That's just not my story. Hunter voluntarily resigned his position at UNC to comply with the requirements of university rules prohibiting coach-athlete dating. I understand that.". After her admission, Jones held a press conference, where she finally publicly admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, to various sports agencies, and to two grand juries. Joness lawyers tried to persuade Karas that Jones had already suffered from her guilty plea and that her acceptance of responsibility warranted a more lenient sentence. After winning further statewide sprint titles, she accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina in basketball, where she helped the team win the NCAA championship in her freshman year. That case was later settled. Despite this season-altering injury, Thompson helped UTEP finish second overall at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as part of the 4 100 m and 4 400 m relays. Obadele "Oba" Thompson BSS (born 30 March 1976) is a Barbados-born former sprinter, lawyer, author, and speaker. Thompson was a keynote speaker at the official launch of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup in Barbados and has participated in leadership development programs, including with the West Indies Cricket Team. The questions are direct. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he reached the 100 m semifinals, but exceeded expectations by finishing fourth in the 200 m finals behind Michael Johnson, who set an amazing new world record of 19.32 sec., Frankie Fredericks of Namibia (19.68 sec.) Olympic champion sprinter Marion Jones has admitted using steroids in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Games and plans to plead guilty on Friday to lying about her drug use. Obadele Thompson, Marion Jones's husband. Jones acknowledged using steroids before the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, Australia, in a letter to her family and friends, according to a story in The Washington Post. In her guilty plea, Jones said she had been given a substance by her coach, Trevor Graham, starting in the summer of 2000, but he told her it was flaxseed oil. Sometimes my people have their walls up to see what's coming my way. I messed up, and I'm doing something to contribute back to community. He said he wanted Jones to use her experiences to help young athletes avoid the choices she made. She then ventured outside to say a few words. Kevin Frayer/AP/The Canadian Press Marion Jones lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Obadele Thompson, and their three children. Jones and Hunter were married on October 3, 1998, and trained for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. . Thompson sustained a groin injury during that race, forcing him to miss practice for a week. He has also served variously as a speaker and panellist on matters related to sports management, performance, and anti-doping. On October 28, 2008, Jones was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and stated that she would have won gold at the Sydney Olympics without the drugs that led to her disgrace. In 2010, Jones released a book, On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed, published by Simon & Schuster. He won Barbados's first and only Olympic medal as an independent country by placing third in the 100 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I will respect the judges orders. Nothing elaborate, just a quiet, very small wedding, added Tyrrel, a native of the South American nation of Guyana who said he was related to 30-year-old Thompson and had known the Barbados sprinter for a long time. Like. She had been selected in the 3rd round of the 2003 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury. Graham then distributed the performance enhancers to Jones and other Sprint Capitol athletes. 84868-054. But I talk about my mistakes. Unfortunately, he false started in the 55 m finals, despite being heavily favoured to win after running 6.08 sec. And yet until 2007, Jones routinely deniedin almost every way possible and in almost any venue where the question aroseever being involved with performance enhancers in any way, shape, or form. However, she was later stripped of these medals after admitting that she had used performance-enhancing drugs. At 46 years of age. At only 20 years old, Track & Field News magazine ranked Thompson #5 in the 200 m in the world.[23]. They are expected to do right and expected to be great. Jones had adamantly defended herself against allegations of steroid use before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she won five medals. Disgraced former track star Marion Jones (2nd-R) enters Federal Court for sentencing 11 January 2008 in White Plains, New York, accompanied by husband Obadele Thompson (L). WHITE PLAINS The former track star Marion Joness tearful courtroom plea to avoid jail was denied Friday by a federal judge who said her sentence should serve as a deterrent for others who may lie to federal agents, and Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for pleading guilty to two counts of perjury. Seven years after winning a womens record five Olympic track and field medals and receiving multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, Jones was broke. [6] He has also been listed as one of UTEP's all-time top 10 male athletes.[7]. The media loves to lump us together. Judge Sentences Jones to 6 Months in Prison, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/othersports/12jones.html. Robert Siegel interviewed Marion Jones on All Things Considered in 1995. In 1995, Barbadian soca band, Krosfyah, released the song Obadele[38]praising Thompson's outstanding achievements. Marion Jones height is 5 10 and Weight 150lb (68kg). She stated that she would give the same advice to Olympic hopefuls. ". It's a lot easier to talk and deal with young people instead of speaking in front of corporations, churches and grown-ups. I am troubled, quite frankly, by the statement, he said. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but was later stripped of the titles after admitting to steroid use. He was the youngest semifinalist in the 200 m at the World (Senior) Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, and won a silver medal in the 100 m at the World University Games in Fukuoka, Japan. hide caption. It was a huge sacrifice for me because I was married with a family. She is to report to a facility near her home in Austin, Tex., on March 11. Marion Jones of the U.S. smiles after winning the women's 100-metre race at the IAAF Super Grand . Hunter and has a three-year-old son with banned former 100 meters world record holder Tim Montgomery. But when a parent or a young person comes up to me after or a week or a few months later, and said they were in a tough situation and, like me, took a break and took a step back, it makes all the difference. Documents showed that a $25,000 check made out to Jones was deposited in her bank account as part of the alleged multimillion-dollar scheme. On June 28, 2003, Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Montgomery Jr, with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery, a world-class sprinter himself. Jones married Obadele Thompson in February 2007, and they live with their three children, Eva Marie, Monty, and Amir, in Austin, Texas. After high school, she played basketball for the University of North Carolina. That is what everyone is striving for. His bronze medal was Barbados' first and only Olympic medal and only the second Olympic medal won by a Barbadian athlete (at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Barbadian Jim Wedderburn won bronze with three Jamaicans on the West Indies Federation 4 x 400 metres relay team). The questions are direct. In a published letter, Jones said she had used steroids until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. Marion Jones of the U.S. smiles after winning the women's 100-metre race at the IAAF Super Grand Prix athletics meeting in Lausanne in this file photo from July 11, 2006. Ironically, although he never ran a 200 m that season, he reached a career-high IAAF #1 world ranking in that event for several weeks based on his accumulated IAAF points. When a federal grand jury in San Francisco began to hear testimony in 2004, more allegations against Jones surfaced. His time of 20.26 sec. en route to winning the 100 m at the World Cup in Athletics in Johannesburg, South Africa, erasing the championship record set by Ben Johnson in 1985. Marion Jones' House in Austin, TX (Google Maps) Austin, Texas (TX), US. Emeritus Alvin Thompson-Historian", "Prof. Alvin O. Thompson Curriculum Vitae", "IAAF: Thousands welcome Obadele Thompson iaaf.org", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Obadele_Thompson&oldid=1152110626, This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 07:55. If he's dealing with a heavy burden, I'll pray for him. Although Prof. Thompson never earned an athletic scholarship nor had formal coaching, he won the 100 m at the 1963 Jamaica National Championships,[35] while studying at UWI in Mona, Jamaica. Marion Jones, a record-breaking Olympic track star who admitted in 2007 to using performance-enhancing drugs and served time in prison for making false statements to investigators, is featured on the Nov. 19 episode of the TV One network's "Life After" show. Joness lawyers asked Karas to limit the sentence to probation. She spent a few minutes talking with Playbook about her life after. I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways," the Post reported Jones said in the letter. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of lying to federal agents and is scheduled for trial Nov. 26. Montgomery also testified before the BALCO grand jury and was given a two-year ban from track and field competitions for doping in 2005. There was a time right after it happened that I did. I pray that you will be as merciful as a human being can be, she said. 'Why did you do that?' On February 24, 2007, Jones married Barbadian sprinter and 2000 Olympic 100m bronze medalist Obadele Thompson. Jones is a 1997 graduate of the University of North Carolina (UNC). Marion Jones grew up to George Jones and his wife, Marion, (originally from Belize) in Los Angeles, California. Obadele started his senior collegiate season by winning the WAC indoor 55 m in 5.99 sec.a new NCAA record and his second world record. The models mixed-race identity, Who are Lilia Vus parents? Obadele started the 1996 season on fire, winning his first NCAA Indoor Championship in an NCAA indoor 200 m record. I would be spending the rest of my life apologizing. They have three children. The U.S. Olympic Team once dubbed Marion Jones "the world's fastest mom," but she could not run fast enough to escape the doping charges that have plagued her since she won five medals at the 2000 Olympics. Marion Jones crosses the finish line to win the gold medal at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 23, 2000. shattered the old mark of 20.59 sec. However, just hours after Marion Jones won her first of the planned five golds, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Hunter had failed four pre-Olympic drug tests, testing positive each time for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. and Boldon (19.80 sec.). Still later, Hunter told federal agents, Jones began receiving drugs directly from Conte. Jones said she lied to federal agents in 2003 because she panicked when they showed her a sample of a banned substance called "the clear" and realized it was what Graham had given her. While there, she met and began dating one of the track coaches, shot putter C.J. Later, Hunter said, Graham met Conte, who began providing the coach with BALCO nutritional supplements, which were actually an experimental class of designer steroids said to be undetectable by any drug screening procedures available at the time. But in the letter to her family and friends, Jones maintained that she did not know she had used the banned drugs until she stopped training with coach Trevor Graham at the end of 2002. In 1966, as a postgraduate student at the University of London, he won the 100 m at British Universities Championships,[36] earned the Arthur Wint Award for the most significant performance at the London University's Athletic Championships, and was awarded the prestigious University of London's "Purple"[37] for his sporting excellence. With Thompson, she has two kids Eva Marie and Ahmir Thompson. Later Friday, Karas sentenced one of Joness former coaches, Steve Riddick, to five years and three months in jail for his involvement in the bank-fraud scheme that ensnared Jones. "I want to apologize for all of this. Jones red shirted her 1996 basketball season to concentrate on track. The criminal penalties for perjury, Karas ominously noted before sending Jones into the arms of her husband, the sprinter Obadele Thompson, have nothing to do with the forfeiture of medals and . Their first child together, a son named Ahmir, grew up in June 2007. 84868-054. Her lawyer did not return phone calls seeking comment. The three-time gold medal winner has now pleaded guilty Friday to charges connected to steroid use in a federal court in White Plains, N.Y. after persistently denying that she ever used performance-enhancing drugs. Toler became a stay-at-home dad to Jones and her older half-brother, Albert Kelly, until his sudden death in 1987. Thompson was featured in his own NBC Olympic television commercial shown during the 1999 MLB World Series. They don't beat around the bush. The offenses here are serious. But Jones' passion was sprinting, and before the beginning of her junior year, she decided to leave the Tar Heels to concentrate on track and field. [5], He was an eleven-time NCAA All-American and a sixteen-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion. Jones told the kids that everyone makes mistakes and that its essential to surround oneself with positive friends. "The haters. I got cut in 2011. Who Is Marion Jones's Husband? Those schools joined Jesuit High School (Sacramento) and Long Beach Polytechnic High School in having two athletes win the award. I was then excited about it.". and 20.03 sec., respectively, running the latter into a heavy headwind. We always have a little apprehension anytime anyone approaches me wanting to talk about my life and my history. "Being honest with you, I didn't know much about the show. REUTERS/ARC/Dominic Favre. She even sued Victor Conte, the head of BALCO, after he described her drug use. On June 28, 2003, she and her then-boyfriend, Olympic sprinter Tim Montgomery, gave birth to a son. Tilting the Level Playing Field? [18] He also won the Jamaica Junior National Championships in the 100 m (as a visiting athlete), the CAC Junior Championships in the 100 and 200 metres, placed fourth in the 100 m at the World Junior Championships and was the youngest semifinalist in 100 m at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. Two weeks later at the Sierra Medical Center/UTEP Invitational in El Paso, Texas, Thompson established his first global mark by equaling the World Junior Record of 10.08 sec. set seven years earlier by four-time Olympic Champion, Michael Johnson, and equaling the then third-fast time in that event. Jones promised that her latest defeat would not be the end of her Olympic efforts, and reasserted in May 2005 that winning a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics remained her ultimate goal.. Jones won the California state championship as a sprinter four years in a row, representing Rio Mesa and Thousand Oaks high schools. and ran 8 of the 11 fastest junior 100 m times that year. According to the Associated Press, Jones was heavily in debt and fighting off court judgments, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. He opened his outdoor season before his home crowd at the CARTIFA Games in Barbados, defending his under-20 100 m title in a new meet record (10.33 sec. That's why I was honored they included me in their show. "In terms of perks, I certainly got none." Her husband Obadele Thompson, a former Olympic sprinter, visited her often, but Jones did not allow her two children because she didn't want them to see their mother behind bars.