Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

I remember as a fellow sports illustrated for kids subscriber looking forward to receiving my sports cards and posters each week. One poster stands out to me a little more than some others. It was a poster of this female athlete who excelled in basketball and track and field at the University of North Carolina. Her name was Marion Jones.

Marion Jones was the first real big time women's athlete of my time. Sure there was Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova before her and the Williams' sisters right after her but, but Marion Jones was the next big thing. Deciding to pursue track and field, Jones left great impression on the sport. At the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney, Jones won an impressive 5 medals including 3 golds. Jones dominated the sport and won the prime events such as the 100 meters. Jones became a much celebrated female athlete and she was very deserving of the praise. Now after seven years plus removed from her triumph in Australia, Jones is now one of the biggest frauds in the history of sport. Why is this? Three simple words: performance enhancing drugs.

After pleading guilty last week for lying to federal investigators and simultaneously retiring from the sport that put her on the athletic map, Jones is now fighting for the rest of her reputation. The news of a major Olympic athlete doping should not come as a surprise nowadays. How often do we here of athletes dominating in the Olympics' only to be caught cheating sometime thereafter? It is very unfortunate, but leads me to think how many Olympic athletes actually dope. If its a near majority, then why not just make it legal and be every man or women for themselves. By enabling everyone to be on a level playing field, but not actually being on a level playing might be the only thing that can prevent track and field and other dominant Olympic sports from being completely destroyed.

And I don't want to just single out Marion Jones. There are other instances where athletes have dominated a sport and have had doping allegations against them (i.e. Barry Bonds). Bonds is in a very similar situation to Jones because he has been dominating in his sport, has been accused of doping, and has gone in front of a federal grand jury and denied knowingly taking steroids. The only thing keeping Bonds' very large head above water is an extremely loyal friend named Greg Anderson.

So am I surprised that a successful athlete has done this? Absolutely not. And I think there are many more athletes that have doped or are currently doping. And what happened to Jones can just as easily happen to them, but if they are not as prominent then they will get nowhere near the same amount of media coverage (Tim Couch). Under no circumstance do I support or promote doping and would be very devastated if one of my favorite athlete's on my favorite teams got caught doping (Mota doesn't count).

Where does the sporting society go from here in terms of the consequences that will be faced by Jones? The IOC is still deciding whether or not to strip her of her 5 medals from 2000, but a possible statute of limitations, which is 8 years, may play into that. Jones is also going to face an uphill legal battle. Not to mention the irreparable damage done to her reputation in the court of public opinion, possibly the "biggest fraud ever" to quote IAAF President Lamine Diack.

Another interesting note about this issue that I have noticed in at least the earlier coverage of this story is that race and gender really haven't played an overbearing role. I think this is primarily because doping is doping, there is no two ways about it. If you get caught doping, it doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, or what sport you play, the persecution will be equally as tough. Now some athletes may get more coverage like Bonds or Jones, but the punishments are the same. Just ask Jason Grimsley, Mark McGwire, and Brady Anderson who have all been either accused or caught doping. They all have forever tarnished reputations and have fallen off the face of the earth. In very extreme cases, doping mixed with other illegal drugs can lead to death, like with the case of Ken Caminiti.

This is not the last time we will hear of a major sports star either accused or caught doping. The only thing we can hope for with Jones is that she is able to get past this and get her life and credibility back, the latter is much more unlikely. I don't want another day where I have to lose respect for an athlete who's poster from Sports Illustrated for Kids went up on my wall.