Guilt by association chases the world’s fastest woman
Duncan Mackay He is a big man and she a slender woman but somehow he always got lost in her shadow. CJ Hunter is the world shot put champion but most know him as the husband of Marion Jones. At the Olympics it was an association that for once has cast a long dark shadow over Jones. They are the first couple of athletics and had been seeking to become the first husband-and-wife combination to win gold medals in the same games since Emil and Dana Zatopek at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki until Hunter pulled out claiming he had a knee injury. Now it appears there may have been more to his withdrawal after the International Amateur Athletic Federation confirmed he tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone at the Bislett Games in Oslo on July 28. His reading was 1 000 times over the legal limit.
Hunter had been informed of the result about a week before the Games opened – which coincided with his pulling out. “I am going to defend myself vigorously,” he said in his only public statement. The case has to be investigated by United States Track and Field and there are no reports linking Jones to the use of banned performance- enhancing drugs. Yet guilt by association tarnished her high-profile bid for a record five Olympic gold medals. Her attempt had started so well on Saturday when she raced to the 100m title, a gold she dedicated to Hunter. But he was not there to greet Jones when she ran across the line or to wipe the tears of joy she wept later. Instead she ran to her mother Marion Toler, her brother Albert and cousins. When asked about his absence she said: “Right now CJ is all business in terms of keeping me healthy, keeping me happy. I think you will see more celebration out of him once the relay is done.”
Jones ended with three golds (100m, 200m and 4x400m relay) and two bronzes (long jump and 4x100m relay). But her every move was dogged by questions about whether she was aware of the allegations and the implications for their relationship. The situation was uncannily similar to Atlanta four years ago when Michelle Smith’s victories for Ireland in the swimming pool were overshadowed by her marriage to Erik de Bruin, a Dutch discus thrower serving a two-year ban after testing positive for testosterone. She was banned in 1998 for four years after manipulating a drugs sample. “If you share a bathroom cabinet with someone who has failed a drugs test, questions will be asked,” said one athlete. Jones and Hunter have been married for almost two years, yet many still search to understand the spark that brought them together. Jones is outgoing; Hunter is more reserved, seldom in the spotlight and rarely enjoys it when he is. One common denominator, it would seem, is that they are both world champions. They met while Jones was a star basketball player at the University of North Carolina and he was a member of the athletics department’s coaching squad. When their romance became public he was forced to quit because relationships between pupils and staff were forbidden. They are now inseparable.
“The head coach gave CJ an ultimatum,” said Jones. “It was no decision. He quit and it has been wonderful since.” Observers have speculated that Hunter is the father figure the 24-year-old Jones never had during her troubled childhood. “It doesn’t have anything to do with it,” said Hunter, who is seven years older. After years of standing just behind the best in his event – he was seventh in the Atlanta Olympics – Hunter has made remarkable progress since meeting Jones. Jones and Hunter have been labelled “beauty and the beast” for obvious reasons. At 140kg he is a broad, imposing man even seated. He stands 1,86m. What is more intimidating is Hunter’s manner. He wears a baseball cap with the visor pulled low. He stares into the distance when he talks. And he does not talk much, especially to reporters, whom he prefers to ignore. “With any situation you have the good and the bad,” said Hunter at the US Olympic trials in Sacramento in July. “And I’d rather not have any bad. And if you can’t get rid of the bad, I’d just as soon get rid of the whole thing.” Jones, who has a degree in communications, is admired for her finesse with the media. But Hunter, born in Washington DC and a political science graduate, takes an approach that is hardly politic. “If I have something to say, I’ll say it,” he said. “If I don’t, I won’t.” But that is only part of the picture, the public side, Jones said. “CJ is very protective and all of you see that. But he’s also very loving and caring. And that’s pretty much it. Perhaps you guys don’t always see that but, when we leave the track and the public eye, he’s a big teddy bear.
‘He won’t like me to say that, because it’s breaking down that wall of his, but he’s really a nice, caring guy.” Public displays of affection are rare between the high-profile pair but Jones’s love for her “big teddy bear” was on display when he won the world title in Seville last year. As he came off the track, Jones squealed like a schoolgirl and cried as she clicked away on a disposable camera, capturing her husband’s success for their private album. But Jones is the one in control. She takes out the rubbish, issues instructions in hotel lobbies and airport lounges while Hunter brings up the luggage. “It is a bonus we are in the same profession,” said Jones. “We have benefited from our success in that we get to compete in most of the same meets. When people want to see Marion, they want to see CJ. We’re a team. After a race, whether I run good or bad, he is there to cheer me up.” Jones could answer questions forever. “She handles all the stuff much better than I could ever do it,” Hunter said. “If I had my way, we would never do a press conference. We’d go to practice, we’d go to meets and we would go home.” Under Hunter’s gruffness, Jones and others say, he is smart and funny. Hunter said his tough public face is a game of sorts. “How I treat you guys has nothing to do with how I actually am,” he said.