WOW, Sportscenter talked about track today..........oh wait.
It's terrible, what a good year of track. lots of good competition and Alan Webb running so well........but no. Track's big get on ESPN was Marion Jones admitting she cheated. Sure that is a story, but when that's all people see about track, it doesn't look good. She was one of the track athletes that the any man or women could name. Now they hear this........not good for image.
hopefully, this hasn't been said before.
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Marion to plead guilty to doping!
We are now, and shall be for the foreseeable future, in a cycle where PED allegations, confessions and covering-up will keep T&F in a negative light. It will either kill us (pro track as a viable business) or make us stronger. No one is laying money on the latter right now.
Maybe it is because the BALCO story broke in my backyard (with the attendant tons of news stories over the last four years about T&F and PEDs), but I find it highly unlikely that this latest chapter in and of itself is going to seriously modify anyone’s opinion about track & field.
tafnut -- That's what PEDs do -- either kill you or make you stronger! Time will tell about whether T&F is in the clear...oh never mind... 
What a BS confession Marion made.
I dislike her even more for CONTINUING TO LIE. I HAVE SERIOSLY DOUBTS SHE DIDN T HAD HGH injected to her as her husband at the time declared. Another logical thing about her lying AGAIN: THG was INJECTABLE, as Trevor G send a seriynge not a god damn drink to put under the tongue..... Yeah Marion continue to LiE!!!!!!!
You wonder when she started? She started in high school, that's when. It was no accident that she didn't show up for her drug test. Johnnie Cochren got her off then, but he's dead now. Otherwise she might have gotten away with this. She still hasn't come clean about all her PED use. What a phony. I can't believe so many of you were taken in by her. One look at her at the '97 USATF championships made me suspicious.
Not to defend Jones for a microsecond, however the "burn the witch" tone of much of this thread is very unpleasant. She didn't kill anyone.
Nor can this be chalked up as a victory in anti-doping since she has only been outed via an irrelevant (to track) financial fraud, not any efforts by anti-doping authorities. There are no winners here, there is no good news, only bad news and losers. IMHO. Justin
Meaning that it's already so low, that it doesn't matter any more? If the public's opinion about T&F weren't already in the crapper, this new 'load' would certainly cause the septic tank to overflow. What a way to end the season. That's ALL everyone will be talking about for the rest of the Fall and Winter. The fact that this happened back in 1998-2000 will not register at all.
You might be right but maybe just maybe because she was already suspect and its no huge surprise it will blow over rather quickly?
If by everyone you mean the general public or even sports fans, you seriously overestimate the legs on this chapter of the BALCO/MJ stories - Marion Jones and T&F just don't matter much in the real world. If and when Barry Bonds falls to a perjury rap you might get a few days out of it, but again, John. Q. Public has already made up his mind and these stories will not change it.
I think it is you who are underestimating the mainstream media's obsession with PEDs in general. As more and more NFL/NBA/MLB horror stories emerge (and they will - any self-respecting muck-raking journalist can now make a name for himself by outing big-name athletes), T&F will be held up as the "first and dirtiest" sport. I wouldn't even be surprised if the media didn't BLAME T&F for the national scandal. They will never let us forget our place in this debacle and in this regard, T&F will continue to be talked about. Marion was indeed a big name and they'll pin their hopes on a public that will not forgive or forget her.
Exactly. I don't have a clue where Bonds stands with regards to his case - whether he has tested positive, whether he has admitted to anything, whether the feds have any other evidence against him. All I know is - purely from a Joe Public viewpoint (being from the UK, I know next to nothing about baseball) - that he is most likely a cheat and not to be trusted. If news broke tomorrow that he had tested positive, or admitted to anything, it wouldn't change my views of him whatsoever The same probably applies to all the 'Joe Publics' who look into track and field. After seeing Marion's name constantly pop up in the BALCO-related press over the past few years, they'll see this news and will probably think: "Oh, another Marion Jones story. So she's dirty - didn't they figure that out ages ago?" Her reputation was in tatters years ago.
Let's hope murder doesn't become the threshold beyond which one must transgress before becoming the subject here of anger, scorn and extreme disappointment.
I agree with everything you say - although I confess to feeling a certain amount of glee when I read the news.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
As a former All American and National Champion in College T&F, I knew Marion was and is a cheat! As well as a number of other great athletes out there some who are still running. These type of events are sad because it cast such a bad light on the whole sport. I was happy when Sanya Richardson lost, not because I wanted her to loose but because it showed she was human and one of the few that wont take a swig of the "MOJO JUICE" and hammer out a 48.00. DD Trotter stunk up the place at Worlds but I think it's safe to say that she's not cheating. The majority of fans are so two sided. On one hand you want someone to break records but on the other you get hyper-rightous when you find out a little cheating is going on. I'm very anti drugs in this sport and also feel if they really wanted to clean the sport up they would implement a one strike rule, especially when you consider the fact that we're deaing with PEOPLE, TRANSLATION: there will always be cheaters and people who take advantage of situations to get ahead.
I like your prose style.  You, too, must read lots of Henry James.
That's a fair retort. There are degrees however - the level of anger and scorn here exceeds that justified by her crime, IMHO. My point was that to judge by the response here, one might assume she had killed someone. Ironically had she done so I suspect the reaction here might have been more muted. Justin
Athletes who attempt to compete at the highest levels of women's sprinting without using PEDs do come out winners here. This is no different than a criminal conviction for corruption (and that's actually what it is). If you're happy when, for example, someone is sent to prison for corporate malfeasance, then I don't see hypocrisy in being happy that Jones finally has to face consequences. I am not happy that Jones used PEDs, nor am I happy that she got away with it for her entire career. I am happy that a strong deterrent is now highly publicized, as a 2-year ban is nothing compared to a prison sentence. I am happy that the historical record will be corrected in some way, although it remains to be seen exactly how this will be done. There's official IAAF action, and then there's action by the sport's various statisticians and ranking committees.
OK, but it's not unusual here to see "anger and scorn" over nothing more serious than some luckless competitor having a bad meet. (I write as one who has not participated in "piling on" poor MJ on this or related threads.)
Indeed - a sense of proportion has never been this forum's strong point. IMHO! Justin
I'd like to see sporting fraud made a federal crime, punishable by mandatory prison time.
The advantage of that would be that the law and courts would have to come up with much clearer definitions of what constitutes unfair aid and what does not than the current woolly position. The rule about no-fault liability would also have to go since a conviction for a crime would require active knowledge and participation by the accused. This wouldn't anyone involved in BALCO, of course, though it would give Jones a chance to argue in court that she had no knowledge of being doped - given the requirement of proof beyond reasonable doubt in court, it's possible she would get off whereas under T&F rules she's toast. Careful what you wish for! Justin
Now her competitors, those who lost money and WC & Oly spots, need to sue her (not that she has any money) and her main sponsor(s) as the result of her fraud and their complicity in it.
Oh the joy of it all.... 
I thought that ignorance was no defense for violating a law, or at least that's what I've heard. By the way, didn't Ludmila Engquist successfully use the ignorance defense to beat the T&F rules?
Re: WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Were you on that great TCU 4x100 relay team?
Aye. http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... hp?t=28002
I have a strange feeling she might not get to keep that gold for long. Someone had better give Tayna Lawrence a call. And while they're at it, they can call Merlene Ottey. Who was 5th in that race? Block? Sturrup? One of them might get the bronze before this is all over with.
On sports radio in NYC, co-hosts who interviewed Bud Selig indicated that the Mitchell report will likely be released after the World Series and before the end of the year. That could get Marion out of the headlines.
She is barely in the headlines right now. Imagine if she had confessed in late-2003 or early-2004. This thread, now on Page 6, would have been on its 20th page right now. She picked a convenient time to sing, with all the other activities going on right now.
Marion will be out of the headlines here in the US by Monday at the latest (and that is only to give the Sunday edition of major newspapers a chance to give it a once over). Last edited by bad hammy on Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
He's not in denial he's just doing what he always does, which is being as contrary as possible. I guarantee if we all post WHITE he'll insist it's really BLACK and give us some really boring cod scientific reason for it being so 
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