By DPA
San Francisco : There was dismay and disappointment around the sporting world and even at the White House as three-time Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones admitted that she had lied to investigators about taking banned steroids.
In San Francisco, readers bombarded the local paper with condemnations for the former track star who was the muscled darling of the US media when she famously won three gold medals and two bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She also has five world titles from 1997-2001.
News of her expected guilty plea broke late Thursday through The Washington Post, which quoted from a letter she had sent to family and friends to prepare them for her conviction Friday.
“This is what happens when sports are not about the game and achievement anymore but about the million dollar endorsements,” wrote one reader on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Strip this cheater of her medals and wipe her from the record books,” wrote another. “Drug use in athletics, more than anything else, leads the international community to assume the US is not being fair in other dealings.”
Even the White House got into the act, with US President George W. Bush indicting his concern about the bad example being set for aspiring professional athletes with her use of banned performance boosters.
“He was saddened by the news,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters, noting that Bush denounced steroid use in his 2004 State of the Union speech.
Luis Fernando Llosa, of Sports Illustrated, wrote: “As fans and journalists we wonder when is this going to stop. It’s not just the athletes that take the substance. It’s the coaches, the trainers, the business itself.”
Ann Killion, a sports columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, offered readers a mea culpa for falling for Jones’ achievements without asking more strident questions about what enabled her to dominate the field.
“Seven years after she stole our hearts, five medals and Olympic credibility, Jones finally admitted she was a thief. A cheat. A liar,” noted Killion.
“If Marion Jones perpetuated a fraud on the American public, I – along with the majority of my colleagues – was her accomplice. Jones made for fabulous copy.”
But the harshest reaction probably came from Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO who disputed Jones’ reported claim that she unwittingly took “the clear” under the impression that it was flaxseed oil.
“I gave Marion five separate drugs – the clear, the cream, insulin, growth hormone and EPO – after first meeting her in August 2000,” Conte told The Los Angeles Times.
“She used all five before the Olympic Games; she had full knowledge. If she doesn’t come forward and admit to using those five drugs, she’s not making a full disclosure.
“Marion made some decisions and there are consequences to those decisions,” Conte said. “That’s what she will now have to suffer. I feel sad for Marion, and her family, who will join her in that suffering.”
Officials in the US athletics conceded that Jones’ revelations would damage the sport’s reputation but were a necessary step along the long road to rehabilitation.
“Anything that exposes the truth about drug use in sport is good for ensuring the integrity of sport,” said USA Track and Field Chief Executive Craig Masback.
“We continue our long-stated support for the efforts of the US Anti-Doping Agency and the federal government in their investigations. Any use of performance-enhancing substances is a tragedy for the athlete, their teammates, friends, family and the sport.”
Scott Davis, a prominent athletics meet director, said such Jones’ admission was “a major blow” for track and field.
“The drugs and the steroids have really hurt the sport, to the point that if anyone sets a record now, the first thing that comes to your mind is, ‘What are they on?’ ” Davis said. “It’s a difficult perception to crack. And this coming out now, before an Olympic year, is making it even more difficult.”