After years of denials, Marion Jones is ready to admit she doped. The three-time Olympic gold medallist is scheduled to appear in a US District Court in White Plains, New York to plead guilty to charges in connection with steroid use, a federal law enforcement source said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is on, and would not provide details about the plea.Jones sent family and friends a letter in which she said she used steroids before the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, The Washington Post reported yesterday. The Post was the first to report that Jones would come clean on doping.“I want to apologise for all of this,” The Post reported Jones as saying in her letter, quoting a person who received a copy and read it to the paper. “I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways.” Jones said in her letter that she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months, according to the newspaper.The admission also could cost Jones the five medals she won in Sydney, where she was the most celebrated female athlete of the Games. She didn’t win the five gold medals she wanted, but came away with three and two bronzes, and her smile and charm made her a star.The International Olympic Committee made clear yesterday it was prepared to strip Jones of her Sydney medals if she confesses to doping. “The IOC has learnt about Marion Jones’ intention to plead guilty to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing substances during her career,” the committee said in a statement from Lausanne, Switzerland.“Since 2004, the IOC has had an open file on the BALCO case —it set up a disciplinary commission with a view to investigating how the affair might have affected the Olympic Games competitions. The information that Marion Jones might provide may prove to be key in moving this case forward.”Under statute of limitations rules, the IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to strip medals and nullify results. In Jones’ case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x400 relay and bronze in the long jump and 4x100 relay. In addition to any jail term, Jones could face a long competition ban from the US Anti-Doping Agency.The International Association of Athletics Federations said it was waiting for official notification from USADA setting out the details of Jones’ reported admission. If she admits to having been on drugs during a specific period, the IAAF could strip Jones of all her medals and results from the world championships and other events from that time. She won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze at the 1999 and 2001 worlds.The triple gold medallist in Sydney said she took a substance known as “the clear” for two years, beginning in 1999, and that she got it from former coach Trevor Graham, who told her it was flaxseed oil, the newspaper reported.“The clear” is a performance-enhancing drug linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports. Baseball’s home run king Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and baseball sluggers Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield have been linked to BALCO and were among more than two dozen athletes who testified before a federal grand jury in 2003.Until now, Jones denied doping, even suing BALCO founder Victor Conte in 2004 for $25 million. Conte repeatedly accused Jones of using performance-enhancing drugs and said he watched her inject herself. “It cost me a lot of money to defend myself,” Conte said yesterday. “But I told the truth then, and I’m telling it now.”In her letter, Jones said she didn’t realise she’d used performance-enhancing drugs until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when federal agents questioned her in 2003, panicking when they presented her with a sample of “the clear,” which she recognised as the substance Graham had given her.Jones’ career has been tarnished for years by doping allegations against her. In August 2006, a urine sample tested positive for EPO, but she was cleared when a second sample tested negative. She was also among the athletes who testified before a BALCO grand jury in 2003. Her former boyfriend, Tim Montgomerie, also testified, and was given a two-year ban for doping in late 2005.USA Track & Field was not aware of Jones’ letter nor any pending legal action, CEO Craig Masback said. “Anything that exposes the truth about drug use in sport is good for ensuring the integrity of sport,” Masback said. Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the US Olympic Committee, declined to comment on whether Jones would lose her medals until legal proceedings are completed.The Washington Post also reported that, in her letter, Jones said she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by Montgomerie, who pleaded guilty in New York in April as part of a criminal scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks. He is yet to be sentenced.
