The new chief of US Track and Field has asked US President George Bush not to pardon or commute disgraced sprinter Marion Jones’s conviction.
Athletics coach Trevor Graham has been banned for life by the United States Anti-Doping Agency over doping.
Disgraced former 100m world-record-holder Tim Montgomery was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison on Friday for his role in a check fraud scheme that also led to the downfall of Marion Jones. Montgomery was once considered the world’s fastest man before being banned from athletics as a dope cheat.
If the death of a racehorse is a sad event, then the death of a racehorse on live television is an obvious starting point for national catharsis. So it has been in the United States in the past few days after the collapse and ultimate euthanasia of the filly Eight Belles at the end of last weekend’s Kentucky Derby.
Last weekend, in anticipation of an unfavourable result against my beloved red and whites at St James’s Park, I took the tried-and-tested ostrich method of arranging to be out of range of TV or radio. Instead I was cycling across England from Whitehaven on the west coast, arriving in a desolate Sunderland about one hour after the final whistle.
One-time Olympic superstar Marion Jones on Friday began a six-month jail sentence for lying about her steroid use, a punishment likely to grab the attention of baseball home-run king Barry Bonds. Jones (32) reported to a correctional facility in Fort Worth, Texas, United States Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Traci Billingsley said.
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/ 17 January 2008
Disgraced American Olympic hero Marion Jones said she hasn’t told her young son that she is going to jail for lying to law-enforcement officials about using steroids and a check-fraud scheme. Jones was speaking on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Wednesday, less than two months before she is expected to begin serving a six-month prison sentence.
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/ 12 January 2008
Disgraced United States sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use, a stunning downfall for the five-time Olympic medalist. US District Court Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the sentence after Jones (32) pleaded guilty to two charges last October.
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/ 23 December 2007
Ledgers gathered in the Balco steroid investigation outline the detailed doping programme of disgraced sprinter Marion Jones, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Saturday. The newspaper cited court documents filed by prosecutors in New York in support of their case against Jones, who has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.
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/ 16 November 2007
United States baseball home-run king Barry Bonds used steroids to fuel his success and then lied about it, US prosecutors said on Thursday in charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The indictment stems from the investigation into the San Francisco Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative whose top figures have already served jail time on steroid distribution charges.
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/ 12 October 2007
The women’s 100m in Sydney was the first Olympic final I commentated on for the BBC. Marion Jones streaked to a victory so emphatic that the words that came out were an athlete’s reaction to what I’d witnessed: ”Wow! This is the Olympic Games. You’re not supposed to win by that much.”
United States sprinter Marion Jones handed over her five medals from the 2000 Olympic Games to an official of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) on Monday. Once the world’s fastest woman, Jones was hailed as the queen of the Sydney Games, where she won three gold medals, including the 100m, as well as two bronze medals.
Reversing years of denials, United States track superstar Marion Jones pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators and admitted using steroids, which could cost her the five medals she won in the 2000 Olympics. In a sober court hearing and a tear-filled appearance before reporters, Jones (31) admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.