Marion+Jones

Marion Jones: Hero or not?

Champ or cheat? Steroid denials land top U.S. athletes in court.
Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication 107. 12 (Dec 10, 2007) : p4(4).

==Full Text :== COPYRIGHT 2007 Weekly Reader Corp.

Baseball fans went wild each time Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate in 2001. He smashed a record 73 home runs and was on his way to becoming the all-time home-run king. That same year, Marion Jones was the woman to beat in track and field. She had just won three gold medals at the 2000 Olympics and was nicknamed the "fastest woman in the world." They were heroes then. They would still be heroes today, but steroids got in the way. Bonds was charged last month with perjury--lying under oath--for telling federal investigators that he had never used steroids. Prosecutors say they have records linking the slugger and his trainer to a steroid supplier.

Jones initially denied using steroids too, but in October, she pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about steroids. She now faces up to six months in jail. Bonds is just starting his legal battle. His first court appearance was set for December 7.

Drugs have been seeping into sports for centuries. Olympians in ancient Greece were known to stir up crazy concoctions to make their bodies run faster or farther. (See Time Trip.) In the 1950s, weight lifters injected themselves with testosterone, the male sex hormone, to gain strength. The anabolic steroids found in sports today are manufactured to act like natural testosterone. They have good uses: helping people recover from surgery, for example. But steroids also have a dark and illegal side: pumping up athletes. Since 1990, it has been illegal to use steroids in the United States without a doctor's prescription. Steroids were banned from the Olympics and college sports more than 30 years ago. Professional sports have been much slower to catch up. Major League Baseball didn't ban steroids until 2002. Today, most sports test players for illegal drug use. A baseball player who tests positive for steroids gets a 50-game suspension the first time it happens. If he tests positive three times, he will be suspended from the sport for life.
 * LAYING DOWN THE LAW**

Drug testing in sports has made athletes think twice about using steroids, but it hasn't stopped doping. That became obvious the day federal agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) in California in 2003. Agents found dozens of records linking top U.S. athletes to specially designed steroids that drug tests couldn't easily detect. New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi was among the athletes listed. Giambi told a grand jury investigating BALCO that he had watched enviously as Bonds hit homer after homer and had finally contacted Bonds's trainer, Greg Anderson, to learn the slugger's secret. Giambi testified that Anderson started him on testosterone and the designer steroid THG, also known as "the clear," according to transcripts leaked to the press. (Anderson was later convicted of illegally distributing steroids and sentenced to three months in prison.) Bonds and Jones also testified. Both denied using steroids and were later charged with lying under oath. Bonds was surprised by the charges. His attorney Laura Enos says the case against him has serious problems. She hints that someone helping the prosecution might have lied under oath.
 * THE SCANDAL**

Jones lost almost everything she had worked so hard for in sports. Her reputation is in tatters. The organization that oversees worldwide running events, the International Association of Athletics Federations, disqualified all her race results after Sept. 1, 2000. Her world championships were wiped from the record books, and she has to repay $700,000 in winnings. Other sports also crack down hard on doping. Racing cyclist Floyd Landis lost his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for testosterone. But team sports are a different story--the records remain. When sports commentators talk about Bonds's 756th home run, the hit that broke Hank Aaron's record, some wonder whether the record books will have an asterisk next to Bonds's name to suggest that his performance may not have been pure talent. The lure of big money and the fans' ever-growing expectations may be part of the problem of drugs in sports. Bonds alluded to that pressure in a 2005 interview with ESPN: "We go 162 games. You've got to come back day after day after day. We're entertainers. If I can't go out there and somebody pays $60 for a ticket, and I'm not in the lineup, who's getting cheated? Not me.... We need to forget about the past and let us play the game. We're entertainers. Let us entertain."
 * THE ASTERISK (*)**

When teenagers use steroids, the drugs throw their still-developing bodies out of whack. Among other things, steroids can make Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse
 * AT A GLANCE**
 * pimples pop up,
 * hair fall out,
 * guys grow breasts,
 * girls grow beards,
 * livers grow tumors,
 * hearts clog up,
 * users turn violent.


 * Background**
 * The type of steroids found in sports doping are anabolic steroids. They are derived from the male sex hormone testosterone, which promotes the growth and repair of human tissue. In their legal use, anabolic steroids can treat burn patients and people recovering from extensive surgery. However, it is illegal for an athlete in the United States to use steroids simply to bulk up. For more information about U.S. laws on steroids, go to www.dea.gov/concern/steroids.html. Nicknames for anabolic steroids include "juice" and "Arnolds," which refers to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Mr. Universe bodybuilder.
 * A different type of steroid is found in asthma inhalers and cortisone shots. These corticosteroids are used to reduce inflammation.
 * The National Institute on Drug Abuse surveys teenagers across the United States each year about their drug use. The survey has found that the number of students who say they have used steroids has been falling. In 2006, 1.6 percent of eighth graders and 2.7 percent of high school seniors said they had used steroids. The survey also found an increasing awareness of the dangers of steroids, with 60 percent of seniors saying steroid use is risky. Read the full survey on youth drug abuse trends at www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/hsyouthtrends.html.


 * WORDS IN THE NEWS**

A grand jury is a group that examines accusations against a person charged with a crime. If the evidence warrants, the grand jury makes formal charges on which the accused person is later tried. Grand juries do not determine guilt or innocence; they decide only whether a prosecutor has enough evidence to bring an accused person to trial. In the United States, the right to be heard by a grand jury is safeguarded by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
 * Grand Jury** (page 5)

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** Newsweek (August 16, 2004) : p52. **
**Full Text :** She was, her Nike handlers never ceased reminding reporters, the total package: the looks, the smile, the smarts and the easy patter. And, just incidentally, she planned to win a record five gold medals in Sydney. "I'm going to run fast and jump far," Marion Jones told NEWSWEEK back in the summer of 2000. "All my preparation is pointed at the moment when the Games are over and I have the satisfaction of having won all I've entered." But Jones's quest was about more than personal satisfaction or even Olympic history. Before she'd set one foot Down Under, her national charm offensive was going gangbusters. Michael Jordan may have been king, but there was room for a queen beside him on the Nike throne. Jones never quite ascended to American royalty. While she performed brilliantly in Sydney, winning three gold medals, a silver and a bronze, when she fell short of her goal her disappointment was so palpable it became ours, too. Then there was an unseemly brush with scandal. In the middle of her competition, Jones delivered a "stand by your man" act--sealed with a for-the-cameras kiss--after revelations that her then husband, shot-putter C. J. Hunter, had tested positive for steroids. Yet a year later, after the couple (the press dubbed them "Beauty and the Beast") split up, Jones had just one lament: that her quest for fame and fortune hadn't yielded enough of the former. "We're always saying we compete for the love of the sport," she said, "but to be truthful, we want the recognition, too." It doesn't require a presidential campaign to remind us how long four years can be. The Olympic cycle does that too. Today Jones has all the recognition she ever dreamed about; now she desires almost none of it. She has become the public face of U.S. Olympic sports' biggest drug scandal ever--despite no conclusive proof of any wrongdoing. While other stars in her sport have been suspended for violations, Jones has not been formally charged. She re-mains just a target of a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation. The investigation stems from her involvement (she says she purchased only legal vitamin supplements) with the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). Last year federal investigators raided BALCO and seized steroids, human growth hormones and other performance-enhancing drugs. Dozens of elite athletes who were BALCO clients--including Jones and her boyfriend, 100-meter world-record holder Tim Montgomery--were paraded before a federal grand jury. (So far four people, including the lab owner, have been indicted.) "I can't control people who simply read the headlines, I can't control their perception," said Jones during the recent Olympic trials, where she performed poorly and qualified for the U.S. team in only the long jump. "I think what [USADA] is trying to do is unfair." The agency's suspicions have forced Jones once again to spend the pre-Olympic season on the offensive. But this time she's trying to clear her name rather than make it. Jones has thundered her innocence often and unequivocally. Her lawyers even showed The New York Times some USADA evidence that they regarded as circumstantial and unconvincing. According to the Times, the BALCO materials included Jones's personal check to the company founder, a ledger that appeared to monitor her urine- and blood-test results and a calendar with the initials "MJ" that appeared to contain code letters for banned substances. Despite Jones's pro-active defense, she can be oblivious to public perception. She switched coaches two years ago and began working with Charlie Francis, who was implicated, as Ben Johnson's coach, in the biggest drug scandal in Olympic history. And like her ex-husband, her new boyfriend has been charged with using illegal drugs. Yet she insists, "I don't think I've lost my reputation. There's only one person who knows the truth--God." God isn't talking, and Jones has grown reticent. After finishing a poor fifth in the 100 meters at the Olympic trials she brushed past reporters, saying, "When I talk, you guys have something negative to say. When I don't talk, you have something negative to say." But when she finally did speak, Jones didn't blame her poor showing on the distractions. She said she had struggled to rebound after the birth in June 2003 of her son, fathered by Montgomery. "I underestimated childbirth," she said. Jones shouldn't, however, underestimate America's appetite for redemption. This country's sports fans have embraced a host of athletes whose careers appeared to be derailed or at least detoured by scandal. Jones certainly is beleaguered now. She was even told by European track officials that she was persona non grata at recent major meets she intended to use as tune-ups for Athens. Still, she can march into the Olympic stadium Friday night as a full-fledged member of the U.S. team. She remains a favorite in the long jump and, with possible suspensions and withdrawals of other U.S. athletes, could wind up running both the 100 meters and a relay. Marion Jones may yet have a golden moment or two. And it is not an outsize leap from golden moment to golden girl once again.
 * COPYRIGHT 2004 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com **
 * Byline: Mark Starr**

Source Citation:
Starr, Mark. "A Long Jump; Track-and-field superstar Marion Jones tries to outrun an accelerating scandal over doping." //Newsweek.// (August 16, 2004): 52. //Student Resource Center - Junior//. Gale. Hershey Middle School. 27 Nov. 2012 .