Marion Jones was a United States Track and Field athlete whom at one point was considered the greatest female athlete in the world. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, she won 5 medals with 3 of them being gold. Jones claimed that she did not know that she was using a banned substance. Instead, she thought that substance administered by her former coach was a flaxseed supplement.
The substance referred to as the clear, also known as THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, is a powerful anabolic steroid that was at the center of the federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, or Balco. The clear was not able to be detected until Jones’ former coach sent a sample to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2003. Many other Track and Field athletes have been busted for using the clear after it became detectable. Some baseball players such as Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, and Barry Bonds have admitted to using the clear while Bonds also stated that he had been given a substance that he thought was flaxseed oil.
Unfortunate for Jones, she was given more than a slap on the wrist and a temporary ban from the sport. Jones was stripped of all of her Olympic medals as well as facing time in prison for lying to federal investigators. Jones eventually did serve 6 months in prison for obstruction of justice and perjury. Once a hero and an icon, now she has to deal with the images of a tainted past.
Ryan Upshaw
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/04/AR2007100401666.html
Group 4-Sport Management Seminar 