Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sports

OH HOW dem chickens love to come home to roost.

I hate to blow my own horn here but it was just over a year and a half ago that I prophetically put my fingers to the keyboard and tapped out:

'Tell me Flo-Jo was clean when she broke all those records in the late '80s and I'll tell you I'm the Pied Piper. Tell me Marion Jones is a clean athlete and I'll ask you: Why did she deal with drug Svengali Victor Conti of the infamous BALCO lab?

'Maybe she just kept bad company like super-juiced ex-hubby C.J. Hunter and her baby father, Montgomery, the former world record holder for 100m and the poster child for synthetic achievement'.

Now, according to the Washington Post, Marion has finally 'fessed up that she used the infamously-named, famous performance-enhancer called 'the clear' as she blazed her way to three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

All-healing balm

In a letter to 'close family and friends', the Post states Jones admitted to using 'the clear' from 1999 and that she got it from her Jamaica-born coach Trevor Graham under the guise that it was that all-healing balm, flaxseed oil.

"I want to apologise for all of this, I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways," an apparently contrite Jones states in her letter, the Post reported.

Of course, when you're facing six months in the pokey on steroid-related charges I suppose you are inclined to be a little circumspect.

However, I can't trust a word that comes out of the mouth or off the pen nib of a person who has lied and lied about cheating for almost a decade now.

BALCO founder Conti said several years ago that he showed Jones how to inject human growth hormone (HGH) and designed her doping regimen with Graham and the now Mrs Obadele Thompson.

These accusations were repeated and enhanced upon in the book Game of Shadows which, whilst focussing on baseballer Barry Bonds and his links to BALCO, found time to intricately document Jones' drug use.

As any good American would, Jones sued Conti for a tidy US$25 million for reaffirming his claims on TV and in a sport magazine.

Well, I don't think she's ever going to see a red penny of that now, eh?

Sorry feeling

If you're starting to feel sorry for another fallen track idol who was duped into using dope by a leach-like trainer and an unscrupulous peddler, don't!

To think Jones did not know she was cheating her way to fame and fortune is th of naivety.

Conti's already done his time in the can and there's no reason in the world why Jones and Graham should not get to stay in the hotel with bars, but no beers as well.

If you want to feel sorry for anybody, how about those young girls all around the world who marvelled at her brilliance and wanted to be just like Marion.

Their idol and the purity of their dreams have been ripped away.

The Marion Jones story should be a cautionary tale for all athletes, but it won't be because greed for the spotlight and big bucks will always rule the day.

Marion is now just another athlete who got sucked into the corrupt part of the game and has now been spat out.

Let's just hope the next Jones is not one of our own.

Later

tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com