Et Tu, Marion: The Rise And Fall Of A Track Star

There are stories, and then there are stories. For several weeks I have shared contemporary stories with you, some from the news of the day, most of the rest, from the recent past. Some stories resulted from my own personal interest, others were prompted by interest from and/or requests by friends. But all were stories I wanted to write.

While this story details a current event, to write it, I am traveling a difficult path. In penning this piece about Marion Jones, who observed her 32nd birthday last Friday, I am exploring the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of a great sports heroine.

Ms. Jones, a University of North Carolina (UNC) alumna, a heritage and legacy we share, burst upon the scene as a high school track star, winning the California State Championship in the 100 meters four consecutive years. Marion went on to matriculate at UNC, where she played point guard for the 1993 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship team, as a freshman.

This is where the difficulty emerges for me. This is a story I do not want to write; but I must! It is emotionally cathartic for me. Sure, I admired her and followed her career because she was a multi-talented athlete who dominated her sport, and at one time was considered the world’s fasted woman, and best female athlete. But really…for me, much of her appeal and inherent significance as an athlete accrued from her Carolina Blue lineage. There, I said it!

With that admission out of the way, I acknowledge there are both similarities and differences in this piece and others I have written. Specifically, the Barry Bonds post covered an athlete operating in the Twilight Zone that consumes competitors caught up in the specter of having been alleged to have used banned and/or illegal substances. At the moment, they are separated by the key distinction that Marion has copped to it, while Barry has not.

That is clearly a major difference. For all the certainty in the minds of Bonds’ accusers, the debate continues. The absoluteness regarding Bonds’ alleged doping is relegated to the province of skeptics, cynics, and other non-believers. Alternately, for Marion, there is no longer any debate, all doubt has been removed, she is a cheat, and a liar.

Looking back at the history of Marion’s athletic career, circumstantial evidence is preponderantly stacked against her. Ms. Jones’ brushes with the banned substance police include:

• Being successfully defended by Johnny Cochrane against charges of using banned substances during her high school track career

• Having married shot putter C. J. Hunter in 1998, who was banned from the 2000 Olympics in Sidney, Australia after testing positive for a substance known as nandrolone; the couple divorced in 2002

• Giving birth in June, 2003, to a son, fathered by Tim Montgomery, a World Class sprinter who broke the 100 meter World Record in 2002; Montgomery was subsequently banned from the sport and his record rescinded after admitting to using performance enhancing drugs
  
  
• Having been named by Victor Conte, BALCO Founder, in a 2004 ABC 20/20 interview, in which he claimed he personally gave Marion five different illegal performance enhancing drugs
  
  
• Receiving tutelage for a number of years from Trevor Graham who is being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury for ties to athletes who used banned substances
  
  
• Working with Charlie Francis, who admitted providing performance enhancing drugs to Ben Johnson, who tested positive for steroids after a record-setting performance in the 100 meters at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea
  
  
• Collaborating with Steven Riddick, who coached Tim Montgomery and other athletes involved in drug scandals
  
  
• Having a June 2006 “A” Sample positive urine test for Erythropoietin (EPO), a banned performance enhancing substance, at the USA Track & Field Championships; cleared by a later negative “B” Sample
  
  
• Admitting lying to federal agents about steroid use prior to the 2000 Olympics and pled guilty in US District Court in White Plains, NY, in October, 2007
  
  

There are numerous takes on the scandal that has ensued due to Jones’ admission. On one axis, the prevailing sentiment seems to be for analysts to take the “show no mercy to the abominably abhorrent she-devil” approach.

A middle ground segment opines there are lessons to be learned by her comeuppance. Her own of course, but more notably the hordes who emotionally invest in intangible qualities that make some human beings seem better, superior in fact, to the rest of us.

On the opposite polar extreme of the spectrum from the she-devil proponents, there are those who note Jones had a difficult and trauma-filled childhood, and should therefore be the object of pity. Her father left the family shortly after Marion’s birth. Her mother remarried when Marion was 8, and her stepfather subsequently died four years later, devastating Jones and her younger half-brother.

So, when one pulls it all together, what does it all add up to? Or perhaps more appropriately, when one subtracts all the fluff, hype, and non-essential (to the case) matter, what’s left?

For me, two key points resonate. First, for all her failings, Marion is most certainly not an abominably abhorrent she-devil. Second, I must add quickly, neither is she a victim, warranting pity.

After evaluating the sum of Marion’s skills talents, and abilities, her options, choices and consequences, and finally her meteoric rise and precipitous fall, I conclude Ms. Jones was undone by a vicious and continuous cycle of poor choices.

There can be no doubt she surrounded herself by an unscrupulous coterie of questionable intent. Moreover, in instances where her posse’s intentions were not questionable, they appear to have been worse; pernicious, clearly not in her best interest.

But that’s where personal accountability must prevail. If Marion is to leverage the lessons of her decampment from fame and fortune, she must make good on her pledge to use “the example of her bad choices and decisions to make the lives of many people improve.” That much is non-negotiable!

That’s what I think; holla back!


Read my blog anytime, 24/7/365, by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/ , Or, Google: thesphinxofcharlotte. A new post is published each Wednesday.

To read and learn more about the life and times of Marion Jones, click on the links below:

http://www.charlotte.com/sports/story/312583.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Jones
http://cornellsun.com/node/25124
http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/318240.html
http://www.sportinglife.com/others/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=others/07/10/13/ATHLETICS_Jones_Nightlead.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19404801/#storyContinued
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/10/08/jonesmedals.ap/index.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15060426
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21138883/http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2554924http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2554924