Marion Jones Released from Jail
After serving most of her six-month sentence for lying to federal investigators, disgraced sprinter Marion Jones was released from jail Friday.
Jones lied, among other things, about using steroids. A steroid dealer testified he had given Jones a performance enhancing drugs cocktail before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
She was one of the big stars of those Olympic Games. She won five medals, and became an example for children and especially girls everywhere.
In 2007, however, she was stripped of her medals after admitting she used drugs.
Jones was not the only victim of the investigation into steroid use in sports; months after she pleaded guilty baseball player Barry Bonds was also indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.
Jones was born in Los Angeles, California. She holds dual citizenship of the United States and Belize where her mother was born and raised. She married to shot putter C.J. Hunter in 1998. Shortly after Jones won her first of five medals during the Sydney Olympics the IOC announced that Hunter had failed several drug tests. He had withdrawn from the competition shortly before, saying he suffered from a knee injury.
In her autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane, Jones wrote that Hunter’s drug use did considerable damage to her image as a drug-free athlete and their marriage. The couple divorced in 2002.
It has now become clear that Jones used drugs herself as well, which casts the part of her life described above in a completely different light altogether. However, since Jones has suffered enough since she admitted to having used drugs it is unlikely that many people will hold any grudges against her.
She married for the second time in 2007, this time to another athlete (sprinter) Obadele Thompson. She gave birth to their child in July of last year.
She was sentenced to six months in jail in January 2008, after found guilty of perjury concerning her involvement in check fraud and drugs use. Her term in jail started March 11.
Today, 5 September, she was released.
