United States sprinter Marion Jones says she’ll sue accused steroid peddler Victor Conte over his allegations that she received banned drugs before winning five medals at the Sydney Olympics ”Victor Contes’s allegations about me are not true, and the truth will come out in the appropriate forum,” Jones said Friday in a statement issued through her attorney.
”I have instructed my lawyers to vigorously explore a defamation lawsuit against Victor Conte.”
Conte, one of four men facing criminal charges in the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (Balco), which he founded, says in a television interview that he gave Jones performance-enhancing drugs and watched as she injected herself with a human growth hormone.
The full interview is to air on Friday night on the 20-20 programme, but excerpts were broadcast on Thursday.
”I think she made her decision and she’s going to have to be accountable to the consequences of her decision,” Conte told ABC.
”If she said she didn’t use drugs, then she lied.”
Jones, who has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, won three gold medals and two bronze medals at Sydney but struggled this year simply to qualify for the Athens Games.
She has never failed a drug test.
However, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) fingered Balco as the source of the previously undetectable designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), and information gathered by federal agents in the Balco case has already been used to impose sanctions on athletes for various drug infractions, even though they hadn’t tested positive.
Jones’ lawyers have argued that Conte cannot be believed because of his role in a scandal which has rocked athletics and cast a shadow over baseball.
”Mr Conte’s statements have been wildly contradictory while Marion Jones has steadfastly maintained her position throughout — she has never, ever, used performance enhancing drugs,” Jones attorney Rich Nichols said in a statement. – Sapa-AFP