Marion Jones

• Born: October 12, 1975
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California

Track-and-field athlete and basketball player

Considered one of the greatest track-and-field athletes of all time, Marion Jones in 2000 became the first woman to win five medals in one Olympics. However, she later was stripped of her Olympic titles after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs.

Early Life

Marion Lois Jones was born October 12, 1975, in Los Angeles to George Jones, owner of a self-service laundry, and Marion Toler, a medical and legal transcriptionist who had immigrated to the United States from Belize. Shortly after Jones was born, her father abandoned the family, and her parents divorced. In 1983, Jones’s mother married Ira Toler, a retired postal worker. Toler became a stay-at-home father, caring for Jones and her older brother, Albert, while her mother worked. Toler was the only father Jones had ever known, and the two became inseparable. In 1987, when Jones was eleven years old, Toler died suddenly of a stroke, leaving Jones devastated.

To alleviate her grief, Jones poured herself into various sports, playing on neighborhood soccer, T-ball, and baseball teams with her brother and his friends. After watching the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games on television, Jones idolized Olympic champion sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner and wanted to run just like her. Jones began running track and playing basketball in middle school.

When Jones began attending Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, California, she already was an accomplished sprinter, long jumper, and basketball player. In 1990, Jones won the California state championship in the 100-meter and 200-meter competitions, a feat she repeated four years in a row. In 1993, Jones also won the long jump state championship, bringing her to a total of nine state championships in four years of high school, a California record. She also was a star on Rio Mesa’s women’s basketball team. In 1991, Jones transferred to nearby Thousand Oaks High School, and in 1992, Thousand Oaks won the state championship. Jones was named the country’s high school athlete of the year two years in a row, 1991 and 1992. In 1991, Jones also was named the California Division I player of the year for basketball after averaging 24.6 points per game. By the time Jones graduated from high school in 1993, she was considered one of the top athletes in the world in both basketball and track and field.

Life’s Work

In 1993, Jones attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill on a basketball scholarship, playing point guard for the Lady Tar Heels. She set a UNC record for points scored by a freshman (494). With Jones’s help, the UNC Lady Tar Heels won the 1994 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s championship. In 1994, Jones also competed in track and field and was named an All-American in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 4-by-100-meter relay, and the long jump.

Jones continued to shine in her sophomore year, scoring a total of one thousand points in basketball and leading the Lady Tar Heels to the 1995 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship. In August, 1995, while playing basketball in the World University Games, Jones broke her left foot, causing her to miss the entire 1995–96 basketball season and the 1996 Olympics. Jones returned to play basketball, however, in the fall of 1996, and the team once again won the ACC championship in 1997.

After graduating from UNC in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, Jones focused all of her attention on track and field and the 2000 Olympic Games. At the 1997 U.S. National Championships, Jones won the long jump, 100 meters, and 200 meters. Later that year, she won the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4-by-100-meter relay at the World Championships in Athens. At the 1998 National Championships, Jones once again won the long jump, 100 meters, and 200 meters. After Jones won the spring events in the 1998 Goodwill Games, Grand Prix, and World Cup, she was named the outstanding track-and-field athlete of 1998.

In 1999, Jones again won the World Championships in the 100 meters and announced that she planned to be the first woman in history to win five gold medals at one Olympic Games, creating a media frenzy. She went on to win three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, making her an international celebrity and the breakout star of the Games. However, these medals later were revoked when Jones admitted to using steroids to improve her performance.

In 2002, Jones became pregnant by then-boyfriendTim Montgomery, an Olympic sprinter. She took a sabbatical from track, and upon returning to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, she failed to qualify for the 100-meter final and later withdrew from competition. In 2006, Jones won the 100 meters at the Gaz de France, but in June of that year, she tested positive for steroids and withdrew from further competition. The following year she announced her retirement from track. In 2008, Jones was sentenced to six months in federal prison for committing perjury about her steroid use and a check-fraud scam in which Montgomery was implicated.

In 2010, after completing two years’ parole and community service, Jones was hired to play for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team the Tulsa Shock. Jones, however, played briefly on the team and left after one season.

Jones began promoting her self-help program, Take a Break, urging young people to pause and reflect before making life-changing decisions. Also in 2010, Jones published her memoir On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed . In 2015, during a visit to Sacramento High School, Jones said that she has no intentions to run again. By the early 2020s, she had launched her own business and was working as a personal trainer for the Austin, Texas–based fitness program Camp Gladiator, mentoring girls, and giving motivational speeches.

Jones was married to Olympic shot put champion C. J. Hunter from 1998 to 2001, and in 2007, she married Barbadian Olympic sprinter Obadele Thompson, with whom she has two children.

Significance

Jones’s legacy in Olympic history serves as a cautionary tale for those athletes who follow in her footsteps. No other figure in track-and-field history had risen to such lofty heights only to lose everything because of using illicit performance-enhancing drugs. An athlete of prodigious talent, Jones went from being one of the brightest stars in her sport to a disgraced symbol of track and field’s persistent struggles to combat drug use.

Bibliography

Cargile, Erin. “Olympian Marion Jones Inspires Local Students for Black History Month.” KXAN Austin, 25 Feb. 2020, www.kxan.com/hidden-history/black-history-month/olympian-marion-jones-inspires-local-students-for-black-history-month. Accessed 20 July 2021. ‌

Harvey, Antonio. "Track Legend Marion Jones Shares Redemptive Story." The Sacramento Observer, 27 Oct. 2015, sacobserver.com/2015/10/marion-jones-shares-redemptive-story. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

Jones, Marion, and Maggie Greenwood-Robinson. On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed. Simon & Schuster, 2010.

Jones, Marion, and Kate Sekules. Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane. Warner Books, 2004.

Lee, Amber. "15 Athletes Who Fell from Grace: Where Are They Now." Bleacher Report, 10 July 2012, bleacherreport.com/articles/1252629-15-athletes-who-fell-from-grace-where-are-they-now. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

Rapoport, Ron. See How She Runs: Marion Jones and the Making of a Champion. Thorndike Press, 2000.