olympics. As previously reported, Jones had already handed back the three gold medals and two bronze she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.


The IOC postponed a decision on redistributing her medals, including whether to strip her American relay teammates and whether to upgrade doping-tainted Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou to gold in the 100. The reshuffling of Jones' medals could affect the medal status of more than three dozen other athletes.

MARION JONES RETURNS HER OLYMPIC MEDALS

Disgraced track star Marion Jones has returned the five medals she won at the 2000 Olympics, just days after the International Olympic Committee said it would move quickly to strip her of the medals after she pleaded guilty Friday to using steroids.

Her lawyer, Henry DePippo, said Monday that Jones had turned in the three gold and two bronze medals won at the Sydney games, but declined to say where they are now.
"She apologizes to her competitors and hopes the record books will be amended to accurately reflect their achievements," a source, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, track-and-field's governing body has expressed "disappointed" in Jones' admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs.

"If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self sacrifice and hard work I sincerely believe that she could have been an honest champion at the Sydney Games," said Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), in a statement. "Now, instead, Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history."

In addition to her Olympic medals, Jones also won a gold (100 meters) and bronze (long jump) at the 1999 worlds in Seville, Spain, and two gold (200 and 4x100) and a silver (100) at the 2001 world championships in Edmonton, Alberta.

MARION JONES "ONE OF BIGGEST FRAUDS" IN SPORT

By Gene Cherry

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympic champion Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Saturday.

"It is a tragedy," Lamine Diack said in a statement to Reuters.

After years of denial, triple Olympic champion Jones admitted on Friday she had used steroids and pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to lying to federal investigators.

Diack said the admission, which could cost Jones the five medals she won at the 2000 Games, tarnished not only the sprinter but the image of the sport worldwide.

"I am deeply disappointed that an athlete with Marion Jones's immense natural ability gave in to the corrupt, 'get rich quick' spin of a dope dealer like Victor Conte," Diack said.

"If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self sacrifice and hard work, I sincerely believe that she could have been an honest champion at the Sydney Games," Diack said of Jones, who won three gold and two bronze medals in Sydney.

"Now, instead, Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history," Diack added.

'THE CLEAR'

Jones, told a federal judge in New York she swallowed the previously undetectable steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) also known as "the clear," which she said had been given to her by former coach Trevor Graham.

She said Graham had received "the clear" from BALCO head Conte, one of five men previously convicted for their roles in distributing steroids.

The 31-year-old American faces up to six months in jail and will be sentenced on January 11.

Diack praised the progress made by the combined efforts of the IAAF, International Olympic Committee (IOC), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and national agencies such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

"Together we will stamp out doping wherever it rears its ugly head," he said.

However, Diack acknowledged that the admissions by Jones had harmed an already troubled sport.

"A lot of people believed in the achievements of Marion Jones and this confession leaves a bitter taste and tarnishes the image of a sport in which a majority of athletes are honest and clean," he said.

"But as well as sadness, there is a feeling of satisfaction because this case shows that it doesn't matter how big a name you are, or when the offence was committed, if you are doping, we will get you in the end."

The IOC is expected to strip Jones, once the biggest female name in athletics, of her five Sydney Olympic medals later this year.

MARION JONES ADMITS TO STEROID USE

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer

Track star Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and plans to plead guilty tomorrow 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, which was read to The Washington Post by a person who had been given a copy. A person familiar with Jones's legal situation who requested anonymity confirmed the relevant facts that were described in the letter.

Jones said her former coach, Trevor Graham, gave her the substance, telling her it was the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and saying she should take it by putting two drops under her tongue. Graham, contacted by telephone today, said he had no comment.

Jones's admissions could cost her the three gold and two bronze medals she won in Sydney. In December 2004, the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into allegations surrounding performance-enhancing drug use by Jones, once considered the greatest female athlete in the world.

In the past, Jones has vehemently denied using steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones said she "trusted [Graham] and never thought for one second" she was using a performance-enhancing drug until after she left Graham's Raleigh, N.C.-based training camp at the end of 2002. "Red flags should have been raised when he told me not to tell anyone about" the supplement program, she said in the letter. She also said she noticed changes in how her body felt and how she was able to recover from workouts.

The clear, also known as THG, is a powerful steroid that was found to be at the center of the performance-enhancing drugs scandal known as Balco. More than a dozen track and field athletes have faced punishments for their use of the clear, which drug-testing authorities could not detect until Graham sent a sample of it to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2003.

Baseball players Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi admitted during grand jury testimony to using the clear, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Barry Bonds also admitted using a substance that he had been told by his personal trainer was flaxseed oil, the Chronicle reported.

The federal probe surrounding Balco, a nutritional supplements company based in Burlingame, Calif., has resulted in five criminal convictions. Jones's coach, Graham, was indicted last November on three counts of lying to federal agents connected to the investigation. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for next month.

The head of Balco, Victor Conte, has repeatedly and publicly accused Jones of using drugs.

Jones, who recently married former sprinter Obadele Thompson, said in her letter that she planned to fly from her home in Austin and meet her mother in New York to enter the plea. She said she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a maximum of five years in prison for one count of lying to federal agents.

"I want to apologize for all of this," she said, according to the person reading the letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

Reached at their Austin home, Thompson declined to comment on the letter, portions of which were read to him, saying "the process has to go through before you can make any comments. . . . I'm sure at the appropriate time, all necessary comments will be made." He did not dispute the contents of the letter.

The letter says that when Jones was questioned in 2003 by federal agents investigating Balco, she lied about using the clear even though agents presented her with a sample and she immediately recognized it as what she had taken at Graham's behest. The letter says she lied because she panicked and wanted to protect herself and her coach.

Jones also said in the letter that she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by track athlete Tim Montgomery, the father of her young son. Montgomery pleaded guilty in New York this year for his part in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and money-laundering scheme.

Jones said she told investigators she knew nothing about the deposit, even though Montgomery told her it was from the 2005 sale of a refurbished vehicle and was partial payment for $50,000 she had lent him.

"Once again, I panicked," she wrote. "I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away as possible."