Marion Jones is broke

Last year a bank foreclosed on her 2.5 million mansion in an area of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Michael Jordan was a neighbour. She was also forced to sell two other properties, including her mother8217;s house, to raise money.

Jones8217; financial woes were revealed in a 168-page deposition in a breach-of-contract suit she filed in Dallas against veteran track coach Dan Pfaff. Pfaff counter-sued and won a judgment against Jones for about 240,000 in unpaid training fees and legal expenses.

Legal bills have plagued Jones since 2003, when suspicions of drug use emerged and she was linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative BALCO after a federal raid.

Jones retained attorneys for her BALCO grand jury testimony, for negotiations with the US Anti-Doping Agency in her fight to avoid being banned from competition, for a defamation lawsuit she filed against BALCO founder Victor Conte, who accused her of taking performance-enhancing drugs, and for taking on Pfaff in her breach-of-contract suit.

Last year, a Jones urine sample tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO. Although she was cleared when a backup sample tested negative, she missed at least five major international meets.