But once they showed me the "clear" and told me that it was indeed a PED, I knew that what I had taken and been given was a banned substance and I lied about it
i'm sure she can tell it apart from a 1ml vial of Hepatyrix/Tetavax/DPT/Influvax with no label on it ?
someone better resurrect walt disney, because mickey mouse is going to get his good name sullied endlessly in the next few weeks
In a country where Sen. Larry Craig gets caught red handed, admits his guilt in writing, then goes into denial mode, why would anybody be surprised that Marion has been lying and cheating and denying reality for all these years?
I think what I find most amusing about this is how many people just openly take her at face value as if she only used for 2 years during that time frame, and the only illegal substance she took was the clear, albeit unknowingly at the time. Oh yeah, she's lied non-stop for her entire career, but this time, she is "really promise, for sure the total truth this time." BS. I honestly hope no one is genuinely surprised. Please just accept the state of our sport: every single elite athlete, and a large majority of the sub-elite attempting to become elite, is taking illegal substances. It's a reality, learn to cope and start enjoying the sport again 'cause it ain't changing, ever.
This is far back as 'the clear' goes, I think. When did she start with mr 'coach/tg' (lowercase!)? She would have had to be on something else during the 1997-98 period, which were hugely successful seasons.
When she was not successful in her comeback it smelled more like a rat to me. By the time she confessed the degree of my surprise was very small (except for the fact that she did the confessing. I was even less surprised by the facts on Ullrich when they came out, although he has not admitted anything!
I also find myself thinking about the difference between some athletes that used drugs very briefly and talked about it and were not in the deny/cover mode and the MJ crowd. There is a type of courage there that is lacking here (and even more lacking in the Ullrich and Regina J cases). It just leaves an entirely different taste in my mouth.
Count me as one of those that is now relieved; my internal probability of guilt had risen very high so it was more when than if it came out.
I do not think that I have seen any comment on Dick Pound in this thread -- I wonder how he feels today.
When she was trying to make the US team in 04' she did look clean. She was "fat" and slow. I recall her running mediocre high school times. Then all of sudden she was ripped and running world class times in 06'. So maybe she wasn't lying.
26mi235 wrote: By the time she confessed the degree of my surprise was very small (except for the fact that she did the confessing.)
I was surprised she confessed too. They must have been threatening some thing pretty bad for that to happen. Purjury will always come back to bite you. It almost got Clinton. It did get Martha Stewart.
Jazzcyclist,
Ref: hs marion jones = hs justin gatlin
not even close. Gatlin was not that good in hs. His big jump, in size and performance, was his freshman year at TN.
Marion Jones is only admitting about 5% of what did. Just enough to satisfy the prosecutors, and get a reduced sentence. She still places the blame on Graham, and "didn't know what she was taking". Of course, after leaving Graham, she jumps to the Canadian drug coach.
I should know! Hell is a small place east of Trondheim, Norway. The winter of 1961 I spent two weeks sleeping in a tent near Hell during training exercises when I spent my military service in the Norwegian Air force.
Why should be we take her confession at face value after all the lying she's done up to this point? Who's to say she didn't take steroids when she was winning state high school titles? She did miss a drug test back then, I seem to recall. The way she went from being a college basketball player to the world's fastest woman in one summer (coincidentally, about the same time she hooked up with CU) made me suspicious from the beginning. I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for her. She's a serial liar.
Eldrick still in denial or just babbling.on page 3 of this thread. What an unsavoury picture.
Eldrick, forget the lawyer crap and concentrate on the essentials. MJ was a dysfunctional person who thought cheating would benefit her, if she lied consistently and well and used the vaunted system of ''justice'' over the pond .
tafnut wrote:As a long-time Marion-defender (I, did, however give up on her after the EPO thing), I am extremely disappointed in this turn of events. I was TOTALLY fooled by her book, wherein she categorically
IN BOLD RED PRINT (oh, the ignominy )
denied PED-using. Even if she says she didn't know it was 'The Clear', the fact that Graham said 'don't tell anyone' should have been the deal-breaker.
I would like to apologize to EVERYONE on this board for my staunch support of her. There's no fool like an old fool, and I'm feeling very old now.
You should. Are you defending Flo-Jo blindly as well?
Being American has nothing to do with it. I am not American, but I supported her up until today. My reasoning was the same as Tafnut's- "She had so much potential in High School. If there was one person who could have done it without the aid of PEDs, it was her." I am heart broken today. I guess, all the evidence was there, but I just did not want to see it. It was MARION afterall!!!'
Jacksf wrote:You guys are being wimps! Marion is/was a cheat, a liar, a phony, and a coward. We should all be glad when criminals are caught, when cheats are busted, when undeserved rewards are taken back and given to the deserving, when wrongs are righted. And by the way, Marion has shown no courage at all. She has denied these allegations for years and years; she threatened libel suits, she divorced CJ when he got caught, she dropped Tim Montgomery like a hot potato when he got caught. If she's admitting to something now, it's because they've got her between a rock and a hard place. And she only has herself to blame!!! Was there any sprinter more talented?! Athletically, she didn't need to do this, but still she chose the crooked path of deception, cheating, lying. Why? Selfish Ego. The media built her up like a mythical hero, and she ate it up. She was put on the 4 x 400 relay at Sydney, even though she wasn't a 400m runner, just to satisfy her ego and satisfy the media. Meanwhile, some athlete who trained in that event for years got left on the sidelines so Marion could get even more glory, more limelight, more medals. And now we know it was all a farce. It was unfair to the other athletes, to the sport, and to the fans. So why feel sorry for her?!
As for the good of the sport....nobody in America cares about T&F!, except the people on this board. And I am very happy, we should all be happy, to get rid of as many cheats and expunge as many phony records as possible. Otherwise you are wishing for a sport full of Ben Johnsons, FloJos, and Barry Bonds.
p.s. My 1000th post! Couldn't be happier about the topic on which I reached that milestone!
Well said. I agree with every word.
Especially unfair on the 4x4 squad who may very well lose their medals now.
Jacksf wrote:You guys are being wimps! Marion is/was a cheat, a liar, a phony, and a coward. We should all be glad when criminals are caught, when cheats are busted, when undeserved rewards are taken back and given to the deserving, when wrongs are righted. And by the way, Marion has shown no courage at all. She has denied these allegations for years and years; she threatened libel suits, she divorced CJ when he got caught, she dropped Tim Montgomery like a hot potato when he got caught. If she's admitting to something now, it's because they've got her between a rock and a hard place. And she only has herself to blame!!! Was there any sprinter more talented?! Athletically, she didn't need to do this, but still she chose the crooked path of deception, cheating, lying. Why? Selfish Ego. The media built her up like a mythical hero, and she ate it up. She was put on the 4 x 400 relay at Sydney, even though she wasn't a 400m runner, just to satisfy her ego and satisfy the media. Meanwhile, some athlete who trained in that event for years got left on the sidelines so Marion could get even more glory, more limelight, more medals. And now we know it was all a farce. It was unfair to the other athletes, to the sport, and to the fans. So why feel sorry for her?!
As for the good of the sport....nobody in America cares about T&F!, except the people on this board. And I am very happy, we should all be happy, to get rid of as many cheats and expunge as many phony records as possible. Otherwise you are wishing for a sport full of Ben Johnsons, FloJos, and Barry Bonds.
p.s. My 1000th post! Couldn't be happier about the topic on which I reached that milestone!
Well said. I agree with every word.
Especially unfair on the 4x4 squad who may very well lose their medals now.
Big deal. Of course she took drugs. Any female who runs under 11 is probably on something. I couldn't care less.
I don't see it as drugs - I just see it as someone trying to maximise their potential and she certainly did that. I enjoy the sport and I love Marion just like I love Flojo (I named my dog after her!). They both ran fast. That's what I like.
If you ever thought for one minute she ran those times without taking everything that could possibly help her recover, get strong, deal with injuries, you were and are still kidding yourselves.
And of course she says in her book she never took drugs - WHAT THE HELL DO THINK SHE IS GOING TO SAY. JESUS!
You guys who are so traumatised by this - get over yourselves. I feel sorry for you. I'm still enjoying the sport, but will enjoy it more when they cut this crap and let athletes do what they want - because guess what - they have done, are doing and will continue to do. Like I said before - gene doping will make this stuff look like taking glucose tablets.. Hang on - are they banned - they help you recover!!??
4x400
Jamaica 3:23:25
Rusia 3:23:46
Nigeria 3:23:80
An athlete under investigation for missed tests gets a gold, Ottey gets another bronze, Ogunkoya gets another 4x4 medal and Kotova also gets one to add to her bronze in Athens, meaning she medals in every global champs from 2000 to 2007.
It's great news another cheat has been uncovered. Only those with rose tinted glasses failed to see her guilt. The only shame is there are still many winning gold medals who are also cheats and are linked to dubious coaches with previous suspect records.
What this tells me more and more is that for a woman to run comfortably under 11.0 and 22.0 she must be doing something, let's say, interesting, in training. A big stride like Jackson or Drechsler may help; a nice mini gale like with Arron's 10.73 might help; smooth style with no sideways movement like Felix might help; the grit and determination of Ashford might help; a rivalry like Ottey/Devers/Torrance/Privalova might help; but at the end of the day you need a certain amount of power that it seems only certain pills can help you with.
Question: Do posters on here seriously think Graham was doing something different to other big name sprint coaches?
paddyb wrote:Big deal. Of course she took drugs. Any female who runs under 11 is probably on something. I couldn't care less. I don't see it as drugs - I just see it as someone trying to maximise their potential and she certainly did that. I enjoy the sport and I love Marion just like I love Flojo (I named my dog after her!). They both ran fast. That's what I like.
You guys who are so traumatised by this - get over yourselves. I feel sorry for you. I'm still enjoying the sport, but will enjoy it more when they cut this crap and let athletes do what they want - because guess what - they have done, are doing and will continue to do. Like I said before - gene doping will make this stuff look like taking glucose tablets.. Hang on - are they banned - they help you recover!!??
You and I could not be more diametrically opposed.
A couple of things that have been said on this thread but get lost in mix of people saying I told you so and the fans who are in obvious shock, so much so that they still defend Marion even though she has basically said why bother.
If you persecute Thannou for missing a scheduled drug test than wouldn't the same rules apply for the 16 year old Marion who also missed a scheduled drug test.
Also Marion was a basketball star in high school so much so that she went to North Carolina to play basketball even though she almost made the Olympic team in the 200. It wasn't until her basketball career was over that she rededicated herself back to track.
Lamenting the fact that someone used PED's to achieve glory saying that they could've done it on NATURAL ABILITY alone is just being NAIVE!
And why has no one on here answered the question why Trevor Graham sent in a syringe of the clear to authorities. This is truly the smoking gun of all conspiricies and yet no one has yet drawn any conclusions from it.
I love the sport of track and field and have dedicated myself to coaching and teaching the athletes in my care the higher purpose of trying your best and giving your all whenever the occasion arises. I have finally had some success in relating these ideas to my athletes and yet I have to wonder if what I am doing is futile when the people at the top of our sport have so little regard for our sport.
eman wrote:I love the sport of track and field and have dedicated myself to coaching and teaching the athletes in my care the higher purpose of trying your best and giving your all whenever the occasion arises. I have finally had some success in relating these ideas to my athletes and yet I have to wonder if what I am doing is futile when the people at the top of our sport have so little regard for our sport.
This sad affair has certainly made me appreciate my high school kids more. They may not put up impressive results, but they do it honestly and with good cheer.
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