Here's What Happened To Former Olympic Athlete Marion Jones — Transcript

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1. 0:00She won some Olympic medals, headed to  prison, and then became a gladiator. This
2. 0:05is the story of the rise, downfall,  and redemption of Marion Jones.
3. 0:10Marion Jones initially found her way to athletics,
4. 0:13specifically basketball and track, as a way of  connecting with her half-brother, Albert Kelly.
5. 0:18While in college at the University of North  Carolina, she was on the national champion
6. 0:22Tar Heel basketball team in 1994. She also met  her future husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter,
7. 0:29during her time at UNC. He worked as a track  coach for the school, and they married in
8. 0:34October 1998. From that point forward, she  devoted most of her time to track and field.
9. 0:40Jones dedicated herself to representing the  United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney,
10. 0:45Australia. Once she made the team, she declared  that she would win five gold medals in all of
11. 0:50her events. It was a bold declaration, to be  sure, but not one that was entirely unfounded.
12. 0:57At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Jones competed  in five track and field events: the 100 meters,
13. 1:03200 meters, 4x400-meter relay, 4x100-meter  relay, and the long jump. She was laser-focused
14. 1:11on achieving her goal of five gold medals. It  didn't quite work out as perfectly as she'd hoped,
15. 1:17though she did become the first woman to win  five medals at a single Olympics. She took the
16. 1:22gold in the 100, 200, and 4x400 while settling  for third-place bronzes in the other two events.
17. 1:28Her husband C.J. Hunter pulled out of the shot  put competition due to an injury but stayed on
18. 1:34as her coach. Shortly after she won her first  event, news broke that Hunter had failed his
19. 1:39pre-Olympic drug tests. He tested positive for  the anabolic steroid nandrolone, which resulted
20. 1:46in a suspension and the loss of his coaching  credentials. The scandal cast a negative light
21. 1:51on Jones' drug-free image, and it didn't help  their marriage, either, as they divorced in 2002.
22. 1:57Marion Jones and C.J. Hunter didn't have any kids  during their time together, but motherhood was
23. 2:02still in the cards for Jones. After they split up,  she began dating Tim Montgomery, who was at the
24. 2:07time the world record holder in the 100 meters.  They eventually had a son, Timothy Montgomery Jr.,
25. 2:13who was born prematurely. Shortly afterward,  Jones issued a press release in which she said,
26. 2:19"I am so happy. This is the greatest thing that  has ever happened to me. He's a beautiful baby,
27. 2:24and Tim and I could not be more excited."
28. 2:26Though they had a son together, Jones and  Montgomery never married. She eventually
29. 2:30moved on to a new relationship with fellow  Olympic sprinter Obadele Thompson of Barbados,
30. 2:35who took the bronze in the 100 meters  at the 2000 Summer Games. They married
31. 2:40in a quiet ceremony in early 2007  in Wilson's Mills, North Carolina.
32. 2:44Later that year, Jones and Thompson  had a son named Amir. Two years later,
33. 2:49they welcomed a daughter named Eva-Marie.  The family ultimately settled in Austin,
34. 2:53Texas, where Jones launched  her Take a Break program.
35. 2:57"Is that good?"
36. 2:58Marion Jones' performance at the 2000  Olympics made her a media darling. As
37. 3:02her handlers paraded her around the  country, she suddenly had plenty of
38. 3:07new opportunities to pursue off the track.  This included appearances as a contestant
39. 3:11on the game shows Pyramid and Who Wants to Be  a Millionaire, but perhaps her biggest foray
40. 3:16into the world of media was the 2003 IMAX  film Top Speed. The movie documents Jones
41. 3:23and other "uncommonly fast individuals" with  incredible visuals, CGI, and special effects.
42. 3:29After Top Speed, Jones' media appearances  coincided with her ongoing legal issues.
43. 3:34This included one role on a scripted series,
44. 3:37as she played herself on an episode  of the HBO show Arli$$ in 2001.
45. 3:42Throughout her track and field career, Marion  Jones fought off allegations of steroid use. They
46. 3:48went all the way back to her time in high school  after she missed a drug test. At the time, she
47. 3:53was suspended from competing in track and field  competitions for four years. She appealed that
48. 3:57decision, claiming that she never received the  letter notifying her of the test. She even hired
49. 4:02famed attorney Johnnie Cochran to defend her,  and they successfully overturned the suspension.
50. 4:08But that was only the beginning of this saga.  During college, Jones developed a reputation
51. 4:13for working with coaches who found themselves on  the wrong side of a steroid scandal. Most notably,
52. 4:19her former husband and coach, C.J. Hunter,  tested positive for steroids multiple times.
53. 4:24Jones' name also came up during the scandal  surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative,
54. 4:29aka BALCO. In 2002, the federal government  investigated BALCO, and their findings
55. 4:35implicated dozens of athletes in a systematic  distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
56. 4:40Jones vehemently denied that she used any  banned substances, and she never failed a
57. 4:45test. She even went so far as daring the  Anti-Doping Agency to charge her in 2004.
58. 4:52For years, Marion Jones maintained that  she didn't use steroids at any point in
59. 4:56her career. Unfortunately, though, there  was plenty of evidence implicating her,
60. 5:01so the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency opened an  investigation. Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO,
61. 5:07testified that he personally helped inject  Jones with steroids before and after the
62. 5:122000 Olympics. C.J. Hunter also admitted  to helping her take steroids. However,
63. 5:17she never failed a test, so no  charges were brought against her.
64. 5:20But then in 2006, Jones failed a preliminary  drug test when Erythropoietin was found in
65. 5:26her urine. A subsequent test didn't find any  more of the drug, so her name was cleared for
66. 5:31the time being. But then on October 5, 2007,  she held a press conference and admitted to
67. 5:37lying to federal investigators and to taking  steroids before and after the 2000 Olympics.
68. 5:43"I have betrayed your trust."
69. 5:45Lying to federal investigators is a crime,  and Jones faced a maximum possible sentence
70. 5:50of five years in prison if convicted. She'd  previously claimed that she believed that she
71. 5:54took a flaxseed oil supplement, but her admission  in 2007 suddenly changed the stakes for her.
72. 6:01Marion Jones ultimately pleaded guilty to two  counts of making false statements to federal
73. 6:05agents. Had she gone to trial, she probably  would've faced a more significant prison sentence,
74. 6:10but her plea deal reduced her time behind bars.  She was ultimately given a six-month sentence,
75. 6:16along with two years of supervised release  and 800 hours of community service.
76. 6:20Jones begged the judge to limit her prison time,
77. 6:23as she hoped to not be separated from  her children. Prosecutors recommended
78. 6:28zero to six months of confinement, so the  judge handed down the maximum requested
79. 6:32sentence. She reported to jail on March  11, 2008, and was released on September 5.
80. 6:38Jones' crimes weren't limited to lying  to federal investigators. She also
81. 6:42pleaded guilty to lying to investigators  related to a check-counterfeiting scheme,
82. 6:47as records showed that she deposited $25,000  from her ex-boyfriend Tim Montgomery.
83. 6:52"I was there for almost six months, and  there were nights that were extremely hard."
84. 6:59After admitting to lying for years about her  steroid use, Marion Jones's competitive career
85. 7:04was essentially over. The U.S. Anti-Doping  Agency handed down a two-year suspension
86. 7:09from track and field, but Jones took it  a step further by officially retiring.
87. 7:13The USADA also disqualified every one of  her achievements beginning on September 1,
88. 7:192000, which required the forfeiture  of points, prize money, and medals.
89. 7:24Soon after, the International Olympic  Committee stripped Jones of her medals
90. 7:28and removed her stats from Olympic records.  The IOC's decision came a month after the
91. 7:32International Association of Athletics  Federations erased Jones' stats going
92. 7:37back to September 2000. Essentially, every  one of her achievements that happened after
93. 7:42her admitted steroid use became suspect  and was removed from the record book.
94. 7:47Marion Jones' admission of guilt also  led to some significant financial costs.
95. 7:51Not only did she have to defend  herself with expensive attorneys,
96. 7:54but she also lost some of her reliable  revenue streams. By June 2007, the Los
97. 7:59Angeles Times reported that she had only  about $2,000 in her bank account. She lost
98. 8:04her $2.5 million mansion in Chapel Hill,  North Carolina due to a bank foreclosure.
99. 8:10Furthermore, Jones lost a countersuit  brought by track coach Dan Pfaff that
100. 8:14resulted in a $240,000 judgment for unpaid  fees and expenses. While defending herself,
101. 8:21she missed out on five international competitions,  losing around $300,000 in appearance fees. At the
102. 8:27height of her career, Jones earned as much as  $80,000 per race and as much as $1 million in
103. 8:33endorsement deals. But in 2007, she was let  go from all of her endorsement contracts.
104. 8:39In addition to returning her medals, she was  also ordered to repay $700,000 in prize money.
105. 8:44"We all go through challenging times in our lives."
106. 8:46"Absolutely."
107. 8:47Before focusing solely on track and  field, Marion Jones was also crushing
108. 8:51it on the basketball court. She played three  seasons with the North Carolina Tar Heels
109. 8:56and even won the national championship her  freshman year. With her track career over,
110. 9:01she returned to her roots in October  2009 by training with the WNBA's San
111. 9:05Antonio Silver Stars. As she recalled  to The New York Times at the time,
112. 9:10"I thought it would be an interesting  journey if I decided to do this. It
113. 9:13would give me an opportunity to  share my message to young people
114. 9:16on a bigger platform; it would give me  an opportunity to get a second chance."
115. 9:20Jones eventually got that chance when she signed  with the Tulsa Shock in 2010 as a point guard.
116. 9:26She played 47 games, but she was eventually cut  before her third season. She averaged less than
117. 9:32one point per game in her 14 appearances of  her second season with the team. Incidentally,
118. 9:37Jones had been drafted into the WNBA  back in 2003 by the Phoenix Mercury,
119. 9:42but she never played any games with the team. In 2004, Marion Jones published her first book,
120. 9:48entitled Marion Jones: Life in  the Fast Lane — An Illustrated
121. 9:52Autobiography. There was one line in  there that really didn't age well:
122. 9:56"I am against performance-enhancing drugs. I have  never taken them, and I never will take them."
123. 10:02Of course, Jones' tune on that topic eventually  changed. She also wrote during her time in prison,
124. 10:08mainly in the form of letters to her husband and  children. When she got out, she continued writing
125. 10:12and eventually published a memoir in 2010 entitled  On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to
126. 10:18Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome  and Succeed. She addressed the many lies she told
127. 10:24over the years, how she fell into a pattern of  dishonesty, and how it impacted her life. She also
128. 10:29detailed her experiences in prison, including  the time she was attacked. As she put it,
129. 10:34"I felt like my life was in  danger. And I just lost it.
130. 10:37I hit [another inmate] in the face with  my cooler and kicked her in the ribs."
131. 10:41Marion Jones has experienced plenty of highs  and lows over the years. She became the fastest
132. 10:46woman in the world at the 2000 Olympics,  and then she competed at the next Summer
133. 10:51Games in 2004 in Athens, Greece, though she  didn't get any medals that time. Of course,
134. 10:56it all eventually came crashing down, though  she's done her best to rebuild since then.
135. 11:00Jones and her family eventually settled in the  city of Pflugerville, just outside of Austin,
136. 11:05Texas. She took a job with Camp Gladiator,  an outdoor fitness training program designed
137. 11:10for adults of any fitness level. Jones'  Camp Gladiator page lists her fitness
138. 11:14background as a "Former Olympian and  Collegiate National Champion," and she
139. 11:19calls herself a "COACH" in all capital  letters and not just a personal trainer.
140. 11:23"It's a great organization if anybody is kind of
141. 11:26starting out on a fitness journey  or they want something different."
142. 11:30In addition to personal training, Jones takes any  opportunity she can to connect with the youth of
143. 11:35her community. In February 2020, she accepted an  invitation to be the main speaker at the Delco
144. 11:41Elementary School in northeast Austin during  the school's Black History Month program. She
145. 11:45spoke about the importance of taking a break  and thinking before making pivotal decisions,
146. 11:50which has been her central message  since coming clean about her drug use.