AP Photo
Marion Jones cries as she addresses the media during a news conference outside the courthouse yesterday in New York.
WHITE PLAINS, New York (AP):
Three-time Olympic champion Marion Jones pleaded guilty to lying to U.S. government investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and subsequently announced her retirement from athletics.
Outside the courthouse, Jones broke down in tears as she apologised for her actions, saying she fully understands she has disappointed her friends, family and supporters.
"I have let them down. I have let my country down and I have let myself down," she said. "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 that 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."
Lied to investigator
In court, Jones, seated at the defence table and speaking in a clear voice through a microphone, said she lied to a federal investigator in November 2003 when he asked if she had used performance-enhancing drugs.
"I answered that I had not. This was a lie, your honour," she said.
She also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud conspiracy.
Jones said she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was told by her then-coach, Trevor Graham, that she was taking flaxseed oil when it was actually 'the clear'.
"By November 2003, I realised he was giving me performance-enhancing drugs," she told the judge.
She said she "felt different, trained more intensely" and experienced "faster recovery and better times" while using the substance.
"He told me to put it under my tongue for a few seconds and swallow it," she said. "He told me not to tell anyone."
Jones was released on her own recognisance and was due back in court January 11 for sentencing.
IOC, IAAF set to take medals
LONDON (AP):
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is ready to move quickly to strip Marion Jones of her five Olympic medals following her doping confession her most prized gold could wind up going to a runner involved in a major doping scandal herself.
The International Olympic Committee said yesterday 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."
Repeated denials
The IOC opened its investigation in December 2004 after Jones was implicated in the BALCO doping scandal. The American runner - the only woman to win five medals in athletics at a single Olympics - repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and the IOC had little firm evidence to go on until now. Jones pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
"This is a sad day for sport. The only good that can be drawn from today's revelations is that her decision to finally admit the truth will play, we hope, a key part in breaking the back of the BALCO affair," IOC president Jacques Rogge said. "The IOC has, since 2004, wanted to ascertain the extent to which the case has had an impact on the Olympic Games. Our disciplinary commission, which has been working on this file over the past years, will now glean what it can from her comments and work with the IAAF and the USOC on how to finally get to the bottom of this sorry case."
Move quickly
Bach said the IOC would work in tandem with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), to determine whether Jones should have her medals and results taken away.
"We can move quite quickly," said Bach, a German lawyer who leads the IOC's three-man panel investigating the Jones case. "With the admissions, the facts are quite clear. I think it can be finalized by the end of the year."
The ruling IOC executive board's next meeting is scheduled for December 10-12 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Under statute of limitations rules, the IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to strip medals and nullify results.
In Jones' case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 1,600 relay and bronze in the long jump and 400 relay.
The standings normally would be readjusted, with the second-place finisher moving up to gold, third to silver and fourth to bronze.
Standing to inherit Jones' gold medal in the 100 would be Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, who finished second in Sydney in 11.12 seconds.
Thanou and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris were at the centre of a major doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. They failed to show up for drug tests on the eve of the Games, claimed they were injured in a motorcycle accident and eventually pulled out. Both were later suspended for two years.
Without firm evidence or an admission that Thanou was doping at the time, there may be no legal way to prevent her from getting the gold if it's taken from Jones.
"It's very unfortunate," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said. "The second place (finisher) is a convicted drugs cheat."
