With Regards: Marion Jones

Marion Jones,

Did you really think you could get away with it? What were you thinking?

You were the most famous female athlete in the world and you ruined it. Now, you are not only the most talked about, but the most controversial.

You won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics alone. You were adored worldwide. Your fans loved and looked up you. I have to admit it, but I looked up to you, too. As a runner myself, I looked at your success and was motivated by it.

Boy, did I pick a bad role model.

In 2004, months before the Athens Summer Games, the USADA was attempting to sniff out the athletes that had received performance enhancing drugs from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. You were the biggest name on their list of possible cheaters.

Remember what you did? 

You vehemently denied that you were on any kind of drugs. Here is what you said:

"I know that I've always been drug-free, I am drug-free and I want to continue to be drug-free."

People believed you. You even went as far as threatening to sue anyone who attempted to deny your entrance into the 2004 Athens games. 

Then there was the check-fraud scam.

What were you thinking? That you could pull one over the most powerful country in the world without any consequences? Didn't you have enough money? Just a few more million?

When you were convicted of your role in the check-fraud scam and lying to investigators, your lawyers asked that your punishment be simply a probation from track and field events.

Yeah, right.

Have fun for the next six months behind bars, Marion.

With regards,

Andrew Kneeland 

Andrew Kneeland is a columnist at Bleacher Report. You can read all his articles here.