January 12th, 2008
If you are reading this you are probably connected enough to the world to have heard that Marion Jones is going to prison for six months. It’s about time. Not for Marion Jones neccesarily, who is actually a somewhat sympathetic character at this point: she was declared a failure by the media when she failed in her (impossible for an honest athlete, we now know) quest for five gold medals in Sydney, and her choice of husbands an boyfriends has left her flat broke. Furthermore, she is being sent to prison despite having a six-month-old child who is still nursing. It does feel a bit as though she is being kicked while she is down.
On the other hand, Jones used drugs to run at speeds which may simply be unattainable by undoped female runners. She welcomed the publicity, the endorsements, and the fame that came with her success. And all the while, she was cheating the fans who thought they were seeing something special. More importantly - at least in my perspective as an Olympian -she was stealing victories from her competitors. The true winners of her races were never recognized; given the apparent pervasiveness of doping in track and field there are many races in which not even the honest winner realizes her own accomplishment. To me, this theft is far worse than the million dollar check-kiting scheme Jones apparently participated. With luck, Jones won’t be the last athlete properly punished for doping.
