Bleacher Report - Articles by Eric

Excitement Looms with Upcoming Laureus World Team of the Year Award

Eric — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:07:40 -0400

LONDON, March 24, 2009—A spectacular year of action has set up one of the most exciting contests ever for the 2009 Laureus World Team of the Year Award, featuring a high profile sporting battle between the most successful Olympic teams and the top football teams in the world.

The tenth Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during the calendar year 2008, are widely acknowledged as the premier honours on the international sporting calendar. The names of the Nominees, and the venue and date of the 2009 Laureus World Sports Awards will be announced by April 16.

The Jamaica Olympic Sprint Team made a near-clean sweep in Beijing, overwhelming the United States, the traditional powerhouse of sprinting. It was the first time one country had claimed so many medals since 1912. Usain Bolt won gold in the men’s 100 and 200 metres, Veronica Campbell-Brown successfully defended the 200 metres, and Shelly-Ann Fraser became the first Jamaican woman to win the Olympic 100 metres. The men’s team also won the 4x100 metre relay gold.

Zou Kai’s victory on the horizontal bars on the last day of competition in Beijing gave him his third gold medal and the China Olympic Gymnastics Team their ninth. It was a perfect ending to the host country's brilliant gymnastic display, giving it the best result ever in the discipline. China’s other gold medals came from Chen Yibing, He Kexin, Li Xiaopeng, and Xiao Qin. In addition to staging a spectacular Olympic Games, host nation China recorded their best ever Olympic results. The full China Olympic team led the final medals table with 51 gold, 21 silver, and 28 bronze.

The Great Britain cycling team won eight gold medals, four silver, and two bronze, dominating the sport. The individual gold medallists were Nicole Cooke, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Rebecca Romero, and Bradley Wiggins. And there were team gold medals in the Men’s Team Pursuit and Men’s Team Sprint. The Germany Men’s Olympic Hockey Team beat Spain 1-0 to win the Olympic gold medal. Christopher Zeller’s goal in the 16th minute gave the Germans their first Olympic hockey title since 1992.

While the Olympics dominated the sporting scene in August, it was football that produced some sparkling team displays earlier in the year. The Spanish football team, under coach Luis Aragones, won the European Football Championship. It was Spain’s first major title for 44 years. They beat three-times champions Germany 1-0 in the final with a goal by Fernando Torres. Spain's total of 12 goals made the team one of the leading scorers, and Xavi was named Player of the Tournament.

Under coach Sir Alex Ferguson, English Premier League club Manchester United won their third European Cup/Champions League and also the English Premier League Championship in 2008. Just days after having secured their 17th English League title, they beat English rivals Chelsea on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time in the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21. The star of Manchester United’s season was Portuguese striker Crsitiano Ronaldo who scored 42 goals.

The Egyptian football team won a record sixth African Nations Cup, beating Cameroon 1-0 in the final in Accra, Ghana in February. Mohamed Aboutrika scored the winning goal. They won the inaugural African Nations Cup in Sudan in 1957 and also won in 1959, 1986, 1998, and 2006.

One team managed to be represented in both camps—Olympics and Football—as Argentina's Olympic football team retained the Olympic title they won in Athens, beating Nigeria 1-0 in the final in Beijing.

This year, there is a strong challenge from the United States. The New York Giants staged one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, winning the Super Bowl 17-14 and preventing hot favourites New England Patriots becoming the first undefeated team since 1972. While Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA basketball play-offs for a record 17th time.

Philadelphia Phillies, the oldest continuous one-name, one-city franchise in American professional sport, won only the second baseball World Series in their 126-year history, when they beat Tampa Bay Rays 4-1, with Cole Hamels being named Most Valuable Player.

The Detroit Red Wings' victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins was their 11th Stanley Cup ice hockey championship. They have now made the playoffs in 23 of the last 25 seasons, including the last 17 in a row— the longest current streak of post-season appearances in American professional sport.

One of the sporting victories most enjoyed in the United States took place in Kentucky in September. Led by six determined rookies, inspired by a brilliant captain in Paul Azinger, and roared on by a passionate crowd, the United States Ryder Cup Team beat favourites Europe 16½-11½ in this historic golfing encounter for the first time in nine years. More impressively, they did it without the best golfer in the world, Tiger Woods, who was injured.

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One Team provided the car driven by Lewis Hamilton as he became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion. During the year, the team won six Grand Prix: Hamilton won in Australia, Monaco, Britain, Germany, and China, and his teammate Heikki Kovalainen won in Hungary. But McLaren did not win the Constructor's World Championship. That was taken by Ferrari for a record 16th time with their drivers Felipe Massa and Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari won eight Grand Prix—Bahrain, Turkey, France, European, Belgium and Brazil (Massa), and Malaysia and Spain (Raikkonen).

In rugby, it may not have made up for losing to France in the quarter-final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but 2008 was a wonderful year for the New Zealand All Blacks as they re-established themselves as the top team in the world. They won the Tri-Nations Series against Australia and World Champions South Africa, then they completed an autumn Grand Slam in the British Isles, beating Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. The All Blacks were named International Rugby Board Team of the Year and their coach Graham Henry was voted Coach of the Year.

In cricket, South Africa became the first team in 16 years to win a Test Series in Australia. If they had won the final game in Sydney, they would have taken over the No. 1 world ranking from the Australians. During the year, South Africa won 11 out of 15 Tests, losing just two matches. They won the Test series in England and drew in India.

Captained and coached by Australian spin legend Shane Warne, the Rajasthan Royals cricket team won the inaugural Indian Premier League, despite being regarded by some as one of the weaker teams in the league. The team lost its first match by nine wickets, then recovered for an 11-3 winning record to qualify for the play-offs. They beat Delhi in the semi-finals and Chennai by three wickets in the final in June.

Double Olympic gold medallist Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, said: “The Olympic Games produced some memorable moments. As well as producing a great Games, the Chinese certainly delivered on the medal count. And as a former track runner myself, I thought the performances of the Jamaican sprinters were amazing. Having Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Charlton as Academy members, I know just what a great year it was for football. Whichever six teams are nominated from whichever sports, the Academy is going to have a truly great list of nominees to vote for.”

There is a two-part voting process to find the winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards. Firstly, a Selection Panel of the world’s leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from over 120 countries votes to create a shortlist of six nominations in various categories including Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, Laureus World Team of the Year, Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year and Laureus World Comeback of the Year.

The members of the Laureus World Sports Academy then vote by secret ballot to select the winners. The Laureus Academy is the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, who have made an outstanding contribution to world sports.

The Laureus Academy members also vote for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability and the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year, the nominations for which are made by specialist panels.

The 2008 Awards Ceremony in St. Petersburg, held in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was attended by global figures from sports, entertainment, business, and fashion. In addition to members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, among the guests present were Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, England football coach Fabio Capello, Russian swimming star Alexander Popov, Paralympic "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius and Tour De France winner Alberto Contador. From the world of entertainment there was Kim Catrall, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Dennis Hopper, and Kyle MacLachlan. Among the legends of sport who were present to receive awards were tennis legends Roger Federer and Justine Henin, British racing driver Lewis Hamiton, wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer and members of the South African team, which won the Rugby World Cup.

Legendary Surfer Layne Beachley Named New Laureus Global Ambassador

Eric — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:57:50 -0500

JAN JUC, VICTORIA, Feb. 4, 2009 – Layne Beachley, the greatest female surfer of all time, has become the newest member of the Laureus Friends & Ambassadors programme.

The announcement was made by Laureus World Sports Academy members Cathy Freeman, Robby Naish, Daley Thompson and Steve Waugh, who were attending the Indigenous Sports Program surfing-based project at Jan Juc, near Geelong, in Victoria, Australia.

Australian surfing legend Beachley won the World Surfing Championship a record seven times and set the pace for women in a previously male dominated sport. She received the Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award in 2004.

Layne Beachley said: “I would like to thank the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy for inviting me to become a Laureus Ambassador, and I am delighted that I can get down to work straight away at this inspiring project.

"To be able to share my knowledge and passion for surfing with those less fortunate is very exciting. Having Robby Naish here to participate in the programme makes it even more special. I plan to work with Laureus to establish more projects and use sport as the means to help disadvantaged young Australians.”

The Australian Sports Commission’s Indigenous Sports Program, supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, helps to increase the number of Aborigines participating in sport. In the Jan Juc area, the focus is surfing, one of Australia’s most popular sports.

The project, run by Surfing Australia, promotes healthy lifestyles and provides the local community with the opportunity to experience surfing in a fun, safe and supervised environment and gives individuals the opportunity to become coaches and officials.

The Laureus Academy members joined children from the Wathaurong community in activities on the beach, which included traditional indigenous games, surfing technique lessons, safety, ocean awareness surf lessons and a mini surfing-competition to end the event.

Former world champions Beachley and Naish, who won over 30 world titles between them, also gave a surfing demonstration for the young people.

Joining Layne Beachley and Robby Naish on the beach at Jan Juc were Cathy Freeman, Australia’s heroine from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where she won the 400 metres gold medal, Steve Waugh, arguably Australia’s greatest cricket captain, and Britain’s double Olympic decathlon gold medal winner Daley Thompson.

Cathy Freeman said: “We welcome Layne warmly into the Laureus family and I am personally delighted to see her at Jan Juc today. The Indigenous Sports Program is something very close to my heart and I am delighted that so many other Laureus Academy members are here to support our work to help the Indigenous community. This really can make a difference to these young people.”

Laureus is a universal movement that celebrates the power of sport to bring people together as a force for good. Laureus is composed of three core elements - the Laureus World Sports Academy, incorporating the Friends & Ambassadors programme, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the Laureus World Sports Awards - which collectively celebrate sporting excellence and harness the power of sport to promote social change.

The mission of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation is to utilise the power of sport to address social challenges through a global programme of sports related community development initiatives, using sport as a tool for social change. The Foundation supports more than 60 projects worldwide and since its inception Laureus has raised Aus$29 million (€15 million) for projects which have helped to improve the lives of over 750,000 young people.

The work of the Foundation is supported by the Laureus World Sports Academy, a unique association of 46 of the greatest living sporting legends, and by a growing number of Laureus Friends & Ambassadors. The Friends and Ambassadors programme is an initiative aimed at encouraging the involvement of sport stars and friends at a countrywide level.

The personalities have volunteered their time to act as global ambassadors by using their influence to highlight the plight of disadvantaged children.

Eric is an accredited Laureus Sports member.

The Latest on your Favourite Stars

Eric — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:31:00 -0500

You want to know what the stars are up to, so sit back this weekend, catch up on the latest news about the movers and shakers in the athletic world, and check back for the New Year's special on Monday night.

The latest on many of your favourite athletes in the sport of track and field:

Abebe Dinkesa ran what was described as "a mind-boggling" 41.45 11.5km race on November 29th to win the $50,000 first prize money and also set a new course record in the 4th Obudu International Mountain Race—a steep and hilly course which has never yielded a defending male champion in the meet's history.

Alan Webb, the American-record holder in the mile who failed to advance past the US Olympic Trials in the 1.500m, was signing red t-shirts and providing his support on December 27th at the Friends of Indoor Track Invitational at Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, VA; where nearly 1,300 supporters signed a petition to be forwarded to members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to save indoor track from the chopping blocks for local high school students. At issue is whether or not indoor track is necessary as Fairfax County Public Schools faces a $170 million shortfall in its 2010 budget, though track costs only $50 per student according to Dan Woolley, FIT president.

Allyson Felix has been quiet this off-season, with planned time-off giving her much-needed rest from the Olympic preparations she and Bob Kersee put in last year. Felix, who travelled to Jamaica on holiday during the off-season, hosted her family for Christmas last week. Felix, the defending 200m world champion, is in a long-repetition training phase she gears up for the 2009 World Championships.

Andréas Thorkildsen, the two-time Olympic javelin champion, was awarded the gold medal for the ‘Performance of the Year' by Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten at a ceremony organised by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture in November. The Sports Journalist Association of Norway also presented a statuette to Thorkildsen for becoming the Performer of the Year in Norwegian sport.

Anna Chicherova was spotted with other high-profile athletes and dignitaries at a Real Madrid match on December 18th, but not the famed Spanish team of the football variety. Russian basketball team CSKA were playing the Spanish basketball team in Moscow in an epic showdown which Real Madrid won in front of the Russian hosts in stunning play. Chicherova is confirmed for competitions to be held in two Czech cities, Trinec (Jan 21st) and Hustopece on (Jan 24th) in what is known as the Moravia High Jump Tour.

Asafa Powell, the greatest Grand Prix sprinter to never win an individual global title, has not yet responded to Michael Johnson's public statements and assertions that Powell does not know how to handle his nerves and focus—two keys to Powell's inability to win the big ones (World Championships and Olympics). Johnson, who believes he can help Powell, has stated that the biggest mistake an athlete can make is deluding him/herself into thinking that there is no pressure. Dwain Chambers backs Powell to win a medal before the end of his career.

Augustine Choge will kick-start his cross country campaign on January 10th at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country meeting in Scotland. Choge, who finished 12th at last year's World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, has not raced since finishing 10th in the 1.500m final in Beijing.

Berhane Adere, who faltered in the Beijing Olympic marathon, is scheduled to defend her Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon title next month, one year after setting a course record (2.22.42) and collecting $250,000 in the process. Adere, who is in a class by herself, should only face challenges from Bezenushe Bekele and Askale Tafa Magarsa.

Bernard Lagat will attempt to tie the Wanamaker Mile win record of seven, owned by legendary Irish great Eamonn Coghlan when he competes January 30th at the 102nd Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Lagat will then turn his focus to Europe, where he will be targeting his fourth win at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on February 21st, where he will run the 1.500m.

Bershawn Jackson has spent part of his off-season visiting children and providing advice to work hard, stay in school and never lose sight of their dreams—words of wisdom he provided kids at Hillcrest Elementary School in Somerset. "You have to face adversity and overcome it," he told the students. "Champions don't give up, and I consider myself a champion. I made history because I worked hard and I trained hard."

Blanka Vlasic is rested and ready for the 2009 season following a disappointing Olympic silver medal and her second-consecutive Golden League season jackpot miss. Vlasic will have another shot at the $1M jackpot as the IAAF announced the women's high jump will be part of the 2009 campaign. Vlasic was recognised last week in Zagreb with a Croatian Olympic Committee award, a distinction she was not expecting, but one upon which she promised to deliver in the future. Vlasic will have an opportunity to jump against Ariane Friedrich at the BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe on February 16th and avenge for the one loss the German had against Vlasic in 2008, causing her to lose her share ($500.000) of the Golden League Jackpot.

Carolina Klüft travelled to Addidas Ababa Ethiopia late last month to be part of the Great Ethiopian Run—a race which UNICEF is a partner to help raise awareness and funds to fight HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Klüft, a UNICEF ambassador, lent her support to the fundraising project, one which helps orphans and vulnerable children through the "Dream Campaign" by raising about $11,000 for four charity homes. Klüft was there on a similar visit in the winter of 2006. Trackside, Klüft, who followed her one-week visit to Ethiopia with a training camp in Potchestrom, has again opted to skip the heptathlon, which means that the 2009 IAAF World Championships—as were the Beijing Olympics will be contested without the second-best ever in the event. Klüft will tackle the long jump event, one which she sees as a challenge.

Christian Malcolm was denied a true opportunity to earn a medal in the 200m according to Linford Christie, Malcolm's coach who is banned from any Olympic team contact for a positive drugs test late in his career. Christie claimed last week that UK Athletics and the BOA did not give Malcolm the chance to prepare as best as he possibly could. Nevertheless, UK Athletics paid Christie to coach the world and Olympic finalist in the run-up to Beijing despite the fact that Christie was prevented from accompanying the Olympic squad to either the athletes' holding camp in Macau or the Games themselves.

Christine Ohuruogu's stock continues to rise, with Lord Sebastian Coe this week naming Ouruogu, the Olympic 400m champion and defending IAAF world champion, her sporting hero of 2008. On a side note, Ohuruogu recently donated a pair of her trainers to an art work which will be a representation of the shoes which people who perished at Nazi concentration camps were made to remove before they died.

Dorcus Inzikuru, the former world steeplechase champion, refused to testify last week in a personal assault case where she was a principle witness and plaintiff against her husband and brother-in-law. Both defendants were attributed to have stated two days before their arrests that they would kill Inzikuru, with Inzikuru's husband charged with physically assaulting and harming her. The case was dismissed.

Jenn Stuczynski, the Olympic silver medalist in the pole vault, has become a Christmas ornament—a silver bulb in her local area with a picture of Stuczynski participating in the pole vault. The decorative pieces sold out, and more were on the way.

Jeremy Wariner is training and looking ahead to London 2012 according to today's Star-Telegram. "It’s a good way for me to relieve a lot of stress," he says about running. "When I’m on the track, I forget about everything else that’s going on. So it’s a good place for me to get away from things and just be me and enjoy myself."

Johan Wissman is currently training 11 times a week in order to gain more strength needed to reach the goals he has for the 400m. Wissman is scheduled to contest the GE Galan here in Stockholm on February18th at the second-best indoor meet in the world (Stuttgart). Wissman returned to Helsingborg yesterday following three weeks of winter training at his "home away from home" in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Kara Goucher will visit the City of Duluth (MN) Wellness Committee program on Tuesday, December 30th, to honour city exercisers. Goucher, home in Minnesota for the holiday season, is preparing for the Boston Marathon following a successful debut in New York.

Kelly Sotherton is currently training to take part in all three of the major UK Athletics indoor events in 2009, starting with the Aviva International Match at Glasgow on January 31st. Sotherton will then compete at the Aviva European Trials on February 14th and 15th in Sheffield, before taking on Olympic Champion Natalia Dobrynska in Birmingham in the 60m hurdles, long jump and 400m.

Kim Collins is preparing for the upcoming Aviva Internternational Match in Scotland, where the ex-world 100m champion will contest the 60m and 200m events at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall on January 31st.

Kim Gevaert, though now retired from athletics, was recently named along with Justine Henin as goodwill ambassadors for the Belgium and Netherlands bid to co-host the 2018 World Cup.

Lisa Dobriskey trained twice on Christmas Day—a Thursday, as she always does, and is more than determined to make up for the bitter disappointment she felt when she placed out of medal contention in Beijing. Despite heading into the Olympics full of optimism, Dobriskey finished fourth in the Beijing 1.500m final.

Liu Xiang's recovery from achiles surgery is going well, as he has now been able to walk without crutches—though he is still required to wear a special shoe. He will be able to walk in the pool in two weeks according to his coach, Sun Haiping, accompanying Liu during his U.S. rehabilitation. Yao Ming has requested Liu receive space and time to heal.

Lolo Jones was named Visa Humanitarian Athlete of the Year earlier this month for her help in assisting flood victims in her home state of Iowa.

Nick Willis will compete in a Wellington (NZ) street race on March 10th before competing in a mile race at an international track and field competition three days later in Christchurch.

Richard Thompson, the Beijing silver medallist (9,89) in the 100m behind Usain Bolt's world-record (9,69), earned $750,000 cash and $250,000 in units from Unit Trust Corporation in Trinidad last week as a reward for his accomplishments in the 100m and 4x100m relay, which set a national record (38,06). Thompson, the NCAA indoor 60m champion and outdoor 100m winner, resumed training 3-November, and stated to Trinidad's Newsday that the 4x100m relay team will race together several times next season.

Stefan Holm has ended his career in grand fashion —at least nationally. Holm, the fourth-place finisher at the Beijing Olympics, was last week selected Sweden's best track and field athlete for the first time in his career.

Steph Twell, the three-time European Junior Cross Country champion, will be racing in the Antrim International Cross Country—the third meeting in this winter’s UK Cross Challenge series on January 3rd.

Susanna Kallur, who finished second in balloting to Stefan Holm for Sweden's best track and field athlete, has split with coach Karin Torneklint. Torneklint, who coached Sanna and her sister, Jenny from 14-15 years old and joined forces again with them in 2004, left the training solely to Torbjörn Eriksson, who had different training philosophies than did Torneklint.

Usain Bolt is in almost every news story of note at the moment as the doors prepare to close on 2008 and the year which produced a record season which likely will never be repeated. Bolt took delivery of a BMW M3 (reported here earlier this week) just before Christmas, and was recently selected Track & Field News Athlete of the Year.

Victor Conte is in the news this week because he stated he supplied "the cream" and "the clear" to somebody, somewhere... one has lost count to the claims Conte has made.

Usain Bolt's Three Gifts Kept on Giving

Eric — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Christmas eve has drawn nigh, and one wonders what has been left under Usain Bolt's tree.

He has captured nearly every imaginable and conceivable award and adulation for his accomplishments in 2008, and has been handsomely rewarded with name and brand recognition which stretches around the globe.

What gift will Bolt unwrap this year which can top those he received at this time some 52 weeks ago? Is there any solitary imaginable one which could rival the six-fold one he received with his Olympic ticket, namely three gold medals and three world records to match?

If he needs a ticket to fame, he needn't look any further than a click of the mouse: Usain Bolt's name is splashed on every news feed of note, even to this day, as 2008 winds down and the fairytale season is remembered on top-10 lists in a newspaper near you.

Bolt drew the ire of International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge for showboating during the men's 100-meter dash on the biggest stage of world sport, but drew the adoration of hundreds of millions of fans for his childlike demonstration of sheer excitement for winning a race against competitors far more experienced than he.

What about just giving the man a car and some alone time following an off-season which appeared to be more hectic than his in-season travel and commitments? On second thought, hold off on that one. BMW and Puma have already teamed up and done just that. Mr. Bolt took custody of a black BMW M3 which Puma had shipped to him just before Christmas.

Perhaps a suitable gift for Bolt would be Sports Illustrated unveiling their Sportsman of the Year award, a single-copy edition which could serve as motivation for 2009—a world championship year which will be filled with higher expectations than Bolt could possibly have dreamed of when he took up the challenge of dropping down in distance this year, and tackling a man who had won his island nation's heart, captured the citizens' imaginations, but had not won any global title of note.

Sports Illustrated missed a beat when it had Michael Phelps lean ahead of Bolt to win Sportsman of the Year Award. The IAAF, Track & Field News and L'Equipe, didn't, however, each awarding the lanky Jamaican sensation its top honours, respectively.

We as fans received an extra gift this year, as the Olympic Games were held during a leap year and were kicked off on a very sacred and superstitious day for the Chinese, namely the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of this century.

Eights may have been wild for the 21 percent of the world population located in the host country, but there is only a single integer which will remain in the history annals for all-time, whether or not the times, themselves, are lowered by Usain Bolt—and that is the number "one".

Try these on for size:

Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as the number one sprinter in the 100m.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as the number one sprinter in the 200m.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as the world record-holder in the 100m.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as the world record-holder in the 200m.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as history's quickest from 0-100m.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season as history's quickest from 0-10 under 10,00.
Usain Bolt ended the 2008 season with the greatest cumulative average for his top-10.
Usain Bolt also ended the 2008 season with one loss, bringing full-circle the true value of that number.

Taking a closer look, Bolt ended the 2008 season with the best average time for his top-10 races in a season, though Asafa Powell ran the season of his life as well:

1. Usain Bolt, JAM, 2008 -- 9.820 (9.69, 9.72, 9.76, 9.77, 9.83, 9.85, 9.85, 9.89, 9.92, 9.92)
2. Asafa Powell, JAM, 2008 -- 9.837 (9.72, 9.77, 9.82, 9.82, 9.83, 9.87, 9.87, 9.88, 9.89, 9.90)
3. Asafa Powell, JAM, 2006 -- 9.867 (9.77, 9.77, 9.85, 9.85, 9.86, 9.86, 9.89, 9.91, 9.95, 9.96)

Powell needed to run 9.81 and 9.80 in his final two races in order to drop 9.90 and 9.91 from his top-10 and finishes, .01 ahead of Bolt's top-10 season average—no easy feat, despite one's willpower; the season had already been long enough, the Olympics had come and gone, and the chances at redemption were slimming down.

Powell failed in those attempts at the World Athletics Final (9.87) and at Pedro's Cup (9.89), however, he did conclude his season by running exceptionally well, stopping the clock under 9.90 in seven consecutive races. Moreover, Powell was able to legally stop the clock under 10.00 on 15 occasions in 2008—seven more than he did in 2007, and three more than in 2006 when he twice ran world-record times of 9.77 seconds.

In keeping with the integer "one", here's one more: Only one other man in history has been able to run faster without stopping than the sum (19.41) of Bolt's top-two 100m times, a man whom Bolt removed from atop the totem pole in the men's 200m dash and carved his name with the immortal ones who have defied belief.

358 days ago, the New Year's bells were clanging, many fans were set out for their festivities and the favourite to win the Olympic 100m and 200m titles—as well as the 4x100m title, was prepping for his spring campaign, one which would see him run excellent 4x100m relay legs in order to race into shape without laying down the hammer ahead of the strenuous rounds he'd have to endure at the USA Olympic Trials, and again in Beijing if everything went well.

It didn't matter that his name was Tyson Gay, and he was fresh off of winning three gold medals at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan—two individual ones and a team gold in the short relay—he still had to put in the work, perfect his timings and hope that he'd have it all on the days which mattered.

Another man was attempting to find a magic formula to enable his own successes, despite the fact that he was entering the season as the 100m world-record holder (9.74, Rieti). Asafa Powell put on excellent displays of speed at stadiums around the globe, but he'd never managed to win the big one when it counted. He was hoping 2008 would provide that break-through, rather than relegating him to just a great Grand Prix racer.

Then there was Bolt, a young man who was entering the new year 138 days past his 21st birthday, setting his sights on a 400m workout to start his season, then working his way down to the 100m, a distance his coach promised he could attempt in a season which turned out to be the finest in the history of athletics for male sprinting.

Usain Bolt upped the ante early, running a 46.94 400m on an ugly day in the Jamaican capital on Jan. 26. Bolt won the 10th heat with the fastest time of the day—running 1.66 off his lifetime best set on the exact same day a year earlier. He also defeated Powell (48.76) as he had the year before.

Powell's finish behind Bolt wasn't yet an omen of things to come, as he had managed to outclass his younger competitor in the overall rankings at the end of the 2007 season, but it was the start of something Powell would become quite accustomed to seeing the rest of the 2008 season, namely Bolt's back.

Powell didn't see Bolt's back at the Melbourne Grand Prix in February, winning his signature event, the 100m, in a modest 10.04 seconds. He'd shaken off the dust from the previous year and competed very well despite a nagging injury he carried during training down in Australia. Powell would wait an additional four months to the date before he'd next step on the track for a 100m race, though he would team up with two of the eventual three teammates he'd share 4x100m glory with in Beijing for an early 39.22 clocking in Kingston on March 22.

Expectations for Bolt, meanwhile, were beginning to rise as the world junior 200m record-holder had accepted an invitation to compete in his first-ever senior 100m dash, with Spanish Town serving as host to what would be Bolt's launch into immortality—er, the record books. American Michael Johnson's half-lap record was once thought untouchable. Bolt finished first in the 100m dash that day—March 8—speeding to a very respectable 10.03 seconds.

Gay, the hands-down favourite to win the coveted title of "world's fastest man," meanwhile, played anchor to three four-by-one relay teams, helping the United States win the Texas Relays in 38.63 seconds, an adidas all-star team capture the Mt. Sac Relays (38.51), and bringing home another national team to a fourth-place finish at the Penn Relays (39.38).

Seven weeks of training and focus—coupled with an apetite to push his tall frame under the 10-second barrier in front of his home crowd—led Bolt to the starting line at the Jamaica Invitational on May 3. Many of the world's major players were at the meet, with Wallace Spearmon—Bolt's 200m nemesis—as well as Darvis Patton, Kim Collins, and Mike Rodgers in Bolt's heat, and Gay opting for the 200m dash.

That Bolt would win the premiere event of the day against the Americans was fathomable—he entered with the fastest time of the year in the field. That Bolt would scream through the 10.00 barrier, under 9.90, and well under 9.80 in his second professional race is another "first" for the history books. Bolt stopped the finish-line clock at 9.76 seconds—only 0.02 seconds off of Powell's world record, and the second-fastest clocking in history. No man had ever chopped so much time off his personal best whilst crossing the magical 10-flat barrier, and no man's margin of victory—0.32 seconds—had been larger.

Bolt was suddenly thrust into contention for the heavyweight title of track and field, the coveted 100m title. Gay took exactly 20 seconds to go from 0-200m without stopping, but the attention had clearly shifted to Bolt, who would agree to a man-to-man 100m sprint to be contested against Gay and others in New York exactly four weeks later.

Bolt had another appearance to make ahead of that scheduled stop, however, and he didn't fail to deliver, winning the Hampton Games in Trinidad on May 14 in a blistering 9.92—his second-consecutive race under 10.00 and a time which was still faster than any man had run up to that point in the season. Gay would respond with a 10.05-20.08 double victory at the adidas classic in Carson, Calif., the following day, with the 200m run into a negative 1.7 wind.

Road to Beijing: Christmas Present Number One

Countdown: T-minus 13 days to the clash of the world champion against the man who had a faster personal best, but who lost to that deserving champion over double the distance the previous year.

Bolt smashed Gay's pride, stole his thunder and erased Powell from the record books in one fell swoop on the 31st day (+1) of May in New York, crossing the line first at 9.72 seconds—a 0.04 improvement over his previous best; his third consecutive race under 10.00; more than 1/10th of a second ahead of Gay's best (9.84); and the fastest ever legally run on American soil.

Gay, who won the 2007 edition in a windy 9.76 (+2.2 m/s), finished with a superb 9.85 clocking, but was left to concern himself with the upcoming USA Olympic Trials. The night in New York belonged to Bolt, the man who was attempting to become the world's fastest.

You know the rest of the drill for Gay: he reigned supreme in the USA Olympic Trials, the timing system in Eugene, Ore., came under heavy suspicion from pundits, Gay was carted off the track during his 200m qualifying, and he disappeared until such time that the Oympics were to commence—where eights were straight, ones were wild and Usain Bolt wasn't playing by conventional rules.

OK, Gay did a bit more than run wild at his national championships, he broke through with monstrous performances in the quarters, semi-final and final, where he ran a personal best 9.77 (qf), followed up with a 9.85w in his semi, and recorded history's fastest under all conditions, a 9.68 (+4,1 m/s)—removing Marion Jones' husband, Obadele Thompson, as the title holder.

Bolt opened his Olympic experience with a 10.20 and 9.95 during his first two races, and followed those up with a 9.85 semi-final run—his third race in 24 hours with the final coming a few hours later. That he would not only blow logic out of the window during the final with his 9.69 after easing during the latter half of the race, but would run nearly as fast as had Gay had with a hurricane wind behind him and equal the second-fastest under any conditions, was unreal, unbelievable, and ultimately un-human.

Somewhere in the middle of it all was Asafa Powell, who, again, failed to win the big one despite the incredible in-season CV (9.88 victory over Bolt here in Stockholm and a 9.82 final tune-up in Monaco) he brought to the final.

Christmas Present Number Two For Bolt

Bolt, who has a penchant for speed and a need to demonstrate it—he was able to test his new M3 at the BMW Vehicle Test Facility in Aschheim, near Münich following the Olympics—didn't disappoint in the 200m, either, despite the media frenzy and circus which followed his coronation as world's fastest man.

One day before his 22nd birthday, Bolt, contesting his fifth 200m final of the season—the previous four were all victories, and each under 20.00 (three under 19.90, two under 19.80 and one under 19.70), flew off the curve on a mission to the finish line, driving, pumping and leaning with all of his might as the clock read 19.30, a new world record.

Michael Johnson, once accused of having his braids twirled too tightly during some trash-talking with Maurice Greene back during their heated rivalry, meet Usain Bolt, who had been accused of show-boating and not respecting his competitors. Mr. Bolt has just taken over your record, one which many a fan stated would last their lifetimes.

Christmas Present Number Three

Finally, as the season of giving is upon us, and was so at this time last year, let's think about the third and final gift Usain Bolt left the sport in Beijing, namely the best demonstration of speed, willpower, teamwork and hand-offs to ever circle once around a track. Ever.

Puma threw Bolt a great birthday bash during the heart of the Olympic Games. Their man delivered on the grandest stage of them all, and the company was not at all reluctant to reward their superstar with a grand bash which included Asafa Powell and others. Following Bolt's birthday, however, it was back to business for one final event on the track: the 4x100m relay.

Jamaica, which made it through the semi-final unscathed as they watched the Americans fail to finish due to botched hand-offs, fielded a team of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, and Asafa Powell. As previously mentioned, Powell, Carter, and Frater had contested this event on two previous occasions, with Bolt, the Olympic champion, being the replacement guy on the team.

The initial stages of the race are a blur—something which Youtube has enabled me to recollect for later use. That's of least consequence here, however, as the third leg—which Usain Bolt ran to hand off to Asafa Powell—must have been the fastest curve ever run by anyone under any conditions, stick or sans. Bolt, passing off the baton to Powell, came up on his countryman and friend with a fury, full of run, up to his neck in foot speed and with a mouth full of encouragement for his teammate unrated for general viewing here. He appeared to be running with Powell for several metres as Powell began the descent home, and may have held off the remaining competition had he taken the stick and run a full 200m, instead of handing it to Powell.

Powell dug deeper than I have ever seen him do before, struggled to keep his form as he neared the finish line, with the collective crowd at the Bird's Nest roaring in delight as he leaned and stopped the clock 37.10 seconds after it began ticking on command from the firing pistol.

Bolt was part of his third world record in as many races, and his name and fame have not died down since, nor did his speed as he ended his season on high notes of 9.83-19.63-9.77 in the subsequent three meets following the Olympic Games.

I last wrote to you that I've finally taken the foot off the gas and have had an opportunity to reflect on the greatest sprint season which ever was—only to discover that 2009 is fast approaching with all of its suprises—both good and bad.

As Usain Bolt sits by an open fire and celebrates Christmas with his relatives and friends, I can only imagine what Bolt has wished for himself for the 2009 season. All of his wishes last season came true, and his gifts keep giving even as we speak and write. Scientists hope that Bolt can run completely through the finish line once at full speed, because they have predicted he can run 100m in 9.5 seconds.

Only Bolt knows what it feels like to drive that M3, loaded with 414 horse power, at full speed. Here's to hoping he will demonstrate the equivalent on the track as well.

Usain Bolt's 2008 season over 100m:

10.03 (+1.8) Classics Spanish Town 8 Mar
9.76 (+1.8) Jamaica Inv Kingston 3 May
9.92 (+0.6) HamptonG Port-of-Spain 17 May
9.72 WR (+1.7) Reebok New York NY 31 May
10.19 (+1.0) National Champs Kingston 27 Jun
9.85 (-0.1) National Champs Kingston 28 Jun
10.40 (-2,0) National Champs Kingston 28 Jun
9.89 (+0.4) DNG Stockholm 22 Jul
10.20 (-0.2) Olympics Beijing 15 Aug
9.92 (+0.1) Olympics Beijing 15 Aug
9.85 (-0.1) Olympics G Beijing 16 Aug
9.69 WR (+/- 0.0) Olympics Beijing 16 Aug
9.83 (-0.5) Weltklasse Zürich 29 Aug
9.77 (-1.3) Van Damme Bruxelles 5 Sep

Usain Bolt Highlights a Banner Year for Track and Field

Eric — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:24:00 -0500

I don’t know about you, but I’m quite pleased the Olympics only occur once every fourth year. Any other years like the one which is winding down and has long since ended in terms of competition, and I’m not sure how much emotion, turmoil, ups and downs I’d have left in the tank to offer the sport as a fan. The summer season seemed to just conclude, and already, we’re looking at Bernard Lagat attempting to win a seventh Wannamaker Mile competition in New York in about a month.

Has it already been four years since Hicham El Guerrouj flashed two fingers up at the camera in complete disbelief that he’d won not only his first, but snuck by Kenenisa Bekele to win his second-ever Olympic medal in the same championships?

Was that the same Bekele who smashed the socks off his competitors in the 10.000m, and, following an additional 12,5 laps of qualifying, smashed his sly Kenyan rivals to smithereens with shifty pacing and a furious kick?

Watching Bekele come through in the 5.000m was breath-taking, but nothing took hold of my attention and belief than did the performances Usain Bolt put up individually in the short sprints and collectively with Asafa Powell and compatriots in the short relay. Four months later and quickly approaching a new year, I’ve finally let off the gas and have attempted to make sense—any—of times, marks and efforts which defied belief.

There are only so many times in a two-week time frame one has been able to listen the Russian national anthem or watch a gob-smacking number of Jamaican fans wave their hands in the air and shed tears for a boy who turned into a man by breaking two individual world records and helping his hapless team mate turn the tables on his own bitter-sweet championship record.

The Jamaican women didn’t fare too shabbily, either, one can say.

I don’t have a desire to re-hash all the happenings from this past year, but a few stand out to my liking and recollection, though others will be higher on your own personal priority lists and lodged deeper in your memory banks.

The anticipation surrounding the medal chase is so exhausting from a distance that I can only imagine what athletes must face from the indoor kick-offs to the final dash to the finish lines at a track stadium near you as they put their years of training to the test to determine if it would net them a medal in front of the world’s biggest audience. When the roof caves in and the rain falls on your parade in front of your own home fans, as it did for former 110m hurdle world-record holder Liu Xiang, the personal tragedy can be greater than one can ever imagine—even with the wildest of thoughts.

Closer up, however, that anticipation of winning was also so great, that it has caused many an athlete to turn to the darker side of sport, namely, doping, and attempt to squeeze on by through the corridors between right and wrong straight for the medal stand, lofty pay-outs and extreme adornment despite the methods by which they were to have been achieved—mark that, stolen.

Seven Russian women went down that path of destruction this season, caught in one of the largest doping conspiracies to hit the sport in the past 20 years—a time which also happened to be an Olympic year, and a location which also happened to be held in an Asian city. Ben Johnson has long since been removed from this sport, with his steroid-enabled times replaced by legal ones which raised the hair on the arms and laid the foundation for any number of clichés, questions and superlatives to be used.

Whilst on the topic of doping, let it be known that Marion Jones, who won honour and privilege by method of fraud eight years ago in Sydney, was confined to a prison unit many worlds away from the glittering flashes capturing images of greatness by athletes competing at the Bird’s Nest. She was released about two weeks following the extinguishing of the flame—a fitting image as her career can finally be extinguished and put to rest following years of denials about her involvement in performance-enhancing drugs. Six months of thinking time didn’t make Marion Jones smarter, however, it made her deny on national television in the United States in front of Oprah Winfrey that Marion Jones can and will take full and complete responsibility for her illegal actions rather than blaming someone else.

Lyudmyla Blonska, the outcast Ukrainian heptathlon competitor who was banned following a positive test in Beijing, has made it a case to blame someone else—in this case, that someone being her husband. She’s facing a lifetime ban from the sport if she is unable to clear this case with CAS. Carolina Klüft, our Swedish star who won every major heptathlon title available and decided to concentrate on the long and triple jumps this season, has been vocal about Blonska’s inclusion back in the sport following her first ban.

I didn’t get stung by the whole Marion Jones saga, but I got hit in the head and knocked over by Yelena Soboleva, instead. I picked Soboleva as my Indoor Athlete-of-the-Year on my blog following her incredulous runs at the World Indoor Championships in March, and believed with all honesty that she was competing clean. She tested clean, but with someone else’s urine. Yep, one star athlete’s chances went right down the toilet...literally.

I was anticipating a Soboleva match-up with Pamela Jelimo, the Kenyan teenager whom I can not truly describe with any adjective which correctly sums up her ability, year and mark left on this sport. Those match-ups never occurred, with Soboleva, who ran a world-leading 1.54,85 in Kazan in June, getting temporarily banned prior to the Olympics and unable to compete in the IAAF Golden League series.

That didn’t stop Jelimo, who broke on to the scene with death-defying times and eventually went on to win the Olympics, set a World Junior Record, a Kenyan National record and record one of the top-five times ever recorded for a female over two laps. Jelimo wasn’t simply precocious. She wasn’t fast in terms of having great wheels, either. She was more than dynamic, and she was more than dominant. She went from rags to riches—one million dollars richer—in one simple season which saw her line up for 15 races (including heats, rounds and finals), and win every single competition in which she entered over the 800m distance, running under 1.57,00 on nine of those occasions.

On the topic of Russian match-ups, I had two other ones to which I was greatly looking forward this season, namely those of Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Abubaker Kaki and Yelena Isinbayeva and Jenn Stuczynski in the pole vault.

Kaki, who concluded 2007 by running a solo 1.43, gained my uttermost attention this past winter season, running a world junior record in the 1.000m 10 minutes down the street at the GE Galan at Globen and then going on to win the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Spain in March. He kicked off outdoors on a high note, running a 1.42,69 at the Oslo Golden League meeting, setting up what was to be a very high expectation for great things to come on the men’s two-lap circuit.

Borzakovskiy, who anchored Russia to a national indoor record in the 4x800m this past winter, also notched a blistering time over the two-lap distance outdoors, running 1.42,79 three weeks ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and one week after setting a national record over 1.000m here in Stockholm at the DN Galan (2.15,50).

Sadly, neither athlete was anywhere near the medal stand following Wilfred Bungei’s surprise victory. I haven’t heard from Kaki since our two meetings this summer, and Borzakovskiy has vowed to return for more at the London 2012 Olympics, though by then there will be other Kaki-type athletes who will have cropped up by then, and Kaki, if he’s healthy and not burned out by then, will be the Wilson Kipketer of this generation.

First up for either athlete, will be the opportunity afforded Jelimo in 2008, namely a stab at a portion of (or all the proceeds outright of) the $1,000,0000 prize money for winning each of the Golden League competitions.

Isinbayeva, on the other hand, was one of two Russian athletes who came through for poor, selfish me this season. I’m a fan, dammit, and wanted a world record from the queen of the vault. Wow, did I get the best of two worlds this season: Isinbayeva got great competition from a gutsy challenger in Stuczynski, and Isinbayeva was able to set one world indoor record and establish three outdoor ones, culminating with an in-your-face 5.05m clearance in Beijing—some 25cm up on the American.

Olympic steeplechase champion Gulnara Galkina, was the other Russian who shone brightly in Beijing, capturing the event with history's first sub-nine clocking—a world record.

And these Olympic Games, ladies and gentlemen, were following the Olympic-size performances prep star German Fernandez put up in June in at the California State Meet and the Nike Outdoor Nationals, where, on successive occasions, he not only outclassed the best in the Class of 2008, he obliterated national federation (8.41,10) and national records (8.36,3) in the 3.200m and 2-mile, respectively. The 3.200m time was achieved following a 1.600m race which saw the lanky kid, who now attends Oklahoma State University and has already established a line of credibility on the NCAA scene, average just over 60 seconds per segment without stopping.

Prep athletes Jordan Hasay (USA Junior Record 4.14,50 in the 1.500m) and Jeffery Demps shone outstanding at the USA Olympic Trials, with Demps setting a new world junior record (the third in the group of five juniors listed here!) in the 100m at 10,01 seconds. Hasay won the girl’s 3.200m run (9.52,13) at the state meet minutes before Fernandez set chase to Dathan Ritzenhein’s Federation record, running the second-fastest time ever by a high school girl. After enduring a long season, which brought Hasay from the West Coast of the United States to the World Junior Championships in Poland, Hasay won every cross country race she entered this autumn, capping off a season of excellence by winning her second Footlocker Cross Country championship two weeks ago—three years after earning her first victory.

Usain Bolt stole (earned) the show(boating) in Beijing, becoming an instantaneous favourite the world round. The Olympics have a way of measuring your ability to succeed on exactly the right queue, and Bolt delivered. So did André Silnov, the Russian high jumper who was not initially selected for his team, delivered a world-leading 2.38m in London a month before the Games, was then selected to compete in Beijing and brought Russia joy in winning the event.

Stefan Holm, the 2004 Olympic high jump champion, won’t have any more opportunities to push his small frame through the air and take down the giants in his path—athletes like Jaroslav Rybakov, a perennial rival. Rybakov, who won a silver in Beijing to Holm’s fourth-place finish, is still very much on the scene, alive and well, and will be for some time coming. Holm, on the other hand, announced that this would be his final season, and he gave it everything he had.

Maria Mutola, the evergreen of the 800m crop, did, as well.

Christian Olsson, our triple jump specialist and 2004 gold medal winner, is also at a cross-road in his career, one which has been terrorised by injury since his winning jump in Athens four years ago. Olsson, like Holm, may have taken his final jumps on the field.

There were also a lot of disappointing moments in 2008, with Blanka Vlasic holding top spot in that category. Vlasic, who had a 20-plus win-streak going heading into Beijing, lost her bid to add an Olympic crown to her world title, as Tia Hellebaut, who is now retired and expecting a baby, earned the coveted crown in a magnificent fashion—and at a personal best height (2.05m). Vlasic eventually lost out on the Golden League jackpot as well, one which Jelimo was able to keep completely to herself as she headed back to Kenya following the season finale in Germany.

Susanna Kallur and LoLo Jones, two of the year’s best 100m hurdlers—with Kallur the world indoor record-holder and Jones, the fastest outdoors, both running into troubles over the hurdles in Beijing and being knocked from their four-year goals of making it to the medal stand. The semi-final was a bitter moment for Kallur, as she had to again endure a defeat at the hands of circumstance rather than the competition; Kallur also had an injury during the world indoor championships in March and missed the final, which Jones won.

There were a thousand small wonders in the world of athletics which made the 2008 season special, unique and a memorable one, for sure.

Did it honestly take me this long to mention LaShawn Merritt’s accomplishments in the 400m? Undisputed heavyweight champion at 400m over the previous Olympic champion, Jeremy Wariner. Or Dayron Robles in the men’s 110m hurdles? Rachid Ramzi’s perfection when it counted in Beijing, despite his show-boat semi-final?

Turning the attention back to the women, has it taken this long to speak of Veronica Campbell over Allyson Felix, with the former running a 21,74 in the Olympic 200m final? Christine Ohuruogu in the women’s 400m after falters at the shorter sprints appeared to have derailed her plans? Last, and not least, the efforts two other Ethiopians, Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, put up in the 5.000m and/or 10.000m this summer? When will they feed off one another instead of ducking? Will the 14-minute barrier be breached if they worked collaboratively?

What will 2009 hold which can surpass this past season in overall greatness and provide an even greater degree of amazement? Is it fair to put this expectation on the sport, the athletes and the meeting arrangers?

Will more athletes like Craig Mottram, who broke off a working relationship with his coach, follow suit as Jeremy Wariner did earlier in the year? Will Alan Webb, the world's fastest miler in 2007 who did not advance to the Olympic Games, finally split with a coach who has mentored him since high school? As American distance runners continue migrating west to Eugene, will any superstars here in Europe join forces? Then again, we don't have many superstars left, so we're waiting on the Africans to trek here for spring cleaning.

I got my world record(s) from Isinbayeva, and Bolt single-handedly brought back life, spunk and a punkishness to the sport which it desperately needed in terms of a face-lift from the past. Can he run faster than 9,69 and/or 19,30 this season, and, if he does, how much faster? Would it be a failure if he doesn’t achieve those marks, but still wins the IAAF World Championships?

Time will tell in more ways than one.

____________________

2008 Season-Leaders (Final): Men 100m. 9,69 WR Usain Bolt JAM 200m. 19,30 WR Usain Bolt JAM 400m. 43,75 LaShawn Merritt USA 800m. 1.42,69 Abubaker Kaki SUD 1500m. 3.31,49 Daniel Kipchirchir Komen KEN Mile. 3.49,38 Andy Baddeley GBR 3.000m. 7.31,83 Edwin Soi KEN 5.000m. 12.50,18 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 10.000m. 26.25,97 Kenenisa Bekele ETH Mar. 2.03.59 WR Haile Gebrselassie ETH 3.000SC. 8.00,57 Paul Kipsiele Koech KEN 110mH. 12,87 WR Dayron Robles CUB 400mH. 47,25 Angelo Taylor USA HJ. 2,38 Andrey Silnov RUS PV. 6,04 Brad Walker USA LJ. 8,73 Irving Saladino PAN TJ. 17,67 Nelson Évora POR SP. 22,12 Adam Nelson USA DT. 71,88 Gerd Kanter EST HT. 84,51 Ivan Tikhon BLR JT. 90,57 Andreas Thorkildsen NOR Dec. 8832 Bryan Clay USA 20KM W. 1.16.43 Sergey Morozov RUS 50KM W. 3.34.14 WR Denis Nizhegorodov RUS 4x100m. 37,10 WR JAM 4x400m. 2.55,39 USA

Women 100m. 10,78 Shelly-Ann Fraser JAM, Torri Edwards USA 200m. 21,74 Veronica Campbell-Brown JAM 400m. 49,62 Christine Ohuruogu GBR 800m. 1.54,01 Pamela Jelimo KEN 1.500m. 3.56,59 Yelena Soboleva RUS Mile. 4.18,23 Gelete Burka ETH 3.000m. 8.33,66 Vivian Cheruiyot KEN 5.000m. 14.11,15 WR Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 10.000m. 29.54,66 Tirunesh Dibaba ETH Mar. 2.19.19 Irina Mikitenko GER 3.000mSC. 8.58,81 WR Gulnara Galkina RUS 100mH. 12,43 Lolo Jones USA 400mH. 52,64 Melaine Walker JAM HJ. 2,06 Blanka Vlašic CRO PV. 5,05 WR Yelena Isinbayeva RUS LJ. 7,12 Naide Gomes POR TJ. 15,39 Françoise Mbango CMR SP. 20,98 Nadzeya Ostapchuk BLR DT. 67,89 Iryna Yatchenko BLR HT. 77,32 Aksana Menkova BLR JT. 72,28 WR Barbora Špotáková CZE Hep. 6733 Nataliya Dobrynska UKR 10KM W. 42.29 Tatyana Kalmykova RUS 20KM W. 1.25.11 Olga Kaniskina RUS 4x100m. 42,24 JAM 4x400m. 3.18,54 USA

Fabio Capello on His First Anniversary as English Football Coach

Eric — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:12:39 -0500

Press Information

(Eric is an accredited Laureus journalist)

For immediate media use—December 18, 2008

FABIO CAPELLO INTERVIEW ON LAUREUS TV ON HIS FIRST ANNIVERSARY AS ENGLAND COACH

Italian football giant Fabio Capello has just celebrated his first year in charge of the England national football team. To mark this anniversary, he talks at length on Laureus TV about the first 12 months and his hopes for the future.

Among Fabio Capello’s comments are:

•    On taking over England: “I knew English players, but not what this means around the national team. There is a lot of depression of the people.”

•    On the future: “You have to recover the spirit, you have to rebuild the group. And at the finish I think it’s very, very important….to play without fear. Not nervous, never.”

•    On his key players: “Having the team with leaders - John Terry is one, Gareth Barry is a leader - is very, very important. These players helped me a lot.”

•    On victory in Germany: “This was the moment we create the group. Now I think I have 23, 24 players who can play in the national team.”

•    On World Cup qualifying: “I am waiting for the next game….against Ukraine. I hope the fans, the supporters will help us, because we need to win the game.”

•    On English football: “Here the football is more physically strong. The Spanish are more technical. In Italy more tactical. In England…you have to run. We don’t fear the tackles, because the people like this.”

Material on the Laureus website is available for media use free of charge provided full credit is given, for example… “Fabio Capello speaking on the Laureus website”

For more information, contact:
Matt Dearden,
Laureus TV
Tel : 020-7514-2865
E-mail: matt.dearden@laureus.com
Website: www.laureus.com

….see www.laureus.com for videocast and transcript

Hasay Earns Second Footlocker Title

Eric — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:16:00 -0500

Mission San Luis Obispo (CA) senior Jordan Hasay, the national high school 1.500m record-holder and Olympic Trials finalist, won her second national cross country title today at Balboa Park in San Diego, charging past 2007 winner Ashley Brasnovan with 150m remaining to become only the sixth repeat winner in meet history.

“It was kind of crazy,” said Hasay, who entered the race as the first four-time West Regional champion, to the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune. “I didn’t know if I was going to win the race until the last 100 meters. When I crossed the line, I was just so happy.”

Brasovan, a senior from Wellington, Fla., moved ahead of pacesetter Allie McLaughlin with 300 meters left with Hasay also moving up. Then Hasay made her move on the final downhill, which she noted isn’t usually her strongpoint.

“Before the downhill, I thought I was going to get third,” said Hasay, who improved from third place last year (17:31). “I was OK with that. But I’m never going to give up. I’m really competitive. So I kept going.”

"I ran my hardest, and I am still happy with my race. Jordan is an amazing runner, and it was just an honor to race her," Brasovan said to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Hasay, who finished third in a Brasnovan victory last season, finished her senior cross country season undefeated.

McLaughlin, the Colorado State 5A state champion, finished fifth.

"I took it out hard," McLaughlin said to the Denver Post. "If I didn't win, I wasn't going to be happy, but I was pretty excited. After the race I felt like I ran the way I wanted to . . . that's just how it is until I work on my finish."

Kathy Kroeger, who placed second ahead of Hasay at last year's Footlocker Championship, placed sixth today.

Foot Locker Cross Country National Finals Scoring Teams and Points:

1. Midwest 49 (3 5 9 14 18 21 22)
2. Northeast 51 (7 8 11 12 13 16 17)
3. South 60 (2 4 6 23 25 27 28)
4. West 65 (1 10 15 19 20 24 26)

1 Jordan Hasay (12) (W) Arroyo Grande CA 17:22
2 Ashley Brasovan (12) (S) Wellington FL 17:25
3 Megan Goethals (11) (MW) Rochester MI 17:30
4 Chelsey Sveinsson (10) (S) Dallas TX 17:31
5 Allie McLaughlin (12) (MW) Colorado Springs CO 17:34
6 Kathy Kroeger (12) (S) Franklin TN 17:42
7 Shelby Greany (12) (NE) Suffern NY 17:45
8 Chelsea Ley (11) (NE) Clarksboro NJ 17:49
9 Lindsay Flanagan (12) (MW) Roselle IL 17:50
10 Jessica Tonn (11) (W) Paradise Valley AZ 17:53
11 Emily Lipari (11) (NE) Greenvale NY 17:53
12 Aisling Cuffe (10) (NE) Cornwall On Hudson NY 18:03
13 Emily Jones (12) (NE) Harvard MA 18:11
14 Chelsea Oswald (12) (MW) Medina OH 18:11
15 Danielle Menlove (9) (W) Sandy UT 18:14
16 Laura Vigilante (11) (NE) Brookside NJ 18:14
17 Melanie Thompson (12) (NE) High Bridge NJ 18:18
18 Ashlie Decker (11) (MW) Des Moines IA 18:19
19 Alex Dunne (12) (W) San Clemente CA 18:22
20 Taylor Wallace (12) (W) Klamath Falls OR 18:24
21 Becca Addison (12) (MW) Spring Lake MI 18:24
22 Jordan Tomecek (11) (MW) Milan MI 18:25
23 Lauren Smith (12) (S) Lake Jackson TX 18:27
24 Megan Morgan (11) (W) Del Mar CA 18:30
25 Amanda Russell (11) (S) Cedar Park FL 18:30
26 Jessica Zangmeister (12) (MW) Fairview Park OH 18:30
27 Katie Kellner (12) (NE) West Windsor NJ 18:34
28 Shalaya Kipp (12) (W) Salt Lake City UT 18:37
29 Emily Sisson (11) (MW) Chesterfield MO 18:37
30 Jacque Taylor (11) (W) Petaluma CA 18:38
31 Kirsten Kasper (12) (NE) North Andover MA 18:40
32 Kayla Hale (12) (S) Indialantic FL 18:45
33 Jennifer Lynn Bergman (12) (W) San Jose CA 18:47
34 Sheree Juliann Shea (12) (W) San Diego CA 18:53
35 Adrianne Soo (12) (S) Chapel Hill NC 18:53
36 Diane Robison (11) (MW) Chesterfield MO 18:54
37 Ashley Isham (11) (S) Cedar Park TX 19:00
38 Megan Marsico (11) (S) Salem VA 19:06
39 Kimberly Spano (12) (S) Huntersville NC 19:07
40 Erin Cawley (12) (NE) Newark Valley NY 19:08

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 54

Eric — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:03:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 54th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud.

This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself. Though parts of this story may be historical in nature, they are of essense to the sum of the whole insofar as they tell a story of a woman who is more complicit in the BALCO affairs and her own drug-taking than she has led on.

My last entry described the number of men who have been associated with cheating now running at five-consecutive for Marion Jones, a disgraced ex-elite sprinter who has had working or personal relationships associated with cheating. In two of those cases–both involving checks–Marion Jones had been perceived to have apparently held an open account used without her knowledge or authorisation.

Before Marion Jones “confessed”, the excuse-matter was running dry, yet people continued listening, hoping and seeking out a way to make sense of the drama surrounding a woman who held the world captive during an incredulous five-season stretch which concluded in 2001. They were, like others who had been before them–but who had earlier seen the light–fans of the sport, and believed true, gritty determination and guts got one Marion Jones to the big game.

If they have now, perchance, undergone a metamorphosis from their predisposition to slow understanding to become students of the sport, they should now find themselves pondering over whether nine thousand words of testimony, accounts and figures were a piece of true accounts of history, or if they were conjecture and factual fiction.

One can find it very easy to parse words, excerpt statements and fit contexts of messages into one’s own defence of a position. One can assemble everything ever written about Marion Jones and apply it in some way, fashion or form against Marion Jones to demonstrate that she had been a hard, chiselled individual who steered fans down a beaten path, despised them, then wondered where they had taken way when she felt it was time for them to reach out to her in forgiveness of her misdeeds.

There are fans such as this one who did not veer off course despite the warning signs:

“Whats [sic] sad is that the main organizations around this sport along with Dick Pound would love nothing more than to bury the woman who made this sport what it is. She took this sport to its highest point and while it may have fallen a little with her it was only beginning to rise as she did. More people than not want to see her succeed now and i am one of them. I was at USA's when she was announced and the crowed went crazy they really wanted to see her win and when she did so you couldnt [sic] hear yourself think. The crowed backed her more then they backed Gatlin. She was the sweetheart of our sport and the Sydney Olympics and people do want to see her back to that point. She is a great athlete and that is alot [sic] of the reaon [sic] people hate her simply becuase [sic] she is great and that is sad. She was a role model for so many people and that was then... she is that now becuase [sic] she had fallen from grace and fought her way back and so many people idolize her becuase [sic] of that. She is gifted woman and people need to leave her alone. The evidence shows that she is clean and did not dope so leave it at that. If any other athlete had this happen nobody would second guess the method of the EPO test and that person would not have been leaked to the public but because some people high up dont [sic] like her it was leaked and that is awful. Let her keep doing what she is doing and acknowlege [sic] her greatness.”[1]

One can take newspaper accounts and demonstrate–through the meanings authored by others before me–that Marion Jones set out to beat a system not designed to catch her while she gracefully glided by to her goal line–a finish line which, when reached, would have Marion Jones being the best in the world, the fastest in the world, and one of the most influential in her own world.

However, all of that is unnecessary to support a theory I’d held–one which has now become incarcerated in the prison of reality for Marion Jones by her own shaky voice and self-admission; Marion Jones aptly enabled one to connect all of the writings on the wall and in the garbage bins and make a novel out of those “facts”.

One of my favourite quotes is from a man in Iowa, United States who runs a blog called “Steroids Nation”. He summed up the sad state of events in the sport in 2006 most poignantly:

“How sad. Once the winner of a race was the athlete who crossed the finish line first. Now the winner is the athlete who crossed the finish line ahead of the others, who hasn't been disqualified by the testing lab, or was re-qualified by his/her lawyer. If an athlete wins he/she should thank family, coach, trainer, nutritionist, doctor/drug guru, pharmacist, dealer, lab supervisor who helped he/she beat the test, pharmaceutical house who developed the drugs and the masking agents, legal team who defended her, etc. etc.”[2]

One can take what her peers had done, and accuse Marion Jones of having foreknowledge of those cover-up events which followed simply by being in the wrong spot at the right time, and brushing them aside as being problems not her own. One is also able to string along a series of people in Marion Jones’s life who had failed–some miserably, and degrade Marion Jones’s ability to tell the truth simply by her having entirely too many non-truths stacked in a row, as if to say 10 non-truths trump one truth, for example.

Again, such lean attempts to discover the truth seem no longer necessary to the common eye now that Marion Jones has testified to the world that she was a liar.

Kosher would be to say that perhaps Marion Jones had made some personal mistakes in her life and hit some small bumps in the road...that perhaps she had, after having a faulty compass prone to point due south, adjusted her course to a direction away from high tides and rocky waters.

Marion Jones, an educated woman gifted with good speech and the world’s best poker face, had confessed on a previous occasion of indiscretion, and had claimed non-knowledge on another occasion involving a bad connection with a coach–though she never confessed for deceiving people as to how she changed from an unknown to an unwanted overnight, figuratively speaking.

She had, according to the principles guiding right and wrong, identified problem areas, acknowledged they had existed, made her, herself, accountable to those problems, and stated she was on course to not repeat those problems.

Marion Jones had earlier confessed to simpler things in life most overlook as too petty over which to concern themselves. In hindsight to her confession of guilt–known in the legal world by the word “felony” – these were all preparations for her final curtain call before the world.

There are others, who, like Marion Jones–and the rest of the human race–have walked down some particular valley of shadows, and have lied when the sun shone overhead. Those, who, like Marion Jones–and the rest of the living who have the ability to comprehend–have transgressed in some way, form or fashion, have also made known–or have had those indiscretions made known–to an accountable source, described those transgressions, and were believed to be telling the truth in the matters regarding their individual concerns.

It is conceivable–and plausible–to believe most people had forgiven Marion Jones for choosing bad men in her life, though Marion Jones did not need the forgiveness of any single, solitary person alive for an event–or events–which occurred in her private life between herself and the men with whom she chose to make house and home.

It was commendable for a person like Marion Jones to have stepped forward when she recognised problems had occurred, and stated to the open public that she had severed the cause of those problems from her life–especially after having turned her back on the very people from whom she had garnered support, namely her fans.

But Marion Jones was still living under a dark cloud of deception, and had tampered with the amount of truth she was spreading to the waning support she was receiving from people around the globe.

Marion Jones was an athlete who was caught up in an entanglement of deception – the victim of collateral damage, some stated prior to her confession. Some had believed she’d said hers, and should have been left alone to do what she enjoyed best, that is to say run fast to the finish line. They contended that Marion Jones had never demonstrated any real falsehood which should have warranted so much paper space, and baseless accusations against her were harmful, imprudent, and just plain wrong.

It turns out that they were just plain right.

Other athletes had, like Marion Jones–and the rest of the living, and dearly departed–made mistakes in their lives, in their careers, and in their sport which have caused harm, been seen as destructive, and which had caused equal and opposite effects to the degree to which the infractions or improprieties were committed.

One such person was Kelli White.

Doctor Richard A. Fridman, writing a piece on behaviour for The New York Times back in 2003, began a story about liars as such:

“Prevaricate. Equivocate. Fib. Call it what you like, it's still lying. And lying, as everyone knows, is just bad and wrong.

Liars have even been promised cruel and eternal punishment. Dante, in his “Inferno,” hurled them into the eighth circle of hell, along with other falsifiers, putting them one moral step below violent offenders. Their sin? Deliberate and calculated deception, a transgression apparently worse than the spontaneous crimes of passion.” [3]

Kelli White, as you have learned in the history of this sport from sources unlimited and too numerous to state, had, like Marion Jones, committed the worst possible athletics sin known to the spirit of competition: she did purposefully cheat when it was her responsibility to ensure no prohibited substances–known or unknown–entered her body, and she lied about her involvement in cheating.

White was a cheat–a person despised for betraying the ethics of hard work and dedication by using an illegal method to defy the limits placed on nature. She did wilfully, and with extreme prejudice for achieving the objective for which she had set out, participate in a plan to execute and cover up a scheme to defraud this sport of its history, records and reputation–resulting in condemnation for her, shame on her family, and banishment for two years from the sport which had provided her success and livelihood.

By using a needleless syringe filled with a pale yellow-coloured clear under her tongue on an average of every second day, applying the cream to her arm and taking EPO injection shots into her stomach to wilfully deceive and cheat and being linked with using these undetectable drugs, White was immediately removed from her arsenal were the free passes to Eugene, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Zürich–and every other place which seemed to glitter under the night lights by the world’s greatest, most knowledgeable fans in attendance cheering on her every step toward the finish line.

Her redefined place in the sport was a spot behind a television set several time zones removed from the action in which she had longed to compete, and had sorely missed.

Kelli White’s own problem and her own doing. She made a mistake, and the consequences–tough as they might seem–were fair, accurate, and immediate. She rose, she fell, she cried and made her peace with the sport.

Case closed, and next story.

Tim Montgomery was a man who was ambitious–he was a 3rd-wheeler in a competition where he felt he had his rightful place as a contender, despite the limit and extent provided by his physical, god-given abilities.

Tim Montgomery ran as fast as what was thought humanly possible, covering 0-100m in 9,78 seconds with the perfect conditions set: wind, temperature and reaction time. He was later discovered to have cheated while in the playground, and the king of the mountain was dethroned, dejected and despised in the world in which he lived, that of athletics.

Montgomery did wilfully–with the consequence of achieving his world record and beating the system outweighing any fallout caused by detection and all that it bore–deliberately defraud, delude and dishonour the sport of track and field, resulting in a penalty of banishment away from the spotlight, far from the glory once adorned him, and without a history. His past was but an afterthought marked with an asterisk, his livelihood cut off in an instant.

He fell from grace, and his image became tarnished with an indelible black-marker stain.

Poor Tim?

No, it’s his doing, his problem, his story. Stuff happens, and he confessed this past Tuesday in the absence of lawsuit or legal action being taken against him.

Next case, please.

Victor Conte was once known to be a hip man. Conte played bass in a band named “Tower of Power”, which has been described as an integrated funk outfit–a gig he joined up with in 1978, replacing Francis Rocco Prestia, and left in 1979. He spent a total of 18 years in the music business, was known by the name “Walking Fish”, and rubbed elbows with known celebrities.

He then started a small company–a preventative-medicine centre–which performed comprehensive mineral and trace element assessments on athletes, which, based upon the test results, specific nutritional supplementation recommendations were made to those athletes. He began as a distributor in a Santa Barbara, CA lab in 1984 and bought the medical rights to the equipment five years later, and moved to the Bay Area. He proceeded to make trips to Stanford University’s medical library and copy articles about minerals and how to measure them.

Duly speaking, it was the genesis of BALCO.

Then Conte got greedy. And someone else, they got even greedier.

Conte did wilfully, without regard to the laws governing either the body or the soul, defraud the sport of purity by producing the world’s fastest, synthetically-enhanced species. He was then knocked off the totem pole with the snitch release of a performance-enhancing drug in a syringe to Dr. Don Catlin, and thus fell the BALCO Empire–one piece of evidence, one protected testimony and one victim of their own doing at a time.

Feel sorry for poor, old Vic for transcending from a night player in bars, to a confined man behind bars?

No. He cheated to the highest degree, and got what came to him.

Game over. Insert new quarter.

There is a sustained list of athletes who had made choices to lie, cheat, steal and swindle fans of their vicarious hopes and dreams. Many before them–in eras known for such occurrences–have never been caught, and have never confessed to these wrongdoings. This is not a new phenomenon.

They’d reached such high scores on the achievement scale that no amount of quarters or cheat-sheets can ever sufficiently guide or instruct those behind them on how to surpass them without trying to tilt the machine. Moreover, they’ve massed up millions in greed points, that the help they’d received along the way had often been discarded and left on its own.

Patrick Arnold put it into very good perspective:

“They are superstars making millions, and I'm getting a pittance," he says of the athletes who used his drugs. "I'm the one getting maligned in the press and going to prison, and they are still playing. I got the raw end of the deal.”[4]

Marion Jones and Conte shared a similar love-hate relationship: Conte, according to her, was first a man whom she barely had a working relationship. He went on to become a liar and a cheat–a man facing a heavy prison sentence, we were told. When Marion Jones’s initial test result was leaked, Conte sat back and said I told you so. When Marion Jones fell into her own trap, being forced into a recognition of her previous indiscretions, Conte was there again telling the world, I told you so. He was also there telling the world that she only did what she had to do to get by within the parameters by which she was training and competing–to keep things level with her competitors, that is to say.

As there is an exception to every rule, and there are twenty five different pennies to every one quarter, one fact has arisen in this story which should greatly be considered when attempting to have the punishment fit the crime:

Hope can arise from the ashes when the lights have turned out, the fans have turned elsewhere and the conscience has time to actually weigh in on subject of cheating.

Sources:

[1] Trackshark.com message board, “Marion Jones’ B test comes back negative”, 2006-09-11

[2] Track & Field News message board, “August 18, 2006 – The Day Track Died,” 2006-08-16

[3] The New York Times, “Truth About Lies’ They Tell a Lot About Liars”, 2003-08-05

[4] Sports Illustrated, “Is This Dr. Evil”, 2006-10-03

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 53

Eric — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:06:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 53rd submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud.

This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself. Though parts of this story may be historical in nature, they are of essense to the sum of the whole insofar as they tell a story of a woman who is more complicit in the BALCO affairs and her own drug-taking than she has led on.

My last entry described Marion Jones's involvement in the check-fraud scheme for which she ultimately was found guilty of lying to U.S. Federal investigators Marion Jones's former boyfriend and father of her first child, Tim Montgomery, pleaded guilty in Manhattan U.S. District Court to three felonies concerning that: conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud, according to his attorneys. His sentencing was initially set for 2007-November-1, and he had initially faced between 37 to 46 months in prison his lawyer, William Alcott, said.

Montgomery was subsequently sentenced to the maximum 46 months and five years of probation for his role in the felony activity.

Excerpted from the arrest record:

Included amongst those checks are at least seven fraudulently obtained checks, in the total aggregate amount of approximately $2,485,000, which were sent by DOUGLAS SHYNE, NATASHA SINGH, and TOYBE BENNETT in the New York area to TIMOTHY MONTGOMERY, STEVEN RIDDICK, and NATHANIEL ALEXANDER in the Norfolk, Virginia area, to be deposited into accounts associated with them.

According to the Indictment, STEVEN RIDDICK caused at least three checks totaling $905,000 to be deposited into accounts associated with him; NATHANIEL ALEXANDER caused at least two checks totaling $1,000,000 to be deposited into accounts associated with him; and TIMOTHY MONTGOMERY caused at least three checks totaling $775,000 to be deposited into accounts associated with him. Of these checks, only a $375,000 check deposited into STEVEN RIDDICK’s business account cleared. Following the deposit of that check, RIDDICK issued checks to certain co-conspirators, including ROBERTO MONTGOMERY, EPHRAIM RICHARDSON, NARESH PITAMBAR, JASON WATLER, who in turn, funneled proceeds back to DOUGLAS SHYNE and NATASHA SINGH. In addition, the Indictment charges that TIMOTHY MONTGOMERY received a $20,000 check from RIDDICK as a fee for brokering the transaction.

The Indictment charges one count of bank fraud conspiracy against all of the defendants, nine counts of substantive bank fraud, each naming certain of the defendants, and three counts of money laundering conspiracy, each naming certain of the defendants.

According to journalists from the Virginia Pilot – the local angle news coverage – one of the checks Alexander wrote on the $850.000 account was made out to Marion Jones for $25.000 – a check which was endorsed and deposited into her account, but never paid out due to the $850.000 check not clearing.[1]

Marion Jones was not a suspect in this case, and the defendants – including Montgomery, Wells and Riddick – were presumed innocent until they were proven guilty. Three defendants prior to Montgomery in the case had pleaded guilty.

Montgomery first laid claim to the check deposited into Marion Jones’s account, but as it turned out, however, Marion Jones had lied to Federal investigators about having knowledge of the check, and she was charged with a felony in her criminal case.

Montgomery subsequently blamed Marion Jones for his having taken part in the illegal scheme, stating in court on 2008-May-13 that Marion Jones granted him “permission” to participate by her acquiescence on the matter when approached by Montgomery. Judge Karas debunked that claim, stating to Montgomery that there was no single, solitary shred of evidence that any of the other defendants or another person forced him to make the bad decisions he did.

Montgomery’s attorney, Robert W. McFarland, wrote in a court memo prior to Montgomery’s confession that Montgomery and Riddick were set up and taken advantage of due to having celebrity status.

“The high-profile nature of both Tim Montgomery as a world-class sprinter and Steve Riddick as a world-class trainer make them perfect victims for crooks, thieves and (Prince), who is a repeated convicted felon.”[2]

Montgomery sang another tune prior to the opening of the trial.

“I sincerely regret the role I played in this unfortunate episode,” Montgomery said in the statement released this morning by the attorneys.

“I have disappointed many people and for that I am truly sorry. I look forward to moving past this event and being a positive influence in my community in the future.”[3]

Montgomery’s guilty plea effectively removed Marion Jones from the courtroom as a witness in the case. Moreover, according to a statement from his lawyers, his plea did not require him to testify at the trial of his former coach, Steven Riddick, and other co-defendants.

Riddick, who claimed that he believed the checks were for payment toward training foreign athletes – and declined to testify in the case – believed that the case itself would have been a wash, and he’d resume his day-to-day training within a short period of time.

“I feel like I haven't done anything, so I feel confident about it,” Riddick told ESPN.com.”It'll probably run a couple weeks. Then, I'll be glad when it's over so I can get back to track and field business.”[4]

The case didn’t take the expected turn Riddick imagined, and the Olympic gold medallist’s defence lawyer Bryan Hoss tried having the case dismissed due to lack of federal evidence, with U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas denying those motions on 2007-May-3.

Hoss had even turned the blame on Riddick’s involvement on Montgomery.

“Tim Montgomery started brokering kilo-quantity transactions of drugs with these people,” Hoss said.

Montgomery's counsel, Timothy Heaphy, denied to the Associated Press Montgomery’s involvement with drugs.

“Mr. Riddick is under intense pressure, as he is facing serious federal charges. People in that situation frequently do and say desperate things,” Heaphy said in an e-mail to the AP. “Tim Montgomery is surprised and disappointed that Mr. Riddick has chosen to defend himself by making desperate and outlandish allegations like those made by his counsel in this trial.”[5]

Closing arguments began on Monday, 2007-May-7, with Hoss maintaining that there was reasonable doubt that Riddick was guilty of the charges – prosecutors failed to prove Riddick was not conned or tricked.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Walter Levy closed his case by stating that Riddick did conspire with others to steal money from banks by cashing counterfeit checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Riddick, who was found guilty, reported to prison on 2008-April-11, where he was sentenced to five years three months in prison on 2008-January-11 – the same day Marion Jones was sentenced for her involvement in this case as well as her BALCO perjury case.

Levy stated that he now knew that Riddick had not one single agreement to train any Kuwaiti athletes, and was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt after Riddick had deposited checks for $80.000, $375.000 and $450.000 into his account that were supposedly meant to pay for training for Kuwaiti athletes.

Wells, who was both Marion Jones’s and Montgomery's agent, aided Montgomery's scheme by depositing two of the checks, totalling $1.1 million, into accounts he controlled, court documents stated. He pled guilty earlier in the spring of 2007 in New York federal court to a felony charge of bank fraud and was ultimately ordered to 46 months in prison.

Montgomery was not free from the drug-dealing speculation, however, as he was arrested on Wednesday, 2008-April-30 an indictment which charged him with conspiracy to distribute heroin. That case carried with it a mandatory five-year spell in prison when Montgomery was found guilty and, ultimately sentenced on 2008-October-10. The evidences, according to Judge Karas in the check-fraud case, were compelling against Montgomery, though the pending case at the time was not used in determining his prison sentence in his check-fraud case.

Together, Montgomery will spend the next nine years of his life behind prison walls.

In his role at Wells Vector Sports Management, Wells is also an individual athlete agent who was feared to lose his Texas agent registration. The firm, according to the Associated Press, provided services for Marion Jones and a number of other track and field athletes and football players.[6]

Wells faces a review by a three-member USATF committee which is considering whether to decertify Wells for his involvement in the bank fraud case. If USATF disbars Wells, it will mark the first time an agent has been decertified through a committee process.

Wells has also represented 2005 IAAF World triple jump champion Walter Davis, 2004 Olympic 400-meter bronze medallist Derrick Brew, and 2004 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medallist Monique Henderson.

Marion Jones’s legal counsels have lived on the principle that cheats are to be absolutely and unconditionally discredited and distrusted. Her attorneys have maintained that those who cheat are to be discredited as viable or reliable sources of information, with the connotation that cheats will say and do anything to keep under the gun.

The irony in Riddick vs Montgomery–two staunch supporters of Marion Jones and each other– is beyond belief.

What is even more unbelievable is that Marion Jones chose Riddick in the first place following his having been charged in April 2000 with several counts of “forgery of documents submitted to the commonwealth for reimbursement” from 1996 to 1998–making his likelihood of direct involvement in the check fraud case even higher. As earlier stated, Riddick ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of forgery and was sentenced to probation.

Oddly enough, Hoss and Riddick pleaded with judge Karas for leniency. They filed a long list of Riddick’s accomplishments, including winning the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, and at least eight letters of support to the courts.

“These letters paint a picture of Steve Riddick that the court was not able to see from the witnesses called at trial,” Hoss wrote in a letter to the judge.

“They depict an honest, caring and trustworthy individual who instills proper values in his athletes in the highest level of coaching in world track and field,” Hoss says in the letter.[7]

Judge Karas sentenced Riddick to 63 months in prison for his part in the scheme, despite the plea to be lenient in using his discretion to sentence.

The number of men who have been associated with cheating now runs at five-consecutive (Hunter, Montgomery, Francis, Riddick, Wells) for Marion Jones, who has had working or personal relationships associated with cheating. In two of those cases–both involving checks–Marion Jones had been perceived to have apparently held an open account used without her knowledge or authorisation. Her agent, the last of the lot, silently waved his white flag when confronted.

Riddick, the professed evader of previous drugs tests–or, better word, cheater–during his competition days came to Marion Jones defence at the leaking of the “A”-sample, stating to the effect that there was a conspiracy against Marion Jones. I believe Tim Montgomery had already used that line when he stated someone was out to frame him. As I recall, Trevor Graham used the same rationality when attempting to defend Gatlin in the media. Graham stated that Gatlin’s positive test was due to sabotage from Gatlin’s masseur. Graham has, as time has gone along, apparently recalled more and more details surrounding the Gatlin positive, The Washington Post reported Saturday, 2006-December-16. [8]

The article, a 2.335-word story written by Amy Shipley, is meant to shed light on the entire Gatlin affair, and to highlight the steps Graham was to have taken to prevent the masseur from poisoning his prize athlete’s career. The masseur, Graham states, was out to get Graham– through Gatlin, because of Graham’s having turned in the syringe to Don Catlin.

This was an act of revenge, Graham stated.

Readers gained an appreciation, at best, of Graham’s magical ability to instantly recall important details four months after they happen, and to associate Gatlin’s positive test with a woman’s hormone treatment gel.

Sources:

[1] The Virginian-Pilot, “Cleaning woman trusted son to carry on empire...”, 2006-09-03 [2] The Virginia-Pilot, “Money laundering trial set to begin for former NSU star, coach”, 2007-04-08 [3] The Virginian-Pilot, “Track star Montgomery pleads guilty in counterfeit check ring,” 2007-04-09 [4] ESPN.com, “Trial for Graham could be BALCO blockbuster”, 2007-04-06 [5] Associated Press, “Trial opens for Olympic champ with mention…wrongdoing…”, 2007-04-12 [6] Associated Press, “Agent to be sentenced for role in bank fraud”, 2007-05-17 [7] The Virginian-Pilot, “Disgraced Olympian, former NSU coach to be sentenced”, 2008-01-10 [8] The Washington Post, “Now for the Real Test”, 2006-12-16

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 52

Eric — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:14:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 52nd submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud.

This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself. Though parts of this story may be historical in nature, they are of essense to the sum of the whole insofar as they tell a story of a woman who is more complicit in the BALCO affairs and her own drug-taking than she has led on.

Marion Jones’s attorneys steadfastly concluded that the word of a cheat should not be weighed against a person who had passed a polygraph test (conducted by a former FBI Agent, Ronald Homer, who according to his the FindLaw website, conducted 1076 polygraph examinations during career with the FBI, including examinations throughout the United States and foreign countries).

(Investigative and polygraph matters included highly sensitive foreign counterintelligence, white-collar crime and all matters of criminal investigations) and had never tested positive. They deduced that a “liar” cannot–and never will–tell the truth.

What Marion Jones’s counsel did not state was that the accuracy of polygraph tests has been disputed; several well-known cases demonstrating polygraphs–which measure increases in stress during questioning–demonstrates that polygraph testing can be misinterpreted.

Marion Jones passed polygraph tests.

Montgomery was found guilty of doping offences—though he had never failed a drugs test–by the testimony of a cheat, Kelli White, and from the evidence provided by a crook, Victor Conte. His truthful statements made under oath by himself–not being charged or found to be a court-proven liar–also nabbed him.

A cheat, at least in the eyes of the prosecuting body seeking penalty against Montgomery, was seen as an being an instrumental informant.

White’s evidence, as outlined verbatim from the CAS verdict, follows:

According Ms. White's evidence, in March 2001, while at an international meet in Portugal (no exact date was provided by the witness) she and Mr. Montgomery had "a small discussion about whether or not the Clear made our calves tight." Mr. Montgomery asked Ms. White, "Does it make your calves tight?" Ms. White responded in the affirmative. Mr. Montgomery, still in her presence, then placed a telephone call to someone who may or may not have been Mr. Conte (Ms. White believes that it was Mr. Conte) to whom he relayed the information that "she said that it makes her calves tight too". According to Ms. White, there was not the slightest doubt as to the substance about which she and Mr. Montgomery were speaking and which they both acknowledged had the effect of making their calves tight’ they were talking about the Clear.

It is essential to note that this evidence of what USADA claims constitutes a direct admission of Mr. Montgomery's guilt, is uncontroverted.

Counsel for Respondent may have questioned Ms. White's motives in offering her testimony concerning Mr. Montgomery's use of the Clear and, more generally, his relationship with BALCO. They may have sought (without success) to impugn her honesty and to draw attention to the witness' own history of involvement with BALCO and her efforts to conceal that involvement. However, the Panel has already declared its finding with respect to Ms. White's credibility as a witness in these proceedings and its view that she is telling the truth.

What counsel for Mr. Montgomery did not do was in any way undermine Ms. White’s evidence regarding her conversation with Mr. Montgomery in March 2001. The evidence of that conversation, which the Panel considers to be clear and compelling, thus stands uncontroverted. It is also, as indicated above, sufficient in and of itself to find Respondent guilty of doping.[1]

Marion Jones should not shed blood for Tim Montgomery’s misdeeds. He, himself, testified under oath of his wrongdoings.

However, was Tim Montgomery adept enough to wear such a hardened game-face with Marion Jones–who unequivocally asserted Montgomery’s innocence–that he was able to hold a top secret agenda from her, but let his entire career and relationship slip by talking to an associate about his drug cheating?

Was Tim Montgomery sleek enough to lure Marion Jones away from Trevor Graham, and into the waiting hands of a crooked steroids chemist?

Is there any compelling reason that Montgomery–who is not known to have taken his mid-November 2000 trip to the BALCO laboratories in Burlingame, CA with Marion Jones–should shield Marion Jones from his drugs usage, but yield to the temptation to discuss it with one of her 100m competitors, a person with whom he has no relationship?

Montgomery, citing Conte, made an inference under oath that Marion Jones used the clear, and had done so in Sydney.

Marion Jones, on her athletics deathbed, confessed of having taken “the clear."

Montgomery, himself, stated Marion Jones had a working relationship with Conte during the Sydney Olympic Games. Conte, on his own accord, stated he provided Marion Jones performance-enhancing substances, a fact which Montgomery backed up during his Grand Jury testimony.

Those supporting Marion Jones’s ignorance claim had a hard time explaining away such connections between her and steroids pushers.

Marion Jones’s attorney on record during the Grand Jury hearings, Richard Burton, not commenting on the drugs inference, stated that Montgomery’s claims supported their stance that Marion Jones had no connection to Victor Conte–though Montgomery claimed Conte as stating that Marion Jones would fare well in Sydney due to “the clear”.

“This was the magic potion,” Montgomery told the Grand Jury.

Montgomery quoted Conte as saying, “Watch the 100 meters. Watch what Chryste gonna do. Watch what Alvin going to do in the 400. And watch what Marion going to do. ... You will see how powerful it is.”

Montgomery was not asked if Jones had used banned substances.[2]

Montgomery’s last statement above, “And watch what Marion going to do. ... You will see how powerful it is”, infers three things: 1) Marion Jones was going to do something. 2) Something, an aid, was going to be used in conjunction with her performing. 3) That object or aid was going to be powerful.

Marion Jones did do something in Sydney. She accomplished those feats with an aid, and it was powerful–just as Montgomery had indicated.

Montgomery’s admission above is that “the clear” was powerful, and sprinters Chryste Gaines and Alvin Harrison would demonstrate on the track the persuasive effects “the clear” had.

Montgomery also adds that Conte stated Marion Jones should also be hugely regarded; one should also expect–in addition to what Gaines and Harrison did, two athletes who, shortly thereafter, were suspended for drugs usage–that Marion Jones would demonstrate a significant level of power from the drug named “the clear”.

Conte, himself, put life to those statements in his own words:

“We'd had a lot of success since the previous August, after I'd arranged for her to receive various performance enhancers, including The Clear, a steroid that later became famous as THG, and nutritional supplements. She was on all of it at the 2000 Games in Sydney, when she won three gold medals and two bronzes. I tell you this knowing Marion passed a lie detector test saying it's not true. All that shows me is lie detectors don't work.”[3]

Montgomery had, two years following the Olympic Games–during an IAAF press conference leading up to the 2002 World Cup in Madrid, stated he knew, factually speaking–without a reasonable doubt, and in no uncertain terms–that Marion Jones, his partner, would break the world record:

“I read and study an awful lot about the sport and I know for a fact that Marion Jones will break the women’s World Record. My prediction for the weekend is that she will better her personal best.”[4]

One may take Montgomery’s words with a grain of salt–as if comparing what he stated to that of the heavyweight champion of the world making bold predictions in a pre-bout press conference what round he’d knock out his opponent. One could also take into consideration that perhaps the weather, wind and bird-chirping were all aligned up exactly as Marion Jones had imagined they would the day she’d break the world record (as stated to The New York Times).

However, to the contrary, one can couple Montgomery’s “Project World Record”, with a man unable to keep his mouth closed. He proved to be a person who didn’t keep a lid on his secrets.

Montgomery has already demonstrated that his mouth ran at a faster rate of speed than did his feet—or at least was unable to stay in the blocks when the gun was raised, a man with a red flag stood behind him, and the entire world was looking on.

He has false-started on a grand occasion–costing him his personal best time, each placing he had earned during his cheating run, his world record, and his credibility.

Tim Montgomery reacted to gunfire in 0,104 seconds Saturday afternoon, the 14th day of September 2002, and powered his legs 100m down a red all-weather track with white lane dividers in Paris in 9,78 seconds–the fastest time any human being should ever legally have legally run at that point in history.

It was a new world and American record, eclipsing 0,01 seconds from countryman and rival, Maurice Greene’s 9,79 personal best. Montgomery’s reaction to the gun was just under the allowable, and the wind, +2,0 metres/second, was at the limit for record purposes.

(Note: Jamaican Usain Bolt, a 200m specialist, lowered the 100m world record down to 9,69 in the Olympic final in Beijing in August in his first year contesting the distance.)

Montgomery earned $100.000 for his victory–the final race in the IAAF Grand Prix series, $50.000 for winning the race, and $100.000 for setting the world record. Hicham El Guerrouj, the 1.500m, mile, 2.000m and multiple world champion, had run 3.29,27–a championship record which propelled him temporarily into the lead over hurdler Felix Sanchez, but he was denied the grand prix title due to Montgomery’s world-record victory race.

El Guerrouj finished 12-0 on the season in eight 1.500m races (six which were under 3.30) and four mile races. It was the second-consecutive year El Guerrouj had gone undefeated.

Marion Jones ran 10,90 into a -0,3 m/s that weekend for the victory, far from her 10,65-second personal best time.

Marion Jones stood side-by-side with her boyfriend that afternoon, sharing the excitement of his victory, his joy and his record time, while winning the overall Grand Prix title, herself.

She stated in an interview after Montgomery’s race that he was a technician who stayed up hours reviewing his races, and that Montgomery was often overlooked on the international scene.

He would forever be remembered, never to be disassociated with being a deceptive young man.

Montgomery had, according to ESPN The Magazine, stated during an honorary meeting in his name in his hometown following his world record, “of all the bodies made by God, this is the fastest in history". Montgomery mustered up enough public game face to disguise his back-door issues.

ESPN The Magazine states that a journalist in the press area after the race in Paris asked Montgomery if he had watched the Ben Johnson world record in Seoul.

Marion Jones read between the lines and snapped at the journalist, stating that neither she–nor he–had been dependent on drugs to advance their careers, and any reference to drugs would overshadow his accomplishment.

“It's unfortunate that you have such an incredible performance and someone will immediately suspect something,” she said. “We're all quite aware that we are proponents of a drug-free sport, so let's keep it at that.”[5]

No, Ms. Jones, let’s not keep it at that.

Let’s actually go a step further.

The United States Attorney Southern District of New York, on 2006-April-28, published an important document for immediate release:

U.S. ANNOUNCES ARREST OF U.S. TRACK STAR TIMOTHY MONTGOMERY, HIS TRACK COACH, AND 13 OTHERS IN MASSIVE BANK FRAUD AND MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME [6]

According to the public record, Tim Montgomery, along with Marion Jones’s latest coach, Steve Riddick, and her agent, Charles Wells, were charged with participating in conspiracy to defraud numerous banks by depositing into accounts at those banks stolen, altered and counterfeit checks, as well as proceeds from such checks – totalling approximately $5 million, and to then launder the proceeds from these checks through their various accounts.

Marion Jones was complicit to a degree of not alerting Federal investigators of having had knowledge of one of the checks deposited into her account and committed a felony by perjuring herself in the matter.

Montgomery was ultimately sent to prison for 46 months for his involvement in the illegal scheme, and was ordered to pay the bank from which he stole the money $375.000. He was also sentenced to five-years’ probation.

Wells, who received a six-month home confinement sentence, subsequently had his agent status suspended by USATF for two years (dated to 2007-March-22), though the national governing body has no jurisdiction to require athletes to sign specifically with registered agents. The downturn for any athlete who is represented by Wells during his suspension is that the athlete could be refused entry into certain invitational meetings.

Montgomery turned himself in to authorities in Norfolk after a Federal agent called to alert him of the indictment. He was released on a $10.000 bond after appearing in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, VA, but was back in prison during sentencing due to an unrelated drugs case (next entry in this series).

Trial was to begin on Tuesday, 2007-April-10 at the Federal Courthouse in Manhattan, but Montgomery pleaded guilty the day before the trial to charges stemming from his deposit of bad checks worth $1.800.000, a judge's law clerk said (U.S. v. Douglas Shyne, 05-cr-1067 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District). He was sentenced on 2008-May-16.

Sources:

[1] CAS 2004/O/645, 2005-12-13
[2] San Francisco Chronicle, “Sprinter admitted use of BALCO 'magic potion'”, 2004-06-24
[3] ESPN The Magazine, “Last Laugh,” 2004-12-20
[4] IAAF Madrid 2002 News, 2002-09-19
[5] ESPN The Magazine, “Nowhere to run”, 2005-06-07
[6] U.S. Attorney’s Office, Public Information Office, 2006-04-28

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 51

Eric — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:37:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 51st submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud.

This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself. Though parts of this story may be historical in nature, they are of essense to the sum of the whole.

My last entry concluded with Dr. Werner Franke, a German anti-doping official and mollecular biologist, stating that there was no reason for Marion Jones's T/E ratio to be tested. The New York Times illuminates more light on the urine testing allegations with the following information:

A government affidavit released in February said that 98 checks had been written to Quest from BALCO from Sept. 13, 2000, through May 20, 2002, and that 33 of them contained the notation “steroids.”

The affidavit noted that Victor Conte Jr., the founder of BALCO, had made Internet postings “referencing Quest as a credible lab for measuring testosterone.”

The fact that certain Quest labs performed blood and urine tests for steroids, the government affidavit said, suggested “'the possibility that Conte is sending his athlete clients' blood or urine samples to Quest in order to determine whether the presence of steroids can be detected.”

The BALCO documents included urine tests sent to Quest just before and after the 2000 Olympics in Sydney; a calendar containing the initials M.J. and letters like C, G, E and I, which anti-doping officials said could be a coded schedule of drug use; and a handwritten ledger with the name Marion J. and what appeared to be T/E test results, as well as references like “IOC.”[1]

The New York Times continues by stating that, according to the documents found in a BALCO file bearing Marion Jones' name and shown to them by Marion Jones's attorneys, a urine test was collected by Quest Diagnostics on 2000-September-13, just prior to the Sydney Olympics.

According to Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Victor Uralets, the director of sports testing at Quest, had mixed feelings about BALCO as a client, but had never met Conte.

“It seemed to be quite legitimate,” Uralets said. “We didn't know what they were doing. We thought he was testing athletes, but I didn't know the level of athletes. I was never comfortable with this client, but I had no reason to stop relations with them because I had no evidence they were pre-testing.

“But knowing what I know now, I don't want to be associated in any way with Victor Conte.”

Conte explained how the tests were carried out.

“All they got was a number and (the notation) 'for research purposes only,' ” said Conte, who kept a key at his office matching names to the numbers.[2]

IRS Special agent Novitzky, notating the testimony provided by Conte on site at the BALCO lab on 2003-September-3, and prepared as a Memorandum of Interview to the IRS Criminal Investigation Division two days later, recounted details similar to the same claim identified in the previous entry, though Marion Jones was not listed in the account.

The IRS Memo also states that Conte himself, during a non-search warrant consent search of a storage facility in Burlingame, pointed out two boxes to Special Agent Erwin Rogers of the IRS-CID containing medical records of many of the athletes involved in the BALCO affair.

According to the memo, the athlete files were seized and transported by Special Agent Wendy Bergland, and an inventory of those items, including confiscated drugs and substances in the locker, was conducted by IRS-CID Special agent Mike Wilson.

(Note: Conte argued in court that he did not voluntarily consent to the government’s search of the off-site storage locker on 2003-September-03, and that those records should be suppressed. The government had the burden of showing that consent to a search sans warrant against Conte’s premise was voluntary.

The Circuit Judge utilized several factors when determining whether consent was voluntary, including (1) whether Conte was in custody, (2) whether the arresting officers had their guns drawn during the arrest, (3) whether Miranda warnings had been given to Conte, (4) whether Conte was told he had a right not to consent, and (5) whether Conte was told a search warrant could be obtained.

No single factor was condemning, and the court determined the voluntary context by considering the totality of the surrounding circumstances. Conte was granted an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he had voluntarily consented to the government’s search of the off-site storage locker, but later withdrew his request for that hearing.

A confession may be excluded because of improprieties by the police, or because it was not recorded by an audio machine.An accused such as Conte may say that the confession is true, and it can still properly be excluded.)[3]

Another urine test, according to the documents mentioned by The New York Times, was collected on 2000-October-3, just after the Games. Both, according to the document were well within the acceptable T/E ratio of 6:1, or 6.

Marion Jones’s attorneys maintained that she was travelling on the collection dates in 2000, a fact which is highly unbelievable considering Marion Jones was doping during that same time period.

However, have any of her attorneys made available to the public any receipt which could support this claim?

Did Marion Jones make her own travel arrangements and subsequently discard her transactional records, or did a travel agency arrange the trip for her?

Did her legal team ever back up with facts in the form of a verifiable alibi the information they were attempting to provide as proof?

If Marion Jones was travelling on those collection dates in 2000, would she have been able to provide a sufficient, chronological account of events which could corroborate the validity of this claim?

A third collection date of 2001-06-06, where documents showed two urine tests collected on that same day, the second of which demonstrated significantly high levels of hormones and an unaccepted T/E ratio, may possibly have been two different people, neither being Marion Jones, they stated.

Marion Jones’s attorneys, known for dissecting evidence and facts, did not rule out the urine tested belonging to Marion Jones through their inference, however. Had Marion Jones, a strong proponent of a drug-free sport, ever accounted for this in her own words?

She accounted for a blanket of suspicions in her own words, namely that she was a drug cheat.

One other item Marion Jones’s team disclosed to The New York Times from the evidence file they state was handed over to them from USADA was a blood test result taken at a Virginia laboratory 2001-March-28, which did not show any abnormalities.

Her attorneys told The New York Times that Marion Jones had never been to American Medical Laboratories in Virginia, the place where the blood sample was apparently taken.

Again, as they have become accustomed to doing, her legal staff provided no immediate and final blow to the theory by stating in no uncertain terms that there was not even a possibility that Marion Jones could even have had her blood sent to the laboratory.

Instead, they attacked a chain of command form, sloppy ledgers and identification codes which are to make the appearance of her guilt slim to none.

On the opposite side of this coin, would it not make sense to have some marker, though not a real identification, in order to know whose blood and/or urine samples were being processed without having to create a true and living paper trail back to the donor source?

Nichols, one of Marion Jones’s lawyers, said that he requested Marion Jones’s personal physician, Richard Ferro, who became her physician in 2001, to write letters on Marion Jones’s behalf stating that she didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs, and that Ferro concluded that the blood and urine samples did not show (detectable) steroids use.

The New York Times, in covering this story, states that Nichols said Ferro never tested Marion Jones for performance-enhancing drugs, because “he did not need to,”[4] yet you, dear reader, are reminded again that Marion Jones’s legal team had every opportunity at this very juncture to have her tested specifically for performance-enhancing drugs, and have those results stored and evaluated for later use as they had requested USADA to do to prove, analytically, that Marion Jones had nothing illegal in her system.

Moreover, even if Ferro had checked for steroids, it is highly unlikely he, a personal physician, would have discovered an undetectable drug in “the clear,” which had the sole purpose of being manipulative and unseen.

The Boston Globe, also taking note to the Marion Jones’s stern denial of Hunter’s accusations, wrote that Ferro stated Marion Jones’s blood and urine samples showed nothing out of the ordinary and that he did “not believe that Marion used any type of banned performance-enhancing agents.”[5]

This “expert witness,” a personal physician who is called upon to discuss whether or not his patient showed the signs of taking performance-enhancing drugs, declared her innocence by providing his opinion in the absence of either professional experience or performance-enhancement drug testing.

Did Ferro have the sufficient knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to support testimony in the form of an expert opinion on performance-enhancing drugs?

Ferro’s merit list does include helping correct a hamstring problem plaguing Montgomery which he had developed in 1998, though there is the strongest of all possibilities and plausibility that Ferro had never, ever one single time seen the designer drug masks, agents and filters THG, EPO and other BALCO drugs were hiding behind.

To his untrained, naked eye, he didn’t have a reason to believe that Marion Jones had used any type of banned substances, as none of them would have shown signs of life on his radar, so-to-speak.

What qualification, therefore, did Ferro have to speak with authority on the matter of disguised performance-enhancing drugs as they may or may not have related to Marion Jones outside of a belief she had not been involved in doping?

Had he ever provided similar expertise to substantiate the claims a defence team was making of a client’s claim of being drug-free when the nature of the drugs usage was meant to deliberately deceive with extreme prejudice?

Collins, another one of the Graham-based athletes caught in a spider web of accusations without the adverse analytical test to back up USADA claims, was eventually found guilty of having used performance-enhancing drugs by means of the calendar entries, e-mail messages seized as a part of the BALCO investigation in which Collins admitted to using THG and a cream to mask its usage, along with prior blood and urine tests from IOC-accredited labs confirming her admitted usage, and also proving a pattern of doping.

Collins, like Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines, two other athletes who refused to testify in their cases, and both accused of doping in the absence of analytical adverse findings, refused to testify at the hearing or provide any exculpatory explanation of her statements and other documents evidencing her guilt.

Collins presented neither any expert testimony nor other evidence to provide an alternative explanation for the incriminating test results.

There is no Fifth Amendment protection of rights against self-incrimination in the CAS jurisdiction, and Collins’s refusal to testify was asked to be adversely held against her by the USADA (see Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308, 318 (1976)), which USADA requested of CAS to view and judge as an adverse inference.

Collins’s attorneys had stated prior to her trial – upon receiving the notification letter from USADA, the following:

“Allegations of anti-doping rules are easy to bring. Now comes the hard part for U.S.A.D.A. They're going to have to prove this. Michelle Collins has passed every drug test she has ever taken.”[6]

As had Tim Montgomery.

And had Marion Jones up to the day she owned up to being a cheat despite having passed those tests.

As a matter of fact, Alvin Harrison had also passed each of his tests.

And, if one takes it just one a step further, one sees that Chryste Gaines had as well.

Each of these athletes, including Collins, has been banned from the sport in the absence of an analytical finding.

Everyone except Marion Jones, despite more compelling witness evidence against her than was provided by White against Montgomery, and the refusal of these witnesses to testify on their own behalf.

Marion Jones tied the noose on her own career by coming as clean as she determined necessary with information about having lied to Federal investigators, which, in the hidden meaning of the what she stated in her news conference, was that she took drugs.

Franke, who, along with his lab worker, Hans Heid, who had been retained to represent Bernard Lagat in his CAS EPO proceedings, and who had, along with Heid, clashed with WADA over each other’s strict interpretations of rHuEPO test analysis, had raised the question several times in German news reports.

Franke stated that he believed that the USADA and USATF had been intimidated by Marion Jones’s attorneys throughout the BALCO process, despite the “sufficient indications and testimonies around Marion Jones to ban”.[7]

One basis of this book is to ensure that her attorneys have not had a chance to continue doing that, and to point out at which steps one should have not permitted their statements to have gone unchallenged.

White had also tested negative, save a test for a prescription drug called modafinil, which she stated was for a sleeping disorder, but later recanted.

None of the Victor Conte-prescribed drugs (“the clear,” insulin, EPO, growth hormone, “the cream” and a thyroid hormone called T-3) had ever been found in suspects Montgomery, White, nor Collins.

EPO had been found in Marion Jones’s body.

White had earlier testified about her use of performance-enhancing drugs before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, S. 529/U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday, 2005-May-24.

Excerpted are statements White made during that testimony:

“Shortly thereafter [her graduation from the University of Tennessee, and return home to California to train under Remi Korchemny], in December, 2000, my coach introduced me to BALCO founder Victor Conte.

Conte initially gave me a package containing both legal supplements, as well as a substance which later became known as the clear or the designer steroid THG.

At the time, I was unaware that anything I received from Mr. Conte was a prohibited performance enhancing substance as I was told by both my coach and Mr. Conte that the vial they had given me contained flaxseed oil.

A few weeks later, Mr. Conte admitted to me that the substance he had given me was indeed not flaxseed oil, but rather a prohibited substance that if not taken properly, could yield a positive drug test.

I immediately ceased using the liquid because at that time in my career I did not believe it was necessary to take performance enhancing drugs to be competitive.

I competed over the next two years without the use of any performance enhancing substances despite being constantly urged to do so.

I was continuously being told that the usage of performance enhancing substances were necessary to be competitive because everyone else was doing so.”

“In March of 2003, I made a choice that I will forever regret. I visited Mr. Conte at his lab which was near my home, and we sat down and devised a program to utilize performance enhancing drugs in my training and competition.

At that time, I began taking EPO, the clear (or THG), the cream and stimulants.

I remained on this program over the course of four months, and with the help of Mr. Conte, I was able to pass 17 drug tests both in and out of competition while utilizing these prohibited performance enhancing substances.”

“A few weeks after the World Championships, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies raided the BALCO Laboratory. A few months later, I admitted to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) officials what I had done as I have outlined for you today. I received a two-year ban from competition for my actions, as well as lost all of the results from my previous four years of competition.

I also agreed to assist USADA in its mission to clean up sport, and now offer to be of service to this Committee in any way you see fit.

I believe athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs are hurting themselves, cheating the public and betraying our youth.

A performance-enhancing drug user trades his or her overall health, well-being and integrity for a shot at fame and fortune.”

“My attorney, Jerrold Colton, and I have worked with assisting USADA in its efforts, and we believe this Committee should further support USADA as the fight is a very difficult one.

Being mindful that my use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs was not detected through the extensive testing I received, USADA needs the resources to go further in its fight to detect the people who are breaking the rules.

The BALCO scandal may not have been discovered without a competitor’s coach anonymously sending a syringe of THG to the USADA testers which ultimately led to the discovery of this heretofore unknown steroid.”[8]

In a twist of fate, White, a drug-cheat and a deceiver, stands to be the shining star in the BALCO bust by stating that she did solemnly swear that she took undetectable substances which would be prohibited at all times had they been known substances which should never be used.

“Kelli White accepted accountability for her actions and she is able to look herself in the mirror and the world will forgive her,” said Travis Tygart, USADA's general counsel. “These two [Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines], for the rest of their lives, will go down as not only using drugs but doing everything possible, and at great expense to clean athletes, to avoid the truth.”[9]

Sources:

[1] The New York Times, “German Expert Warns BALCO Investigators,” 2004-06-26 [2] San Diego Union Tribune, “San Diego’s connection to BALCO scandal”, 2007-11-22 [3] United States of America v Victor Conte, Jr, CR04-44, Plaintiff’s Summary Judgment Motion [4] The New York Times, “Jones’s Lawyers Rebut Claims”, 2004-07-24 [5] The Boston Globe, “Representatives retort for Jones”, 2004-07-24 [6] The New York Times, “Drug Accusations Outlined Against 4 Elite Athletes,” 2004-06-09 [7] Der Spiegel Online, “Dopingexperte fordert Jones-Sperre”, 2006-09-08 [8] Kelli White testimony, given at a Full Committee Hearing: S. 529/USADA, 2005-05-24 [9] San Francisco Chronicle, “Montgomery banned two years for doping”, 2005-12-14

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 50

Eric — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:42:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 50th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud.

This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself. Though parts of this story may be historical in nature, they are of essense to the sum of the whole.

The CAS Panel convicted Tim Montgomery on 2005-December-13 of a doping offence in the absence of any “analytic adverse finding,” based on the testimony of a woman who was a known drug cheat.

Montgomery and his attorneys had every opportunity granted and afforded them to cause doubt to the veracity of White’s claims, but failed to prove White was, indeed, misleading in (or lying about) her testimony. Montgomery had an opportunity to testify in the matter, but remained silent, conceding to White and her own testimony.

In a parallel congruent case, the CAS Panel also convicted Chryste Gaines of a doping violation in the absence of any “analytical adverse finding,” based on Kelli White’s testimony.

Gaines, as had Montgomery, declined (by right) to testify in her case, and left the evidences presented by White unchallenged.

The best Gaines’s attorneys could do was to attempt to discredit White as a witness, which, the CAS Panel stated, was done unsuccessfully.

Gaines would later disclose that she felt White sold her out, and they stopped being friends.

The main crux of the Montgomery and Gaines claims against USADA in the absence of their own testimonies were protests that USADA had no jurisdiction to seek prosecution for non-analytical positives.

CAS disagreed in its ruling, citing that both parties had been bound by USADA protocol as members of USATF, with USATF Regulation 10 clearly and unambiguously referencing USATF being bound by USADA’s doping and adjudication procedures established by WADA.

Moreover, both Montgomery and Gaines had acknowledged that they were bound by USADA drug-testing protocol in situations involving adverse analytical findings, or “positive tests”.

It was concluded that whether it was USATF or USADA which brought the charges against the athletes, it would have only changed the identity of the prosecuting body in non-analytical cases.

How did any of this affect Marion Jones?

Montgomery had testified under oath during the Grand Jury hearing that it was his understanding that Gaines was to have provided her approval to Conte for Marion Jones to begin the steroids program, as they were competing in the same event, the 100m dash.

Marion Jones was introduced into the picture, Montgomery testified, when Graham, who has stated he had no knowledge of any of his athletes ever taking banned drugs, began a working relationship with Conte in 2000.

Montgomery testified that Graham stated to Conte that Montgomery should not be the aim of the steroids push, rather, Marion Jones, who had an incredible opportunity to strike it big in Sydney, again, leading back to Gaines.

“...So Chryste, from my understanding, had told Mr. Conte that 'Whatever you charge her, if you give me a cut of it, then I don't mind,'” a transcript of his grand jury testimony shows him saying. “So, I don't know how much the check was for, I don't know if she ever got her cut, but that's how the agreement came for him to work with Marion.”[1]

Montgomery refused to testify in his CAS case, which, having done so, allowed his and White’s previous statements to render it unnecessary for the CAS Panel composed of President L. Yves Fortier, CC, QC, Barrister in Montréal, Canada; Arbitrators Christopher L. Campbell, Esq., Attorney-at-law in Fairfax, Va.; Peter Leaver, QC, Barrister in London; and Ad hoc Clerk Stephen L. Drymer, Attorney-at-law from Montréal, to consider if other evidences gathered from BALCO documents were conclusive enough to prosecute.

The only witnesses Montgomery’s legal counsel called were to provide expert opinion on the blood and urine tests USADA had produced as evidence; Montgomery provided no fact witness, nor did he, himself, provide any evidences to the panel.

Gaines also refused to testify despite the fact that she, too, was given time to consider whether refusing to do so could draw adverse inferences upon her, and was provided an opportunity to reconsider her position.

The CAS Panel considered that all such other evidence by itself could not demonstrate that Montgomery was guilty of a doping offence, though they concluded doping offences could be proven by a variety of means.

USADA used documents and evidence (a schedule for using banned performance-enhancing drugs) from the investigation into BALCO in making its non-analytical positive (declaring an athlete guilty in the absence of a positive test) case against Montgomery.

The US Attorney’s office provided those documents to the US Senate Commerce Committee, which, in turn, provided those to the USADA.

Again, how does their refusals to testify on their own behalf (along with that of Michelle Collins, who would also be banned for a non-analytical positive test) justify dragging Marion Jones’s name through this part of the BALCO scandal? Why bring up Marion Jones in relation to Gaines and Montgomery?

Gaines’s attorney, Cameron Myler, had rightly queried why Marion Jones was not one of the initial four athletes who were singled out by BALCO ties and not charged with a doping offense.

“I know U.S.A.D.A. has more documents on some athletes than others,” said Cameron Myler, the lawyer for Gaines. But, she added: “If U.S.A.D.A. doesn't bring a case against Marion, it brings into question the credibility and authenticity of the documents they intend to rely on."

"If this is not enough to bring charges against Marion, why should it be different for other athletes, given that the level of evidence is the same.”[2]

Gaines could have had a more immediate and direct impact on making an action item out of that question, rather than having her attorney pose it. What was the missing ingredient central to this theme? In its most rudimentary form, it simply boiled down to personal testimony.

In the Montgomery and Gaines cases, it meant not having to incriminate Marion Jones by introducing her name into the records either through testimony or by evidences which may have been cross-examined and opened up a direct firing line to her.

It meant not having to connect the dots to the BALCO documents which, according to USADA, individually or, when linked together, established Montgomery’s doping.

Collins also refused to testify in her case, which helped the Arbitral Tribunal in her case to draw adverse inferences by that refusal.

It did not draw conclusions on her refusal to testify, rather based their decisions on the preponderances of evidences provided: more than 62 exhibits to which Collins did not protest.

Those evidences are similar to ones which have continued to bear very close similarities to what federal agents in the BALCO case state were collected on Marion Jones, namely memoranda of FBI interviews with Conte and Valente and documents collected from BALCO which included a calendar with the initials “MC” among other documentation named.

According to reports, initials “MJ” were are also found at the BALCO headquarters on what was widely believed to be a doping calendar for Marion Jones, with several designations provided for a range of drugs to be used on given days.

Marion Jones’s attorneys, stating the “MJ” could stand for any number of people, cast doubt on the suggestion those belonged to Marion Jones by a reference to a 100m time much quicker than Marion Jones had ever run.

USADA had deciphered what it said was a complicated series of coded words and letters on the calendar which pointed to illicit performance-enhancing drugs, though the codes, themselves, changed on an individual athlete basis, and some of the products had more than one code association.

However, without Conte’s testimony, those documents were not immediately available to prove guilt or to rule on a non-analytical positive, as they could not be obtained; Conte refused to give evidence on the ground of self-incrimination, and eventually refused to co-operate with authorities as part of his plea agreement.

However, in court documents released by the Federal government on 2007-December-21, the “M.J.” initials did, indeed, belong to Marion Jones, a fact which BALCO Vice President James Valente acknowledged to investigators, stating that he created the calendars, and knew specifically of the “Marion J” entries as being Marion Jones; the doping ledger, he stated, represented “the use of these drugs by these client-athletes, as well as the results of the tests for the presence of anabolic steroids conducted on these client-athletes' urine samples.”[3]

The Federal government’s document states that Marion Jones took EPO, human growth hormone and THG using drops and injections in 2000 and 2001.

Five years later, in 2006, Marion Jones had a test result demonstrate use of EPO, a drug she vehemently denied having ever heard of.

According to The New York Times, some of the coded letters and the documents described in a letter to USADA letter to Michelle Collins, also suspected of drugs use based on BALCO-related documents and testimony, were similar to initials and documents shown to them two weeks earlier by Marion Jones’s attorneys.

Marion Jones’s attorneys questioned the authenticity of those documents, which were given to them by USADA.

The Collins letter also said there was evidence she used a blood-boosting agent known as EPO, known by the initial E. The same initial appeared on a calendar shown to The Times by Jones's lawyers.

But Jones's lawyers, and Montgomery's lawyer, both have said that there is no proof of who wrote such documents, where they originated and what they mean.

Her representatives also said the coded letters could have benign explanations and refer to vitamins. Presumably, Collins can be expected to make a similar argument, if she does not seek to strike a deal with the anti-doping agency.[4]

Special Agent Novitzky, indicating recorded notes found in Conte’s e-mails, shed light on what Conte stated some of the coding represented:

Collins was also accused of having her blood and urine samples, found in BALCO records, analyzed for no apparent legitimate medical reason in what was thought to be an apparent attempt to gauge the impact of various steroids.

The USADA wrote to Collins that there was no legitimate medical reason for her to have her urine samples analysed for epitestosterone.

Howard Jacobs had stated that short of any admission of guilt by an athlete, it would be really tough to have an athlete suspended without a positive drug test .

This point was also raised in the USADA vs. Tim Montgomery case, whereby it was contested that USADA’s sole authority to investigate and prosecute instances of alleged doping violations stemmed from its USOC contract, which was stated to merely confer USADA’s jurisdiction to investigate and seek adjudicate in matters related to USADA’s drug testing function, not non-analytical positive cases.

The CAS ruled differently, stating that USADA (rather than USATF) had the right to prosecute, as USATF falls under the USADA protocol.

However, that did not stop the USADA from accusing Collins based on what they considered evidence they’d received which they believed proved her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, though the “evidence” was purely non-analytical in the absence of a positive test: evidence which included Kelli White’s testimony.

White testified that when Collins beat her in a 2003-February indoor race, she thanked Conte on national television. White then is quoted as having approached Conte about starting a programme “similar to Collins’s. White made an observation to Conte that Collins had grown bigger in muscle size before that victory, upon which Conte is stated to have said that Collins was using “THG, EPO and 'the Cream'”.

The CAS determined that the blood and urine tests taken together demonstrated a pattern of doping whereby there were extreme variations in both the hematocrit levels and T/E ratios.

CAS determined that all three of USADA’s experts provided credible witness testimony, and Collins’s provided no counter support in her defence; Collins’s attorney could provide no explanation of the extreme variances outside of the normal ranges. [5]

After a very reluctant surrender to USADA after her lengthy and stark denials, Collins finally came clean and began helping USADA in order to have a one-year reduction in her ban so that she might be eligible for a comeback in time for the Beijing Olympics.

“I wanted to clear my conscience,” she said. “I felt like it was time to come forward and be free of this.”[6]

Collins has been providing information about other coaches and athletes for the USADA and others in the anti-doping movement, and speaking to children about the undue harm that performance-enhancing drugs can do.

“Right now, I train as if I'm training for the Olympic trials and the Olympic Games," said Collins. “If it happens, great. If not, no big deal. But I am training.”

According to documents, Marion Jones, who has admitted to doping, had apparently also had her urine samples express delivered to a laboratory in San Diego to test for testosterone and also for epitestosterone, which is used primarily to fraudulently defeat testosterone testing.

The laboratory, Quest Diagnostics, which was located at a Mission Valley office complex at the time prior to relocating to Las Vegas, was a witness in the BALCO hearings, but not a suspect.

It also had an IOC accreditation, and would not have risked its reputation to enable drug cheats, stated Dr. Barry Sample, the director of science and technology for the drug testing part of the laboratory.

“It is contrary to our policy to be involved in pretesting.”[7]

Dr. Werner Franke is a German anti-doping official, and is also a cell and molecular biologist of the University of Heidelberg and the department manager at the German Krebstforschungszentrum (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.

He wrote in a letter dated 2004-June-17 to Kevin V. Ryan, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California prosecuting the BALCO case, that there was absolutely no conventional medical purpose for several urine samples, said to belong to Marion Jones, to have been sent to the San Diego lab to be analyzed for relative levels of the hormones testosterone and epitestosterone.

Franke wrote to Ryan that there “is no clinical test for the determination of the T/E ratio – and no need for it.”[8]

[1] San Francisco Chronicle, “Sprinter admitted use of BALCO ‘magic potion’”, 2004-06-24
[2] The New York Times, “Facing Marion Jones And a Lack of Options”, 2004-06-10
[3] ESPN.com, “Court documents released in Jones’ doping case,” 2007-12-21
[4] The New York Times, “Drug Accusations Outlined Against 4 Elite Athletes,” 2004-06-09
[5] AAA CAS Decision, Arbitral Award AAA No. 30 190 00658 04, 2004-12-10
[6] Canadian Press, “Doping days behind her, sprinter Michelle Collins…” 2007-05-20
[7] The New York Times, “German Expert Warns BALCO Investigators,” 2004-06-26
[8] The New York Times, “German Expert Warns BALCO Investigators,” 2004-06-26

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 40

Eric — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:17:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 40th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won honour and earned endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud. This series continues with the Victor Conte story, one which categorically ties Marion Jones to steroids.

Though parts of this section may be historical in nature, its inclusion is relevant to the sum of the whole.

Marion Jones’s attorneys had been rather peculiar with respect to their actions against people who said they were in the know, and against those avenues which had carried forth those messages. They had also continued to leave open cause to question their statements, as first discussed earlier with regard to the “borderline” case issue.

Victor Conte need not be forced to tell the truth when deciding whether or not misconduct and illegal disorder was occurring at his BALCO laboratories. Evidence collected over a year’s period of time revealed to the world the secret agenda the laboratory was employing.

The short version of the collected evidence included:

· Also among the documents seized was a proposed pricing list that offered an “Indoor or Outdoor Track Program.” The cost for each was set at $20,000, with $10,345 covering “Medical Consultation” and $9,655 for supplies.

Some of the supplies were noted with abbreviations for what the government and the doping agency believe were banned substances. For example: G-20 weeks-15 bottles at $150=$2,250 is believed to refer to human growth hormone, and E-12 weeks-16 bottles at $65=$1,040 is believed to refer to the oxygen-boosting drug EPO.

Also on the proposed program were bonuses to be paid BALCO if the athlete set a personal record ($10,000) or a world record ($20,000). [1]

The San Francisco Chronicle, in an article dated 2004-02-13, stated that IRS agent Jeff Novitzky had staked out the BALCO laboratory for over a year, retrieving items from the rubbish left for weekly trash collection pick-ups. Among those items were empty boxes and vials of two different illegal steroids, as well as HGH, a prescription anti-estrogen drug used by some athletes to recover from a steroid dosage, and 84 one-time-use used syringes, some contaminated with steroid residue.

The San Francisco Chronicle also revealed the following:

The document described a painstaking probe. In addition to the weekly trash seizures, investigators staked out BALCO for seven months, the affidavit indicates. Like the trash pickups, the stakeouts sometimes provided valuable evidence: In April, Novitzky said agents had watched as an international track star entered BALCO. He exited 10 minutes later with one pant-leg rolled up above his knee—a sign, Novitzky wrote, that he had just received an injection.

Later in the probe, Novitzky said he had obtained warrants to search Conte's e-mail accounts at Yahoo.com. The e-mails, he wrote, showed Conte "communicating with professional athletes and coaches about steroids, defeating steroid testing, attempts to keep these activities covert and concealing financial transactions."[2]

Novitzky’s affidavit to search the BALCO laboratory, Victor Conte’s home and phone and e-mail records among others includes discovery of the following evidences examined in the discarded trash [3]:

· A torn, empty box of multiple vials of Serostin, a human growth hormone (2002-September-3);

· A torn, empty box of 200 mg vial of testosterone (2002-September-10);

· An empty pill container of Oxandrin (2002-November-18);

· At least eighty-four (84) empty, one-use syringe wrappers in various sizes (2002-September-3 through 2003-August-10);

· A Federal Express International Air Waybill detailing a shipment of “prescription drug personal medication” from a pharmacy in Ontario, Canada to Victor Conte at 345 California Drive in Burlingame, CA. The total weight of the package is listed as 3 pounds with a declared value of $431,75. The shipment is dated 2003-April-22 (2003-May-5);

· A November/December 2002 issue of “Anabolic Insider”, an underground steroid publication (2002-December-16);

· Various small envelopes and letters from an elite track and field athlete, who is currently the United States champion in his event, including the following:

· Vic, here is a check for the next cycl (sic)

I need it by the end of the week.

REDACTED (2002-December-16).

· Vic, here is $350, $300 for next

$50 for what I owed for the last.

Thanx, REDACTED (2003-February-3).

· Two (2) personal notes from an elite track and field athlete and world record holder. The notes read:

· Victor

Thank you for the help at nationals!

REDACTED

P.S.

A bonus from “Team REDACTED” to

“Team Balco”(2003-March-24).

· Vic, here is $350, $300 for next

$50 for what I owed for the last.

Thanx, REDACTED (2003-February-3).

· Victor...Jim....

Just wanted to let you know I appreciate

Everything that you did. All that I have accomplished this season would not have been possible without your support. Thanks!! REDACTED (2003-March-24).

· A VVR International packaging list indicating a delivery of one 100-count package of 23-guage syringes and one 100-count package of 25-guage syringes to Balco Laboratories (2002-October-14).

· A VWR International packaging list indicating a delivery of one 100-count package of 25-guage syringes and one 200-count package of “low dose insulin syringes” (2003-July-28).

· A yellow post-it note listing human growth hormones Nutropin AQ and Somatropin, both substances with steroid-like strength enhancing features (2003-April-28).

· Four (4) empty “pill-sheets” of “Omifin”, a prescription clomid or anti-estrogen drug typically taken by steroid users after a steroid cycle to improve their recover of natural testosterone production (2002-December-16 through 2003-January-13).

· One empty box of Epogen, a prescription erythropoietin that stimulates the production of oxygen carrying red blood cells and is commonly used by endurance athletes to increase stamina and athletic performance. The box once contained ten (10) 1,0 ml single use vials (2003-January-13).

· An empty and shredded box of Procrit, a prescription erythropoietin used to increase red blood cell production and commonly used by endurance athletes to achieve better fitness. The box once contained twenty-five (25) 1 ml vials (2003-March-31).

· Two (2) empty pills sheets of prescription diuretics, which are commonly used by bodybuilders to rid themselves of excess water or fluids to make their muscles stand out. It is also used to mask the presence of steroids in drug tests (2003-January-13).

· Three (3) torn versions of a letter addressed to IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) and the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) testing personnel, disclosing allegations of steroid distribution by a renowned track and field coach to several elite track and field athletes. The letter alleges that the coach obtains a specific steroid from Mexico and specifically details the scheduling of events and testing to avoid detection of the steroid use.

· Portion of an e-mail addressed to “Victor” that discusses characteristics of athletic performance enhancing drugs, similar to anabolic steroids, as well as their prices (2002-September-16).

Marion Jones’s attorneys stated that a person one can consider a cheat and a crook should not be given credence when speaking about her, yet Marion Jones, who later has been deemed a crook and a cheat is to be believed?

Conte took such an opportunity on the ABC program “20/20” to tell the world the truth about doping. He began naming names—those of Marion Jones and White, and detailed accounts of steroids use by Marion Jones.

Irrespective of Marion Jones’s claims that Conte was lying, and her counsel’s claims that he was unable to be trusted, Victor Conte had made similar statements about other athletes, with the following certitudes having been verified and labelled as truths:

Victor Conte stated he provided Bill Romanowski in 1999 an early version of the undetectable “clear”. He stated he also provided three other Oakland Raiders players, who tested positive in 2003 for THG, drugs. Romanowski, on Oct. 16, 2005, told the CBS news show 60 Minutes an interview that he used steroids and human growth hormone, stating Victor Conte was the source of the drugs.

The other three athletes who tested positive for THG were Barrett Robbins, Chris Cooper, and Dana Stubblefield. Each of them was fined for their THG drug use, with Stubblefield, on 2008-January-18, pleading guilty to felony charges of lying to Federal agents about having used “the clear” and EPO in connection with BALCO.

He was sent a letter from the NFL dated 2003-November-7, notifying him of his positive test for THG; six days later, he made his denials to Agent Novitzky. Stubblefield is scheduled to be sentenced on 2008-April-25.

· Romanowski had the following to say about his encounters with Conte:

“One thing I do know about Victor is he's an honest guy,” Romanowski said. “Some of the real criminals were the investigators . . . with the different tactics that they would use and the different lies that they would use to try to get information. A lot of the guys that were busting him were guys that had bought steroids from him on a regular basis -- and took them.”[4]

Victor Conte stated he provided Chryste Gaines a small amount of “the clear” in 1999. Conte states that Gaines was not particularly interested in the drug, having only used it to get to the “next level.” Gaines told the Grand Jury she had used performance-enhancing drugs provided by BALCO and was suspended for the period of 2005-June-6 to 2007-June-6.

Victor Conte stated he provided Tim Montgomery "the clear," along with insulin, growth hormone and adrenaline. Montgomery told the Federal Grand Jury on 2003-November-6 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs provided by BALCO.

Victor Conte said that in 2003 he gave Dwain Chambers THG (“the clear”), testosterone/epitestosterone cream, EPO (Procrit), HGH (Serostim), insulin (Humalog), modafinil (Provigil) and liothryonine, which is a synthetic form of the T3 thyroid hormone (Cytomel).

The Clear was taken on Mondays and Wednesdays for three consecutive weeks followed by a week off during Chambers’ off-season to accelerate healing and tissue repair.

According to Conte, who wrote a letter in May 2008 for Chambers on his behalf to provide UK Sport information to help fight doping, the testosterone/epitestosterone cream was also primarily used during the off season on a three-on/one-off cycle, and was rubbed into the skin on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The EPO was used during the first two weeks of the cycle on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with stomach injections clearing the body 24 hours after intravenous injections.

Finally, the human growth hormone was used nightly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays following hard exercises during the off-season to help speed up recovery.

Chambers initially stated he inadvertently ingested THG as part of a BALCO supplement he was taking, but later recanted his story and confessed of having taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Chambers’ solicitor stated following the two-year ban announcement, “Dwain was charged with taking a substance which was not listed as a banned substance but which fell within the 'catch-all' provision of the IAAF rules as being either chemically or pharmacologically related to a banned substance. Dwain's challenge to the UK Athletics and IAAF allegations regarding THG focused on the fact that although there was scientific evidence to show that THG was chemically related to banned substances, this, in itself, could not be sufficient to constitute a doping offence.”[5]

Chambers later accepted responsibility for his drug-taking, stating, “I didn’t think I would get caught.” Chambers was banned for two years from his athletics federation, and he was permanently banned from all Olympic competition following testing positive for THG—a case which is still on-going with his federation.

Victor Conte stated he provided Alvin and Calvin Harrison with “the clear” the summer before the 2000 Olympics. Montgomery implicated Alvin under oath during his Grand Jury testimony. Documents concerning Alvin were seized during the BALCO raid. Alvin Harrison admitted to the USADA findings brought against him and was banned. Calvin was banned for the same sleeping-disorder substance as White. Both athletes testified before the Grand Jury.

Victor Conte said Kelli White got the same drugs as Chambers, along with a drug called thyroid hormone T-3. White was canned after being thrown a two-year ban after admitting using performance-enhancing drugs provided by BALCO. White appeared on “20/20” to discuss her drugs regime, stating:

“He made me believe that if I followed a certain protocol of supplements and different drugs that I could become number one in the world.” [6] White was subsequently stripped of her 2003 USA Outdoor 100m and 200m titles, her 2003 World Championships 100m and 200m titles (including $120.000 in prize money), and was stripped of all results between 2000-December-15 – 2004-May-19. White began taking drugs in 2003-March.

Victor Conte stated privately in a personal communication never submitted to its recipient, USADA, that Justin Gatlin was using Oral Andriol testosterone undecanoate. Gatlin has tested positive for elevated testosterone levels.

Victor Conte had gone on record—on the television show “20/20” with correspondent Martin Bashir, and on a sports internet site (ESPN the Magazine)—as stating he provided Marion Jones with human growth hormone, insulin, EPO and “the clear.”

Marion Jones had had an “A”-test reveal unnatural EPO admittance into her chemical make-up, and had her “B”-sample results nullify the “A”-sample. He also names on the program White and Montgomery as recipients of his drugs regime. Marion Jones would later self-confess to having been on “the clear”—a product obtained from BALCO.

Kevin Toth, whom Victor Conte has featured on his SNAC internet site with a photo captioned, “Kevin Toth 72-9¾, ZMA Powered”, and whose name appears on the alleged confession list Conte is to have provided I.R.S. Agent Novitzky, was banned for two years by USADA after testing positive for THG, and for also testing positive for modafinil at the 2003 USA Championships at Stanford University.

His 22,67m shot put at the 2003 Kansas Relays was the furthest throw in the world since 1990. Toth was stripped of his 2003 national championship title as well as his fourth-place finish at the 2003 World Championships.

Toth had retained Howard Jacobs, Marion Jones’s attorney, to represent him, with Toth stating in his defence that he had never taken any substance that was banned by the IAAF (THG was not known to IAAF), and, specifically, had never heard of THG.

The inquiring mind begs to intellectually reason—considering each and every one of the aforementioned athletes whom Conte had alleged to have previously provided illegal substances (save the Marion Jones revelation) had tested positive (consequently not each for the drugs they had been administered)—how Marion Jones could have been the lone exception to the rule.

The simple answer is now—and has always been—that she wasn’t.

Sources:

[1] San Francisco Chronicle, “Must athletes cheat to win?”, 2004-07-08 [2] San Francisco Chronicle, “Drug ring aided top jocks,” 2004-02-13 [3] San Francisco Chronicle, “Affidavit of Special Agent Jeff Novitzky...”, 2004-02-13 [4] The Boston Globe, “Romanowski marketing healing supplements”, 2007-06-26 [5] BBC Sport, “Chambers’ statement in full”, 2004-02-24 [6] ABC News, “BALCO Chief on Sports Doping Scandal”, 2004-12-03

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 39

Eric — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:13:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 39th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won honour and earned endorsements, fame, and fortune by method of fraud.

This series continues with the Victor Conte story, one which categorically ties Marion Jones to steroids.

Though parts of this section may be historical in nature, its inclusion is relevant to the sum of the whole.

In light of Conte’s statements made on 20/20—the basis of this lawsuit—they may actually not have been considered illegal in the context of the law whereby Conte, keeping detailed accounts of regularly conducted activities as they pertained to his dealings with Marion Jones—even those which could be considered “hearsay” by means of Tim Montgomery’s grand jury testimony—could be argued as being legal and binding under the “Hearsay Exceptions” act.

Excerpted from that act is a layman’s description of how that law works in the United States:

Records of regularly conducted activity.

A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, or by certification that complies with Rule 902(11), Rule 902(12), or a statute permitting certification, unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness.

The term ‘‘business’’ as used in this paragraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.[1]

Furthermore, Conte could have proven through admissible evidence that Marion Jones behaved in particular ways on particular occasions as he had stated—claims which would have called her character into question. Conte could have countered Marion Jones’s individual claims of having good character by introducing character evidence against her had they made it to the courtroom rather than having settled.

Conte’s testimony would have nonetheless been legally sufficient to be used as material evidence that Marion Jones used performance-enhancing drugs.

This would have caused irreparable harm to Marion Jones for reasons stated earlier, namely that she would have had to lie before the courts again insofar as she would not have had her attorneys initiate proceedings against Conte and then cave in during the trial.

Marion Jones’s and Victor Conte’s characters were an element of her defamation claim against him, and Conte could have introduced evidence that Marion Jones did, indeed, have a reputation of being a dishonest person—facts, had they been established and believed, which would have been admissible against her character, nullifying and voiding any notion of “character assassination”.

This revelation would have caused comparative fault for Marion Jones in her lawsuit, and would have put a percentage of personal fault for causing her own character “injury”.

His attorneys could have questioned a jury in the case at its conclusion—had it not been settled before it was to greatly unfold—if Conte intentionally, knowingly, recklessly and negligently made claims about Marion Jones which were untrue, and was there reasonable doubt that the claims he was making—based on evidence he may have provided—that he did not falsely accuse Marion Jones.

Additionally, no legal basis was established on Marion Jones’s assertions that evidences collected were done so involuntarily through coercion. Proof and testimony collected and entered as evidence against Conte and admitted at trial did not amount to a constitutional violation of Conte never having understood his rights to a lawyer.

Had Conte’s Miranda Rights been breached, his conviction would have been reversed. Had his testimony been coerced, Marion Jones’s team could have used that legal reference to strike from record and invalidate Conte’s subsequent statements on the matter.

A very telling point to Conte’s argument was to have been that Marion Jones had a working relationship with him—a point which he has maintained as late as interviews conducted in May, 2007—and he had supplied her illegal performance-enhancing products—a claim which Burton had denied on behalf of his client.

Marion Jones, according to Graham, had refused unopened BALCO packages, but had, according to his understanding, taken nutritional supplements offered by Conte – a claim which is in direct contradiction to Marion Jones’s claim that she took GNC products, not BALCO ones.

Marion Jones later confirmed that she had a BALCO link, but then stated she had discontinued using Conte’s products. She also stated that Graham provided her with “the clear”—a product which, at the time, was made for Conte’s BALCO lab for distribution as Conte saw fit.

“Actually ZMA was sent to me from BALCO, all right,” she said. She added: “I began getting ZMA from BALCO, I have to say in 1999. And, like I said, I stopped taking ZMA from BALCO -- I still take it to this day from (nutrition products company) GNC -- from the beginning of 2001.” [2]

Could Marion Jones had verifiably and undeniably accounted for the financials and receipts to which she had admittedly transacted with BALCO to the satisfaction of the law whereby her records of purchase do not in any way suggest in whole or in part that a banned substance was shipped in return as a result of that business negotiation?

Could she demonstrate when she began purchasing products from BALCO? Did she write checks for those products or pay by means of credit card whereby a financial account could be made of those transactions?

Had she or her attorneys of record ever requested a verification of transactions BALCO had with its clients up to—and including—those transactions which involved illegal drugs in the form of steroids for the sole and explicit purpose of separating herself from any and all presumption of guilt or association with the illegal affairs which were conducted during the same time frame as she received said products?

Had Marion Jones, herself, ever discussed on record to any investigative unit—USADA included—the statements Graham made of BALCO packages arriving to her home which she, consequently, according to him, did not open? Had she discussed with anyone or any investigative unit pursuing matters in this case where the packages originated, from whom and on which dates?

Had she asked to have the BALCO shipment records subpoenaed in an effort to disprove a potential false claim against her? Had she requested a record of way bills or air bills from the alleged carrier which can be utilised to clear her name of suspicion?

The answer to these questions is an unequivocal, “no”.

Why? Marion Jones was complicit in drugs-taking, and lied to Federal authorities chasing leads in that case. She would not have further involved them in matters which would have pointed fingers right back at herself.

Burton had stated that Marion Jones never has had an endorsement deal of any nature with either Conte or any of his businesses, and more precisely, she had never received any illegal substances from Conte in exchange for her endorsement of his products.

Two questions arise, therefore: Did Marion Jones, who “has never received any illegal substances from Conte in exchange for her endorsement of his products", receive any illegal substances from Conte in the absence of any endorsement of his products?

Did Marion Jones, who had never received any “illegal” substances from Conte, ever receive any legal products from Conte’s supply of nutritional products?

A further question regarding truthfulness between Victor Conte and Marion Jones arises with the statement made on the SNAC website, one which begs response from Marion Jones’s counsel: If Marion Jones has had no connection to Victor Conte, had never used his products, nor had she ever endorsed his products, why does her name continue to be listed on his homepage as being an SNAC team-member to this day—despite a settled defamation lawsuit against him?

Jones is a big fan of ZMA. “I had a number of tests done on my blood at BALCO Laboratories,” says Jones. “I learned that I was really deficient in both zinc and magnesium.” ZMA fixed that, and she credits the supplement with helping her to sleep better and making her morning workouts more effective. “ZMA really has helped me,” she says. [3]

The Web site even lists Marion Jones as being a participant on the ZMA Track Club along with Chryste Gaines, White, Ramon Clay, and Montgomery. The Web site continues to show photos of Marion Jones alongside Victor Conte and her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter.

Did Marion Jones have a liquidated damage clause for breach of the settlement agreement, specifically the perceived agreement to discontinue stating that Marion Jones has had any connection to Conte, or that she was a user of performance-enhancing drugs, to execute when Conte went back on record following her “A”-sample analysis stating that he had said all along that she had used performance-enhancing drugs?

No. She didn’t “win” the lawsuit.

One even more puzzling point which should be addressed is that Marion Jones’s attorneys, given to declaring Marion Jones’s innocence and complete lack of dealings with BALCO—even to the point of litigation, had not forced reported first-hand accounts from FLEX Magazine senior editor Jim Schmaltz to redact a November 2005 story in which Schmaltz stated in common language that Marion Jones and C.J. Hunter both knew Conte and worked with him.

Excerpted from that account:

When the case broke and Jones’ name was associated with BALCO, the track star at first claimed to have little association with Conte. FLEX readers know better. In the September 2001 issue, Jones is featured in an exclusive piece highlighting her connection to the world of bodybuilding.

As part of the FLEX team (yours truly was, at the time, FLEX’s senior editor), I travelled to the campus of North Carolina State in Raleigh to interview Jones, who was training under the tutelage of her then husband C.J. Hunter, a hulking cerebral shot putter who had schooled the young athlete since she was a little-known basketball player at North Carolina.

Also at the interview/photo shoot was Milos Sarcev, a veteran pro bodybuilder who often consulted with Conte to develop training programs for clients. One of those clients was present for the occasion: a little-known sprinter named Tim Montgomery.

Conte pitched the story, chose the time in accordance with Jones and invited me for an exclusive in early May 2001. At the time, Jones spoke glowingly of Conte and his sports supplements, and she expressed admiration for the efforts that bodybuilders put in their training and nutritional regimens, even suggesting that bodybuilding should qualify as an Olympic event.

It is a sad irony that Jones’ graciousness toward FLEX placed her in a context she is now desperate to disown. At the time, it seemed her willingness to sit down with FLEX appeared to be driven solely by her and Hunter’s allegiance to Conte. [4]

If this account is to be considered inaccurate—or false, one would imagine Marion Jones’s counsel—seeking opportunities to clear their client’s name and recover monies the cashless former world champion had squandered on maintaining her lifestyle and paying attorney fees, would have either filed a lawsuit against the magazine for its inaccuracies; had they not sued for monetary pay-outs and had a motion filed to have inaccuracies in the story redacted—they would have instead required apologies published of equal prominence to the original libellous statements permitted.

They didn’t.

Why? It’s quite simple, really: They had no basis upon which to have done so.

Instead, Marion Jones used the network, ABC, to sell her exoneration story with her all-inclusive never used drugs statement.

The same litigation assumption applies to the ESPN The Magazine piece in which Conte discussed in detail his having provided Marion Jones performance-enhancing drugs.

They didn’t touch that one, either.

As a matter of fact, SNAC, on their Internet site, had printed the entire FLEX Magazine story in its entirety.

And, yet, one more time, Conte associated Marion Jones with BALCO, with no action taken either by Marion Jones or her attorneys on her behalf:

“Montgomery had stockpiled the stuff he received from me, so he was able to walk away knowing he had the stuff and knew the protocol to use it for another year,” Conte said. “But having terminated my relationship with Trevor, Marion and Tim, a collusion developed and in 2002 they sent it to all the accredited laboratories. It then took them a year to develop the test.”[5]

Nor did her attorneys force an error correction from the San Francisco Chronicle when it ran a story that Marion Jones and Montgomery had received steroids from Conte and BALCO.

“The San Francisco Chronicle story is wrong,” said Joseph Burton, lawyer for Jones, who has consistently denied using performance-enhancing drugs. [6]

Major League Baseball player Curt Schilling, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, stated during a television show regarding illegal BALCO products being administered to two baseball players he named to host Bob Costas, that inferences of guilt should be met with denials, and incorrect information written about someone rectified.

“If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn’t sue their ass off, am I not admitting that there’s some legitimacy to it?” he tells Bob Costas on the HBO show Costas Now.[7]

Even more astonishingly, in their sole pursuit to strictly nail Victor Conte for his statements, Marion Jones’s legal counsel had simply brushed aside C.J. Hunter’s equally damaging statements, and stated that the law, itself, should deal with him; there was no defamation of character lawsuit lined up for Hunter.

With further regard to the 20/20 interview, Nichols called on Conte to answer three questions on a polygraph test in order to prove that Conte was guilty.

Those were:

Whether or not Conte saw Marion Jones illegally take any performance enhancing drugs; whether or not Conte saw Marion Jones inject herself on a date specifically mentioned in the 20/20 interview; whether or not Victor Conte leaked information from the BALCO investigation to the media.

Concerning Conte’s admissibility of participation in either point No. 1 or point No. 2, Conte would have self-incriminated himself and caused a legal hiccup in his defence case, United States vs. Victor Conte. Marion Jones’s counsel knew Conte had this standing over his head.

Legally, however, Conte was provided a temporary reprieve in the Marian Jones [sic] vs. Victor Conte defamation case to not speak on those two subject points. Conte was protected from having to provide specific and direct answers to possible questions which would have been raised about his involvement in points one and two above, as well as from answering questions in line with those which would have provided a strong supply of evidence needed to prosecute him in his criminal case.

With due respect to point No. 3, Conte had subsequently been legally cleared of any – and all—involvement in the leaking of information to the media—specifically the San Francisco Chronicle.

Had Victor Conte passed a lie-detector test based on these three questions, would Marion Jones’s team have raised a white flag and conceded the fact that Conte’s assertions and claims were, indeed, truthful?

Had there been an inaccuracy in any or all of the stories and statements made in the media referenced above, you can bet Marion Jones’s team would have called for a thorough investigation, and, upon a positive finding, a request for fees to be rendered to their client for errors causing damage to her reputation.

It was contended that it was reputation where Marion Jones was due to suffer the biggest blow; there were other Olympic Games in which she could participate, but only one, priceless, reputation to preserve.

Instead, her attorneys stated that it was Victor Conte, himself, whom they wanted to bring to justice for defaming Marion Jones. They went after no one else.

The San Francisco Chronicle article referenced above which cited Conte having provided Olympians Montgomery and Marion Jones drugs – the one which Marion Jones’s counsel had deemed as “wrong”, would only further weaken and diminish the power and veracity of the denial they made had Conte been able to answer questions one and two on a lie-detector test without affecting his criminal proceedings.

Sources:

[1] Federal Rules of Evidence (Article VIII), Rule 803: Hearsay Exceptions; Availability of Declarant Immaterial [2] Rediff.com, “Marion Jones admits supplement use”, 2004-06-17 [3] SNAC.com, “ZMA’s Spectacular Year in the World of Sports 2002” [4] FLEX Magazine, “BALCO Revisited”, 2005-November [5] Times Online, “Up and running once more… the man who allowed…”, 2007-05-16 [6] San Francisco Chronicle, “Olympians got steroids, feds told”, 2004-04-25 [7] New York Daily News, “Schilling: No denial same as guilt”, 2007-07-26

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 38

Eric — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:32:00 -0500

This is the 38th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won honour and earned endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud. This series continues with the Victor Conte story, one which categorically ties Marion Jones to steroids. Though parts of this section may be historical in nature, its inclusion is relevant to the sum of the whole.

Now that comprehension levels have apparently been made more advantageous through Federal deposition revelations and Marion Jones’s own testimony, can a reasonable person take what Conte has stated on record—those public and private—as being accurate and true accounts of events and occurrences of which he stated that he and others have partaken?

More specifically, can one trust the validity of an exchange of information offer to the President of the United States of America introduced by Mr. Holley, who had, on record, stated that Victor Conte was being framed?

Does one believe the statements written by Special agent Novitzky—a sworn IRS officer at the time who, as a professional, had at least satisfactorily met the education requirements the IRS places on such individuals in his position—to be true and accurate to the best of his knowledge, especially when the prosecution uses the report in attempting to establish what its evidences will be and use for building a case for trial?

A man who, now, as a member of the Federal Drug Administration and a professional, at least satisfactorily met the requirements the agency places on such people in his position?

This is a very valuable question, as Joseph M. Burton of Duane Morris LLP—speaking for Marion Jones following the San Jose Mercury News report that claimed Conte stated he’d provided 27 athletes with performance-enhancing drugs—stated, “[I]t is impossible to comment on the assertions made or, more importantly, for anyone to judge their reliability or credibility.”[1]

Burton then went on instead to say that any alleged assertion reported on—or by—Conte “is false.”

Burton opened up the door to suggest that, whilst not knowing who the source of the information was that the San Jose Mercury News’ story was, and being unable to test the source’s credibility, all that the source had report on from Victor Conte should be considered invalid and disregarded.

The US Federal government did not see it that way when Novitzky’s evidences were collected and used to indict Conte.

Peter V. Ueberroth, the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee said in a phone interview to The New York Times in late 2007, that “Agent Novitzky has been one of the pioneers in trying to rid an issue that is cancer-like in the world of sports.” [2]

Marion Jones later provided background to allegations that she had taken drugs by admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs—facts which did just the opposite—at least circumstantially—of not proving that Conte’s assertions were “false”.

As for Conte, could a known cheat and impostor have ever been telling the truth prior to her confession?

Not according to Marion Jones’s legal team, responding to his “20/20” interview, which brought about a $25 million defamation and tortuous interference with business relations case filed Dec. 15, 2004 against Conte—later settled out of court two weeks after Conte’s attorney, James Wagstaffe, submitted documents saying he would, as part of the case, take the depositions of Jones, “and other individuals who will corroborate plaintiff's use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.”[3]

(The suit [case number 3:04-cv-05312-SI] was filed in San Mateo County District Court, San Francisco Office under presiding Judge Susan Illston, with the exact nature of the suit being Assault, Libel and Slander, the cause being §28:1331 of the Federal code, Personal Injury. The suit was terminated Feb. 6, 2006).

However, Marion Jones’ confession nearly three years later caused Conte to be the victor among the two, and prompted another question: If Marion Jones had simply “panicked” and found it easiest and the least painful route to lie to investigators in 2003, why did she bother filing this lawsuit against Conte the following year anyway? Why did she not sue Trevor Graham for sneaking “the clear” into her training regime without her knowledge?

Alas, Marion Jones was trying to protect her coach at the time in the same way she tried to protect their ex-boyfriend, which followed the same manner she attempted to protect the integrity of her ex-husband three years earlier in a land far, far away where Johnny Cochran, Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter and Conte were all huddled together under the same tent.

It must have been that way, for it was so she said.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in court papers filed in January 2006, Conte’s attorney, James Wagstaffe (Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP, San Francisco, CA), wrote that Conte’s defence team intended to take the depositions of Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter, and Tim Montgomery. This information would have been recorded first in the written stage of the discovery process, and then it would have been taken orally with a court-reporter. Those interviews would have been legally binding.

The purpose of those depositions would have been to have Marion Jones, Hunter and Montgomery testify to a specific story, and be bound by truth to re-state the same story at Conte’s trial. Information provided in the depositions could be used at trial, and, with Marion Jones unable to shift stories, she would have been compelled to answer direct questions regarding accusations made by Hunter and Conte, and touched on by Montgomery; had she been caught in a lie or had omitted a fact which was contained in the deposition but not stated during the Conte trial, her reputation as a truthful person would have come into question, and her testimony would have believability consequences whereby it would not have been believable on any points.

Marion Jones later proved, in October 2007, that any—and all—of her previous statements were subject to being tossed into the trash bin, having confessed to taking drugs during a time she had been vocal about having done just the opposite, namely been drug-free.

Marion Jones’s team stated that Conte’s attorneys had done a “sudden about-face”[4] on their position with regard to the Conte-Marion Jones relationship, stating that Conte had committed a very serious crime against her character.

“Victor Conte is either lying or when the statement was made it was involuntarily coerced. This is a character assassination of the worst kind.”[5]

Marion Jones did not, as Conte’s team had, force the issue of taking Conte’s deposition to distinguish, if in fact, Conte had shifted stories and called his credibility into question. Marion Jones’s attorneys bore the burden of proof in the case, and bore the burden of producing documents which could support their claims that Conte maliciously slandered their client. Conte would have been bound by the same deposition laws whereby he would have been required to make truthful statements which Marion Jones’s counsel could use to verify and cross-reference prior to going to civil trial, with any omissions or grossly misstated facts used to impeach him.

Where, if Marion Jones’s counsel had reviewed their investigative notes for the sole purpose of comparing and drawing a parallel to any of Conte’s signed or recorded statements and other investigative materials which may have been available to them, is there disagreement between Conte’s statements sans his Fifth Amendment right justifying his liberty to not repeat such statements under oath (in lieu of his criminal case)?

What documents of fact did they have which could have demonstrated in no uncertain terms that Conte was not telling the truth? Which witnesses did they subpoena to refute Conte? Could Marion Jones have found herself in a quandary had she, in fact, produced documents which, when cross-examination occurred, would have provided a link to her? Did her attorneys take that risk?

No.

The answer to that and other questions raised above would be spilled out four years later when she confessed to deceiving the sport during this period of time, and making those defensive stances against Conte nothing more than “hot air.”

USA Today cited an Atlanta-based libel attorney in stating that the Marion Jones case was a publicity stunt, and any serious lawsuit would have also been directed at the broadcast networks for permitting Victor Conte to have had an open platform to defame Marion Jones.

Lin Wood, an Atlanta libel attorney, called the suit "a public-relations tactic." If Jones were serious, she also would have sued ABC and ESPN, Wood said; Conte does not have the resources to defend the suit or pay a judgment. [6]

Had the networks also committed acts which were injurious to Marion Jones, her attorneys, following civil settlement protocol and with a vested interest in a positive outcome, would have sent them written settlement demand letters outlining their theories of liability, causation and damages, and they would have asked for an amount of money for settlement.

To this day, in a time and age where Marion Jones is flat broke, no such records are known to exist.

Burton and Nichols were permitted an opportunity to discuss the lawsuit via satellite as guests on the CNN show “American Morning”, which aired Dec. 16, 2004 at 7 p.m. EST. CNN’s Miles O’Brien interviewed both attorneys, who, when speaking of the depth of the lawsuit, stated the suit, itself, was aimed specifically at Conte for his statements.

Miles O’Brien: All right. Why did you single out Mr. Conte and not go after ABC and ESPN as well?

Rich Nichols: Well, this is the first time that anyone has taken actually responsibility, public responsibility for alleging that Marion Jones has used performance- enhancing drugs. It's the first time that Marion Jones has had an opportunity to avail herself of the legal system to address these false allegations, and Victor Conte was the first one to come forward and put his name on these false allegations.

Miles O’Brien: All right, but nevertheless, I mean, you didn't want to shoot the messenger? Most people like to do that.

Rich Nichols: Shoot the messenger?

Miles O’Brien: In other words, ABC—go after the broadcast that actually aired the defamation, as you allege it.

Rich Nichols: This defamation action is about Victor Conte and his false allegations against Marion Jones. [7]

In other words, Nichols had no other recourse, because his client was, indeed, a drugs-taking athlete whose very tactics—suing—would have landed her on record against any of those media outlets who had spread the news, and it would have forced her to have testified that she had not taken drugs had any of those hypothetical cases gone to trial. Marion Jones would have again lied to Federal authorities on matters concerning her connections to performance-enhancing drugs, one which would not have netted a token prison term at worse for her.

The brash Conte, keeping his place atop his mountain during the smokescreen which was Marion Jones’s lawsuit, spoke in response to it, stating that Marion Jones was using the lawsuit as a publicity stunt, and he continued to call her a drugs user.

“This is nothing more than a PR stunt by a desperate woman, who has regularly used drugs throughout her career. ... I stand by everything I said on the 20/20 special. I am telling the truth, and Marion is lying.”[8]

Conte was telling the truth: Marion Jones was a desperate woman who had regularly used drugs throughout her career. And, as Conte noted, she was lying.

The lawsuit seemed to be a show to the public of which party had the stronger hand, which had the most resolve, and which had the most determination to stand in the face of challenges set in play by the other. Conte, represented by Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP of San Francisco, CA, had a motion to have the lawsuit stayed in order to not incriminate him in his United States vs. Victor Conte criminal case.

“The Court finds that a stay is proper because “[i]f discovery moves forward, [the] defendant will be faced with the difficult choice between asserting [his] right against self-incrimination, thereby inviting prejudice in the civil case, or waiving those rights, thereby courting liability in the civil case.”[9]

Marion Jones attempted to have the stay overruled due to what she alleged were prejudices against her, and argued that she would have suffered loss of wages, endorsements and sponsorship opportunities—as well as eligibility to compete at certain track meets due to the stay.

Conte had no absolute constitutional right to a stay in the civil proceedings against him.

The court deemed that those harms against Marion Jones could be remedied by monetary damages and that Marion Jones could be adequately compensated—even if she obtained a judgment in her favour after the stay was lifted. The presiding judge, Honorary Susan Illston, United States District Judge, stayed the case, stating it made efficient use of judicial resources by “insuring that common issues of fact will be resolved and subsequent civil discovery will proceed unobstructed by concerns regarding self-incrimination.”

In layman’s terms, Conte received a stay due to having a coinciding criminal case in which testifying in a civil case would have revealed criminal activity and produced the real likelihood of his having to face certain risk of imprisonment resulting from that testimony. Due to adverse inferences having the opportunity to be drawn against Conte from his assertion of his Fifth Amendment rights (see Baxter v. Palmigiano, 425 U.S. 308 [1976]), Judge Illston stayed Marion Jones’s civil action until Conte’s criminal matter could be resolved.

Conte and Marion Jones settled the civil case outside of U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2006, after the criminal case against Conte concluded Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 with his sentencing.

The world at large was led to believe that both sides had been negotiating over a several month period leading up to the agreement to try to settle the case and avoid a trial. Conte was neither certified nor accounted for as being a court-proven liar, insofar as his case was settled out of court, with Marion Jones’s counsel never proving that Victor Conte lost the defamation case brought before the court.

No one outside of the involved parties at the time knew the true winner in the match, or how much money—if any—was collected by Marion Jones. The answer, in hindsight, is that Marion Jones did not recover any legal damage claims whatsoever insofar as Conte was ready to take the case through to fruition. Marion Jones’s alleged skid-row low cash flow had partly been due to pursuing the defamation case against Conte, and her attorneys already knew that Marion Jones had earlier lied to Federal investigators, against their will.

Marion Jones had an unquestionably large practical interest in settling this case before it went to trial, as she would have incurred fewer costs (though her attorneys may have deferred court costs pending the outcome of the settlement, those costs would have risen with each action taken and each day which came to pass) from her pocket book; Wagstaffe would have not have had cause to proceed with proposed depositions—a potential liability which would have put Marion Jones’s previous statements to the test against the documentation readily available from Conte—with Marion Jones obligated to disprove the veracity of those specifics; and Marion Jones, herself, would not have had her credibility towed to the line, though, less than two years later, she would foul her credibility out of life’s game.

Finally, and one of the most compelling reasons, Marion Jones would have avoided the stress of having to file suit, wait, litigate and be involved in a potentially drawn-out process considering it was stress that she stated was a 2006 season-ending de-motivator which effectively reduced her desires to fight to null, right?

On the other hand, litigation could have had the effect of creating potential liability and damage factors for Conte in this case and exposing him to a greater payout to Marion Jones than he may have been willing to make if, after all of the above reasons including evidences and depositions taken into account to expose her, a jury sided with her—even if she were deemed to be comparatively at fault.

Had that happened, would Conte have had filed his own lawsuit against Marion Jones to recover any monies won when she confessed to having been a cheat, nonetheless, despite her testimony to the contrary?

Sources:

[1] ESPN.com, “Jones facing ‘character assassination,’ says lawyer,” 2004-04-26
[2] The New York Times, “A Harvest of Trash and Turmoil for an Agent Fighting Steroids,” 2007-11-18
[3] San Francisco Chronicle, “BALCO defamation lawsuit settled,” 2006-02-07
[4] USA Today, “Jones sues BALCO founder, denies steroids use”, 2004-12-15
[5] San Francisco Chronicle, “Olympians got steroids, feds told”, 2004-04-25
[6] USA Today, “Jones sues BALCO founder, denies steroids use”, 2004-12-15
[7] CNN, “American Morning”, 2004-12-16
[8] USA Today, “Jones sues BALCO founder, denies steroids use”, 2004-12-15
[9] Marion Jones, Plaintiff vs. Victor Conte, Defendant, “Order Granting Defendant’s Motion For Stay And Vacating April 22, 2005 Hearing Date”, US District Court, ND, #C 04-5312 SI

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 37

Eric — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:27:00 -0500

This is the 37th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won honour and earned endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud. This series continues with the Victor Conte story, one which categorically ties Marion Jones to steroids.

Marion Jones is also tied in to documents located at the BALCO site—documents which as of yet, most of which have been sealed and not provided to the public. Those documents were collected legally while carrying out due process of the law—with those verifications of fact not being suppressed from evidence used in non-analytical convictions.

Conte apparently, according to a personal federal deposition taken in 2003, received his one—and only—supply of “the clear”—a substance of which he states he does not know the exact contents—through from a man named Patrick Arnold for $450. “The clear”, according to a federal document, was apparently purchased by Conte “a couple of years” prior to 2003.

Marion Jones confessed of having used “the clear”.

Arnold has, on his own, stated he provided banned substances—norbolethone and THG— to coaches as well.

However, as part of his plea agreement, Arnold was not forced to name athletes and coaches to whom he gave drugs.

“Track and field, especially the sprinters, they were more sophisticated in whom to seek out,” he offers as a hint.

The US Attorney’s office handed out an indictment to one of those athletes, cyclist Tammy Thomas, on Dec. 14th 2006, stating that Thomas had lied to the Federal Grand Jury during 2003 testimony and had obstructed justice. She faces a 20-year prison sentence and a $1.000.000 fine for having committed perjury and obstruction. She was banned for life after testing positive in 2002 for norbolethone.

Arnold’s relationship with Conte began in 2000, but Conte began over-saturating the market.

“It all started because Victor called me up and asked me if any of the prohormones I made could be used by athletes and not be detected. I told him, 'You shouldn't use them because I can't guarantee [that they won't be detected].'

But this was a friend, a guy whose knowledge I respected, and so I also told him, 'A better way would be to try [norbolethone, which Arnold had synthesized in 1998], because I don't think it will show up on any drug test.' And that sort of opened up Pandora's box.”

“Too many [athletes] were getting too much better than the rest. Even before the government got involved, I felt Victor was making a mess of sports.” [1]

Conte states that there is a misconception of his having preyed upon, misleading and lying to athletes, something which he took to heart after reading Arnold’s words in the above mentioned Sports Illustrated story.

“The misconception is that I was in some way preying upon these athletes,” Conte says, “or tricking them or misleading them in some way. If anything, I realized there was some responsibility and accountability involved in what I was doing.

The athletes that I worked with that were involved in the case were all at least 25 years of age or older. Many of them were over 30. They're adults. And they know that there is a benefit.

“Did I know that there were risks involved in what I was doing? Yes, I did. I just felt that somebody needed to look out for these athletes and help them, because one thing I do understand is too much is just as bad as not enough.” [2]

Conte stated in the deposition that he received the testosterone cream from a Dr. Renna of Texas, and ordered epitestosterone from a company named Sigma-Aldrich.

A quick Google search on epitestosterone sigma-aldrich netted a Sigma-Aldrich website which lead one directly into a page specifically for epitestosterone, its molecular formula, and a link for pricing and availability. The combination of testosterone and epitestosterone were then sent to a friend of Patrick Arnold’s, Miles Wierre, who mixed the substances together and sent them back to Conte.

Blood samples from various athletes, according to the deposition, were sent in Federal Express packages from doctors around the United States. Athletes who visited the BALCO site were sent to Peninsula Hospital (now known as Mills-Peninsula Hospital) in Burlingame for blood tests with a pre-authorised signature-stamped blood withdrawal sheet from a Dr. Goldman—a medical doctor with a psychiatry specialty who has of late specialised in childhood autism.

Dr. Brian Halevie-Goldman, who was the medical director for BALCO, was accused of— and suspended for—gross negligence for allegedly providing the drug modafinil to an unnamed athlete, identified as K.W. to protect the integrity of her privacy, at Conte’s request—a procedure taken without ever examining K.W.

The medical board reviewing this case asserted in their accusation that after the unnamed athlete, K.W., tested positive for modafinil in August 2003, Halevie-Goldman alerted the athlete’s agents that he had dispensed modafinil samples to treat her narcolepsy—having never met her as a patient. [3]

Halevie-Goldman was subsequently suspended April 16th 2007 for 90 days and was put on five-years’ probation by the state Medical Board, ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and had other restrictions imposed on his medical practice. The board stated he was guilty of “gross negligence” for misconduct in a high-profile sports doping case in 2003.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the board, in its decision, stated that Goldman “needs to gain insight into what caused him to participate in such unethical and dishonest conduct.” In addition to the psychiatric examination, the board ordered him to take a course in medical ethics. Goldman also must hire a physician to monitor his medical practice and make regular reports to the medical board. [4]

The American College of Sports Medicine, which has more than 20,000 members including doctors, physical therapists, certified personal trainers and nutritionists—but lacks an investigative division, pledged on July 16th 2007 to take a robust position against doping as part of a partnership with USADA.

“We believe that the sphere of responsibility for illegal doping needs to be expanded beyond the athlete to those who aid and abet them in the process of cheating via the use of banned doping techniques,” ACSM president Robert Sallis said.

“If we’re going to require ethical decision-making by athletes, we need to require it by their support personnel, especially the medical doctors,” USADA chief executive officer Terry Madden said. “Our work in the BALCO case over the past four years...has taught us the importance of going after the suppliers and providers of performance-enhancing drugs. We need to redirect the focus.”

“It’s extremely important that we get to the source. Athletes are not going to be able to have access to prohibited substances unless they have someone who’s helping them,” USADA’s board chairman Ralph Hale said. “And the biggest help right now tends to be people in the (medical) profession.” [5]

Arnold, a patriarch in drug masking, was sentenced on Aug. 4th 2006 to three months in Federal prison, followed by three months of house arrest.

The San Francisco Chronicle, citing Arnold’s sentencing memorandum, state the following:

“The defendant is a sophisticated person with a strong background in chemistry who applied his talents to the dangerous, untested and illegal manufacture and distribution of experimental 'designer' steroids to athletes,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

They added that Arnold “bears a heavy burden for his key role in effectively polluting professional sports with drugs which were designed to cheat the system and gain an unfair advantage.” [6]

Arnold was drawn to the BALCO scandal for much different reasons than was Conte. Arnold had a love and passion for science.

Conte suggests that the BALCO raid was done as a turf war between Trevor Graham and himself, and stated to ESPN The Magazine that he knew the BALCO raids were oncoming.

Conte states that he knew on Sept. 3rd 2003 the raid on his Burlingame laboratory was inevitable and was tipped by his post delivery person to the fact that Federal agents had been opening up Conte’s mail during the past year.

Conte states he had learned from a local business owner that someone was going through Conte’s trash, because the owner called the BALCO Laboratory facility to accuse them of dumping their trash in his bin.

Conte states that seven black cars rushed into the parking lot at the BALCO site, and 26 IRS and San Mateo Narcotics Task Force agents “in flak jackets [came] pouring out, screaming and waving guns. A helicopter hovering overhead. A half-dozen news trucks filming it all. They were using a tank to kill a mosquito.”

Why, Conte asks?

“For a turf war. The feds stumbled into a turf war.” [7]

Conte furthered those sentiments with the Times Online:

“It was a complete inside job. Believe me, the doping officials would never have figured that out themselves. This was like East-West Coast gang warfare where they did a drive-by shooting. They realised that they couldn’t compete on the track and the only way for them to win was to turn me in.” [8]

“They” in this case being Trevor Graham and John Smith, as supported in the previous chapter.

Conte and his counsel had issued statements distancing Conte from any connection to certain athletes when Conte was questioned during the BALCO hearings. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Robert Holley, Conte’s attorney, believed the government to have had misrepresented Conte’s statements.

“The government put their own spin on anything said by Victor Conte.”

“Victor Conte adamantly denies he ever told the government anything about any specific athletes receiving steroids.” [9]

Conte offers more background on the apparent spin he believes was placed on him by the agents, stating in one example that it had been widely publicized in the media that he had confessed. Conte refuted that, stating that the “confession” was a lie, insofar as he stated he did not name names, nor snitch on certain athletes.

“The lead IRS agent, Jeff Novitzky, divided a page into columns and wrote “Track,” “Baseball” and “Football” across the top of each. Then he mentioned some names. I said something like, “Yeah, I worked with that person.” I even mentioned a few he'd missed.

But what came out in the press?

“Victor Conte said he gave The Clear and The Cream to all 27 of these athletes.” An absolute lie. I've never met Jason Giambi or his brother, Jeremy. I've never shaken their hands. I've never talked to them on the phone. Why would I tell a police officer I gave drugs to somebody I've never met?” [10]

Agent Novitzky’s notations were part of a 93-page filing in U.S. District Court in the Northern District on Victor Conte’s behalf which sought to have all evidence in the case seized suppressed, with Conte’s attorneys stating that agent Novitzky failed to read Conte his Miranda rights.

The motion also charged that Novitzky, during the interview related to the case, illegally read some of Marion Jones’s Grand Jury testimony to Trevor Graham.

Novitzky's report on the interview, which is included with the suppression motion, stated that Graham read and commented on the part of Marion Jones’s testimony that related to him, stating that Graham had re-iterated that handwriting samples on the calendar attributed to him were indeed not his, nor had he ever ordered any tests for Marion Jones.

Sources:

[1] Sports Illustrated, “Is This Dr. Evil”, 2006-10-03 [2] ESPN.com, “Bodybuilders, Vegas and Victor Conte … oh my!”, 2006-10-04 [3]San Francisco Chronicle, “Doctor in BALCO steroids scandal could lose license”, 2006-09-08 [4] San Francisco Chronicle, “Doctor who provided stimulant is suspended”, 2006-04-25 [5] The Associated Press, “USADA takes doping fight to doctors”, 2007-07-16[6] San Fransico Chronicle, “BALCO steroid developer sentenced to prison term”, 2006-08-05 [7] ESPN The Magazine, “Last Laugh”, 2004-12-20 [8] The Times Online, “Up and running once more…the man who allowed…”, 2005-05-16 [9] San Francisco Chronicle, “Olympians got steroids. ..story 'character assassination'”, 2004-04-25 [10] ESPN The Magazine, ”Last Laugh”, 2003-12-20

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 36

Eric — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:10:00 -0500

This is the 36th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won honour and earned endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud. This series introduces Victor Conte into the picture.

Keane and Graham decided the best course of action was to argue points the prosecution made rather than call their own witnesses, and, on Tuesday, May 27, 2008—when court resumed, they allowed the prosecution to rest its case.

Keane stated during his closing argument that Graham could only be found guilty if his statements made to Novitzky were “material to an ongoing investigation,” or the BALCO investigation. Keane said that because Heredia was not charged in the case, Graham's statements about Heredia were of no consequential value to an investigation of him or BALCO.

The prosecution, in its closing arguments, stated that Graham had, in fact, lied to keep investigators away from both him and Heredia. Heredia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Finigan stated, had been pinned as a drug connection with certain athletes, and speaking with Graham about Heredia was germane to the investigation.

Presiding Judge handed down a decision on the case of The United States v. Trevor Graham on Oct. 21. After Graham having billed this one as a trial for the ages, with more revelations and skeletons to be revealed from behind closed doors, Graham received the lightest punishment of anyone yet involved in this case from within the athletics circle.

Trevor Graham, whose family has supported him throughout this trial and has been in his corner every step of the way, will have plenty of time to thank them as he spends the next 12 months in home confinement, and pay a $5,000 fine back to the government for his part played in the BALCO case. Graham, unlike Marion Jones and Victor Conte, will spend neither a minute nor a moment behind enemy lines—also known as prison.

Enter Victor Conte.

There are a lot of adjectives I’ve heard folks use to describe Victor Conte.

Words like “snake-oil salesman,” purported “liar” and “saviour of track and field” have all come back to recollection from the years since I’ve heard Conte’s name mentioned with nutrition products. I tend to describe Conte with the following Italian proverb: “He is not an honest man who has burned his tongue and doesn't tell the company the soup is hot.”

Conte may be a lot of things to a lot of people, however, truth be told, he is also a criminal—a man who was charged with 42 counts of steroid distribution and money laundering in connection with BALCO investigations, and convicted on two of those allegations, thanks in large part to Trevor Graham.

Conte’s historical athletics persuasion has been beset with corruption and controversy, and he has left an indelible stain on the fabric upon which this sport has been carefully knit together despite his attempts to turn over a new leaf and help stop what he allowed to continue in motion when he joined in the spreading of performance-enhancing drugs to athletes.

Conte's back in business with a connection of “people who have won medals at World Championships and other elite people who have won at the same level in other sports—it’s best for them and me to keep their names out of it.”[1]

Calling Victor Conte the “mastermind” behind the deception created by the undetectable drugs known as THG and “the clear”—two drugs which were discovered after Trevor Graham provided a syringe to the UCLA laboratory Dr. Don Catlin previously managed—would feed an ego so consumed with self-admiration, that the heavens above would not be wide, nor deep, nor vast enough to contain this man’s sense of accomplishment in trifling those attempting to stay at a pace consistent—or better—than the drug cheats, and those who help them get away with it.

Graham, as you well know, turned in the drug for reasons understood to be anything but “doing the right thing.”

Conte says he was driven to create these drug regimes for athletes not by money but because of “the challenge,”[2] and further stated to the world:

Running a successful doping operation “was about much more than developing drugs and methods. It was a network of people; to win any war, you need intelligence. I had access to information from people that were inside the labs. I would find out what they were doing in terms of testing designer steroids.

“I know of an accredited lab in Europe that had an employee who was coming in at night and doing prescreening of urine samples for athletes – to help these athletes beat tests and monitor clearing times. What I’m saying is, it’s not about the drugs, it’s about knowing who’s doing what, when and where.”[3]

Conte made millions off of his legal nutritional products before turning over to the lure of developing performance-enhancing drugs, and following his bust and resurrection, Conte is back at it again.

Conte’s tongue could appear parched from inconsistencies and deception surrounding the BALCO testimony, but one component of truth remains through it all: The reality about Marion Jones’s steroids regime—a fact which took four years to prove—as verified as being authentic.

One consistent factor with Victor Conte’s testimony prior to—and after—Marion Jones’s self-confession was that Conte had asserted her guilt ever since the BALCO testimony began in 2003.

Marion Jones’s attorneys had categorically denied those accusations, but were not able to discredit Conte to the desired extent to which they had planned.

An excerpt of their attempts to paint Conte into a liar and as an un-trustworthy person unable to deliver the truth is found below.

“Victor Conte is someone who is under federal indictment, facing serious prison time and has a record of issuing a host of contradictory, inconsistent statements,” Nichols said in a statement.

“Victor Conte's allegations are not true and the truth will be revealed for the world to see as the legal process moves forward.”[4]

Conte was a suspect under federal indictment, however he was not facing serious prison time as Nichols suggested.

Legal experts—peers in the field to Nichols—anticipated Conte not receiving more than two years in prison if he were to be convicted of all charges in a trial.

Concerning Conte’s evidences of contradictions he is stated to have made, could not Nichols have provided common people following the events an idea of how far, how wide and how deeply wild and contradictory Conte was alleged to have been in his statements of athletes and their drugs-usage—particularly Marion Jones, and his subsequent denials of guilt.

Furthermore, with respect to revelations of the truth, was any unfavourable evidence ever uncovered to discredit the claims Conte was making, namely that Marion Jones was taking performance-enhancing drugs which Conte, himself, provided to her and witnessed her use?

Conte would not have been impeached as a witness based on what Nichols deemed to have been inconsistent testimony, because Conte did not make any variable statements under oath. Had Conte been forced to make statements under oath, he would have stated the same ones to which he made outside of the courtroom, namely that Marion Jones was, indeed, a doped athlete during her career—a fact to which she finally admitted and had been charged and found guilty to a certain degree.

Conte, when one listens to his voice, sounds sincere, seasoned, and a man with a story he’d like to tell calmly and collectively. A challenge facing the jury of public opinion is determining if Conte, despite his disfigured tongue, was at any point ever telling the truth—this despite the Marion Jones’s “confession.”

Later in the course of this series, you’ll read of past stars like Edwin Moses, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram wishing upon a star that Conte would simply go away and stop convoluting the vision folks have of athletics.

Their attempts will be in vain, however.

Conte was cooperative and more than willing to talk when presented search warrant in 2003 by the IRS investigating money laundering suspicions conducted by BALCO. He provided information and access to files and records, as well as performance-enhancing drugs to two special agents in the absence of a formal search warrant—providing consent when the discovery find would be adverse to him.

Conte comes across as a person who is on the top of a hill enjoying a view over two sides of the mountain—one downhill side which has been traversed by athletes ahead of the game, and the uphill side being painfully climbed by those in pursuit of those individuals.

Conte has stated—in personal depositions and in writing—he has provided performance-enhancing drugs to certain athletes, Marion Jones and Gatlin included. Both Marion Jones and Gatlin had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, with Marion Jones’s “B”-sample test rendering inaccurate the “positive” A-test, and with her own confession thwarting her attempts to stave off Conte’s consistent allegations.

A deposition is generally a pre-trial discovery tool used by both prosecutors and defence teams to ascertain truth and the opposing party’s strategy.

Typically, District Attorney Ryan’s office would have disclosed to Conte’s legal team materials and information they as prosecutors of the case possessed or that investigative agencies (the I.R.S. in this case) would have been in possession of—materials such as names and addresses of persons they had intended to call to trial; statements of all the defendants in Conte’s case; germane evidence which had been seized or obtained as part of the investigation of the subsequent 42 charges brought up against Conte; and any other permissible evidences.

Marion Jones’s homes were searched two days following Conte’s BALCO premises served search warrant, though it is not known if any evidence was seized in her homes.[5]

Marion Jones—as are other US citizens—was protected under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbade the authorities from an unreasonable invasion of her privacy. What the law did grant the authorities, however, was a warrant which was issued due to the belief established by factual information provided to them by Conte and the information they collected by means of evidences at the storage locker that there was probable cause to search her premises.

It is believed and understood that the reviewing magistrate used practical common sense given the totality of circumstances set forth in the affidavit and decided to issue a non-exploratory warrant for that search. The search warrant served also subjected certain items named in the affidavit to search and seizure as they were stated under oath before the magistrate to constitute evidence or the identity of a person who was participating in an offence—which could have been Conte.

Marion Jones had no charges raised against her at that point.

Conte is also attributed as stating he provided performance-enhancing drugs, specifically “the clear”, to other athletes apart from Marion Jones including baseball players Barry Bonds, Garry Sheffield and Jason Giambi—a claim which Conte rebuffed, stating his “confession” regarding those specific non-track athletes was fabricated.

What Conte has made known was that he provided both “the clear” and “the cream” to athletes to build athletic performance, and avoid test detection.

Conte maintains that he devised a plan for—and provided specific drugs to—Marion Jones and Kelli White, with White affirming those allegations publicly in Senate hearings and in her Grand Jury testimony, and also to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Conte has, in addition to specifically naming White and Marion Jones, stated that he gradually started to incorporate “the clear” into the programs of Chryste Gaines and also Alvin and Calvin Harrison, who began the program the summer before the 2000 Olympics. Alvin Harrison confirmed steroids use and a direct relationship with Conte in an ESPN interview Aug. 9, 2006.

Moreover, Conte stated he provided Tim Montgomery, who was Marion Jones training partner, “the clear” to begin his drugs schedule when they met in Sydney during the Olympics.

Montgomery confirmed that claim—under oath, within his rights and unforced—during Grand Jury testimony.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Montgomery told the Grand Jury that “the clear” caused him tightness, and had a negative side effect of retaining unneeded water.

“My results (in races) was horrible, a lot of people's was. A lot of people ran terrible on it.

“Kelli White cramped up and do awful on it,” he continued. “She was feeling the same side effects (and) Charlie Francis felt the same thing. He was like, they had another kid up there that was taking 'the clear' and he ran terrible.”[6]

An important implication to immediately recognise, which will be discussed later, is that Tim Montgomery had knowledge of who Charlie Francis was, and understood to the best of his knowledge what Francis was involved with, namely a littered past as a drugs proponent.

One other important fact here is that Montgomery, testifying before a group of 16-23 people meeting in secret outside of the defence—a group which could consider hearsay evidence and offer immunity[7], implicates White. The White-Montgomery connection, also to be further discussed in more detail, is a key ingredient to understanding Montgomery’s inability to conceal information from non-essential people outside his circle of influence.

Among other condemning statements Conte has made, on record, is that he has reprimanded Marion Jones for being careless, after she—according to Conte—once left a cartridge injector in a hotel room in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Conte states to ESPN The Magazine—the source of this information—that Marion Jones had again forgotten the cartridge injector a few days later in Eugene, OR.

“After the first time she forgot it, she said she would put it in a sneaker and lean the sneaker against the refrigerator so she wouldn't forget it. Then she forgot the shoe. That injector had a thousand dollars' worth of growth hormone in it!”

“I couldn't afford to have Marion leave a growth-hormone injector in a room registered in her name.”[8]

Has Marion Jones ever provided a detailed rebuttal to this information stated by Conte? No, she has never done so, and following her confession, she still has not made such a claim to rebut his statement. And, having provided recognition to the world that she was a cheater during her career during this time, she would have had one more lie from which to unsuccessfully separate herself.

Has she ever provided a documented piece of evidence which would suggest that she was not in the same location as Conte on either occasion?

No. Again, it would have buried her further into the deception.

Has it been established on either side which dates these alleged instances were to have occurred?

Would Marion Jones have produced factual verification that she did not have a room registered to her in the time-frame had Conte provided the date for the said occurrence? Had either Marion Jones or her counsel hired a licensed private investigator to review the factual data provided in statements made by Conte, or did they rely on the results of Marion Jones’s polygraph test—which she has proven can be beat—to prove her innocence in part and in whole?

Sources:

[1] The Times Online, “Up and running once more… the man who allowed cheats…” 2007-05-16 [2] ABC News, “BALCO Chief on Sports Doping Scandal”, 2004-12-03 [3] The Times Online, “Up and running once more… the man who allowed cheats…” 2007-05-16 [4] Associated Press, reprinted in ESPN.com “Statute of limitations may not apply”, 2004-12-08 [5] The Guardian, “Get Set for Biggest Dope Scandal Ever,” 2003-10-17 [6] The San Francisco Chronicle, “‘The clear’ reportedly sickened some athletes”, 2004-06-28 [7] Faculty.ncwc.edu, “Jury Duties and Instructions” [8] ESPN The Magazine, “Last Laugh”, 2004-12-20

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. 16

Eric — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:27:00 -0500

Story by Eric:

(This is the 16th part of a long series titled, "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones". This series depicts the life and times of a (former) woman sprinter whose lies and cover-ups about doping in sport continue even through this day.)

Marion Jones, the perceived loud-mouthed nitpicker who criticised athletes for not being better role models[1], who, herself, was the biggest farce of one to exist in her sport for young people, and who had used television spots to ask Americans to actually pay attention to – and not just watch – women athletes, has had her career rendered to ashes – with no legal reprieve to continue onward as an Olympian.

You’re reading about a woman here, ladies and gentlemen, who, not only accused her peers of not walking along a path as role models, but she also had the nerve to cast the first stone at them as well. Marion Jones had a desire for women to be respected, yet she was oblivious to the perception women had of her following her long string of very poor choices in men, managers and trainers.

What she was also unmindful of was how deeply her strides of lawlessness could discourage black children – and white ones, too – who’d pinned up her photos from magazine articles and dreamed of being Olympians just like Marion Jones, their role model.

One such person was Allyson Felix, the 200m world junior record-holder and three-time gold medallist from the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Osaka.

“It was around the year 2000 when Marion was everywhere; she was definitely someone I looked up too. It was personally devastating for me see that it was true and see her go through that. I guess I felt even more responsible to be a role model to younger kids because that was important to me. It would be great if my role model could have been clean and still been my role model.”[2]

Judge Karas agreed with the role model status, stating in Marion Jones’s sentencing address: “Athletes in society have an elevated status. When there is this widespread level of cheating...it sends all the wrong messages to those who follow their every move.”

The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday, 2007-June-23, that Marion Jones at that time was suffering astonishing financial problems associated with her continuous legal battles to clear her from doping allegations in the form of both controversy (Victor Conte) and collection (“A”-sample), and also considerable legal costs from losing a countersuit in a coaching dispute.

And Marion Jones appeared at that time to be leaning toward packing her spikes down in her travel bag for the final time according to The New York Times, though for reasons inconsistent with what you are now reading in this book, insofar as you are aware that she was simply on her last step ahead of disaster in 2006.

Many of her athletics peers, starting with a multiple world record-holder, Olympian and World Champion, wanted her to force open the door to retirement, run on through, and call it a day...a week...a year. However it’s sugar-coated, they simply and effortlessly wanted her out in the then-and-now. Marion Jones conceded that retirement was an option, one which she says snuck right up on her, but one which must be viewed as another lie.

Retirement had been sneaking up on her for quite a while, but she didn’t make claims of concession two months prior to the “A”-sample leak date, stating the following to The New York Times whilst preparing to compete in the 100m at the 2006 Reebok Grand Prix Track Meet:

“I feel like I still have more to achieve in the sport,” Jones said. “I really don't think I'd be able to sleep at night if I left it all behind, that I ran away from a situation that, yeah, has been extremely difficult and perhaps a lot of people wouldn't have endured. But I wasn't going to allow that to happen.”[3]

Marion Jones did “allow that to happen”, however, having now reluctantly discovered that, despite all of her night watches and guarded entrances, life on the run (no pun intended), has caught up with her and will make it extremely difficult to sleep at night for reasons un-associated with those she mentioned above. Turning the other direction and ignoring the warning signs have permitted a very real presence of shock to riddle holes in her once bulletproof psyche – one which she claims took an inordinate amount of effort to maintain.

She queued up and let the tears stream down her chin whilst making a statement of contrition to reporters outside the Federal courthouse in White Plains, New York following her guilty plea on 2007-October-05, and turned 180-degrees from being the assured, confident – even boastful – defender of her athletics life she’d been on so many numerous occasion.

Her slide down the confidence scale was first noticed at this time when she nearly fouled herself out of the sport for two years with the positive EPO test which she managed to scoot around by delaying the analysis of the “B”-sample test; it wasn’t the first time she’d taken the drug.

As a by-product of Marion Jones’s leapfrog across continents on a red-eye in August 2006, those keeping score on the Iniquity Jones checklist ticked off the final box prior to the “B”-test exoneration, and the party had already begun. In some circles the revelation of elevated levels of EPO in Marion Jones’s system – even if lawyer-talked as having been borderline – was enough to finally have used justice to prove that Marion Jones the eluder finally had left a trace, albeit what seemed to be a questionable one.

As Jean de la Fontaine once stated:

“Car c'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur” – “It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”[4]

Many people felt vindicated that a cheat of her magnitude had finally been snared in her own trap. It appeared high time for what many believed to be an informant who was “in the know” to take his or her long-awaited trip to an exotic island, for scribes to plan on front-row, all-expenses-paid trips to the Pulitzer Prize Award dinner for two, and for Victor Conte to put his dirty feet up on his desk as last man standing in a very bitter and turbulent civil discord with Marion Jones.

The endurance test for those pursuing Marion Jones seemed finished with the revelation she had failed the initial screening for performance-enhancing drugs. Many athletes, coaches, journalists and fans believed the shocked, big, bad wolf had howled in place of speaking like a sheep, and the shepherd, hearing her voice, exposed her for who she was, namely an impostor.

Suntan lotions and shoe polish were to be shelved an additional 13 months following that “B”-sample test – even though Dick Pound stated he’d challenge the Marion Jones “B”-sample results if WADA technicians were dissatisfied with the lab analysis. We never learn if and what Pound’s next-step actions would have been, as the review analysis results reviewing the process steps and readings are never revealed to the public.

There were several explanations provided as to why “B”-sample analysis did not support the “A”-sample findings, though those had been known and stated by WADA as being extremely rare instances.

Although at this point in time the sample test procedures may matter little to the public, discussion of those tests one year prior to Marion Jones’s admission of having cheated over a given period of time is very relevant to her statement of only using drugs up until 2002. Some here won’t concern themselves with whether she was ever foiled by a test result; they’ve rather simply wanted to know if she ever took drugs, and have gotten the short answer.

If you’ve been listening, and have allowed yourself to slowly become accustomed to the determinant as to why, by default, Marion Jones should, if anything in this entire drugs scandal, at least have appeared guilty, you’ve begun to accept that the “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is really not a fictional story about a drunk’s revelations uncovered, rather a very real, chilling, haunting story of a misguided and elusive woman unable to land back on her feet, and who carried a less-than-inferior place on the public-opinion totem poll. Her anticipated “B”-sample was to be treated as absolutely nothing more than icing on a cake.

“We've said all along that transparency is our best friend.”[5]

Perhaps Mr. Nichols didn’t realise that folks had seen right through his client – so much that when she responded in the affirmative to having taken drugs, and cried a stream of tears for the special effects, few if any were left listening, because they knew that the “A”-sample test was enough of a demonstration of that lucidity.

With respect to transparency, it also appears as though his client didn’t heed the advice provided to her to be as translucent as possible when questioned by Federal investigators, either, having been ensnared by her own lies.

If bad discords, failed marriages, fraudulent boyfriends, IRS inquisitions, drugs processing calendars, refutable – but, plausibly believable – words from suspect people, and shifts from Marion Jones on her own stances toward all of the above, was not enough to raise one’s eyebrow or their blood pressure, they’d not know a dingo in a sheep parade if their life depended on it.

Athletes and agents had noticed the extra-large footprints in the stable, with one, below, sounding his personal alarm to the masses:

“Marion is a thief. She basically steals money on the circuit when she is a cheat. It’s about time she got caught. For somebody like Lauryn it’s very difficult. She is doing it the right way. She is a young, hard-working, clean athlete, a little inconsistent, but that is the way she is. She raises her level at championships but it’s disillusioning for her to run against people like Marion.”[6]

(Lauryn Williams touched on the subject of Marion Jones’s absence from the 2007 USATF Championships, stating: “To me, out of sight, out of mind. Hopefully people aren’t wasting time thinking about the negativity of the past”).[7]

These had already been hard times for those who, through no fault of their own, demonstrated a faith in what appeared to be a good-natured, single-mother athlete fallen on some misfortune, bad timing and piss-poor luck with men of influence in her life. With the fine hair sheered, however, what remained was a sneaky cat with nine very calculated, purposeful lives – each one with its own genesis, the final one ending with a revelation – now nearing extinction.

It seemed high time following her test failure to answer the question posed by one of the world’s largest athletics-based magazines:

America's greatest athlete...There has rarely been a sprinter with greater physical gifts, yet adaptability and tough-mindedness key her triumphs. At the height of rending speed, she attains a Zen-like calm...After all she's done already, what's left to say about young Marion Jones? Just this: The best is yet to come.[8]

The best of the worst had seemingly come for Marion Jones in that failed EPO test, but it was a trial date for obstructing justice and lying which were to set her back...permanently and without prejudice.

Insofar as this series is not based upon one specific event, but a multitude of actions and dealings with regard to Marion Jones’s lies and cover-ups, what could have appeared at the time to have been a step back in the pursuit of distinguishing, connecting and revealing the falsehoods in Marion Jones’s career was not a particularly big bump in the road – especially in the case of the mystery “B”-sample turning the tide on a failed drugs test angle.

The test, itself, would provide an even greater basis of distinguishing whether or not Marion Lois Jones, an athlete, demonstrated character and could be trusted.

One year later, she “proved” that she couldn’t – in more ways than she led on, and it proved that she had known more about EPO than she had led on: she had previously taken the drug over a two-year period under BALCO’s supervision.

[1] The Sporting News, 2000-09-25

[2] USOC Team Media Summit, 2008-April

[3] The New York Times, “Marion Jones Adds New York Event to Comeback Trail”, 2006-06-03

[4] Fables (II, 15)

[5] San Francisco Chronicle, “Jones must have her case on the air”, 2004-06-02

[6] Sunday Herald, “Drug Running”, 2006-09-03

[7] Chicago Tribune, “100 favorite wants to clean up at finish”, 2007-06-20

Why You Shouldn't Believe Jones: Vol. 11

Eric — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:17:00 -0500

Story by Eric.

This is the 11th in a long series about Marion Jones and her lack of truthfulness titled, "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones."

There is one prevailing, unequivocal truth concerning Marion Jones, and that is that she has a flare for the dramatic and has preferred living on the edge – in the numerous competitions in which she participated, in the company she kept, in the finances she apparently maintained, and, ultimately, between time spent on the outside and the inside of prison doors as a result of walking along that tightrope spanning between either side of excellence and disaster.

Metaphorically speaking, Marion Jones has lived in a personal world where the sky hasn’t appeared to be dark, rather it has come into sight as being blinding to onlookers attempting to walk in her shoes; light has had no semblance of being bright, rather it has been torching. Marion Jones has appeared to live in extremes between two ends, with an all-or-nothing approach to much of what she has said and done, and what she saved and what she allowed to slip on through her fingers as though a faucet of opportunity would be turned on with an abundance of more time, more opportunity and more money.

Fitting examples of this materialized when Marion Jones’s “A”-sample EPO test was mysteriously leaked to the media (The Washington Post’s Amy Shipley, seemed first to reveal the news to be precise), followed by news of her “B”-sample counter result, and her liquid assets around the world were discovered to be $2.000 following years of fighting drugs-speculation – including defence of that “A”-sample test. Marion Jones turned from a fortress defender to a basement dweller in a moment’s notice, and all on the turn of a dime.

Marion Jones, within a two-and-a-half week period of time stretching six time zones around the world, stated she had a kaleidoscope of emotions swerve about, having been both shocked and horrified, and ecstatic and happy surrounding one of the latest chapters in her athletic life – one she stated was invariably spoiled by bad company and drugs accusations.

Having the theatre of her life opened for everyone looking in to see, Marion Jones sold the public a forged ticket at base rate and wanted people like you – and I – to ride on away with our most basic of human possessions, insight, with no intention on questioning its authenticity or pondering its significance – or to consider if the ticket she sold was the counterfeit of a true one.

That is a ploy and tactic which worked well for her on numerous previous occasion, and one which she used again to ease out of the sport into “retirement” – though “ban” is the official word which will be used to describe her quick exit from athletics.

Truth was meant to be revealed, ladies and gentlemen, during Marion Jones’s closest physical contact to any substantial “evidence” which could have implicated drugs usage in the living form of an “A”-positive EPO test. That “truth” was to wait an additional 14 months before being strewn across a walk of lies meant to have a semblance of authenticity.

Non-analytical positive “evidence” would circulate the following year when she spoke of having had taken performance-enhancing drugs – though she spoke not of the EPO test, itself, nor diverted any attention away from it, either. Journalists around the world were quick to respond to the EPO test, itself, and just as quick to forget it ever occurred – opting for the sure bet in using Marion Jones’s own words against her through her confession.

The scientific process of testing that evidence in the follow-up “B”-sample results exonerated Marion Jones at that time from any doping condemnation, save IAAF or WADA resurrections or reversals of fortune in the findings procedures – a legal process they had at their disposal. Her acquittal also put to death – by her own means – any redemptive grace she had available when she stated that one, single, solitary re-test of stored urine performed 75 days after her initial test – which revealed substances considered to the trained eye to be truthful, reliable and accurate depictions of drugs usage in the form of EPO – clearly, accurately and completely covered all of her previous drugs screenings.

Robin Roberts missed a cue step there. Many others didn’t, however.

Marion Jones’s credibility was red-lined with extreme prejudice (scientific processes, bearing no guilt or conscious regarding the subjects for which they are in place to query, are aimed to do if one is to believe the reliability and accuracy of the outcome) during that chapter in her career – a wait-and-see period, resulting in what she stated made her happy she had been proven to never have taken drugs...ever...at any time then or before. This period also revealed a quality flaw in her character which has become more pronounced with every application, namely cover-up and re-invention of facts and stories as Marion Lois Jones saw fit.

This is one reason why it is imperative that Marion Jones’s words not be taken to heart, rather simply as cues to lead to other, more involved secrets stored in her well of misrepresentation – and one more reason to not believe Marion Jones only began taking drugs in September 2000 and concluded her usage two years later.

The entire ordeal – from her stating she had her initial test released unjustly, to having been accused of taking a drug which she stated she had never heard of – caused her to become shocked, she stated. Marion Jones, the devoted internet user who apparently had never much been involved in discussions surrounding EPO, stated that she was deeply perplexed and disheartened to learn that she could have yet again been entangled in a drugs mess associated with her name. In an instant, without forewarning, the woman who had taken a persevering, unwavering, strong-armed approach to proclaiming her innocence with a peculiar bravery and confidence – surrounded by legal counsel and a public relations firm – had become a daunted and staggering recluse who, upon hearing this news, took time to immediately go online after finding out she had tested positive to see what it was that she had supposedly ingested.

The results spelled out a short three-letter acronym: EPO – a drug she’d later be connected to by ledgers and calendars released as evidence against her as well as testimony Angel Heredia would provide in Trevor Graham’s trial, namely that Heredia mailed Marion Jones EPO at Graham’s request, and that counselled Graham on how to have Marion Jones administer it.

Marion Jones stated that she had heard mention of the drug (“erythropoietin” is a hormone that boosts oxygen levels in the blood by prompting the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells), but said that she never really knew much about it. That would later prove to have been a lie – one of many she’d tell you and me.

Some of you believed that was fair, as its name in the long form is not topic of every day dinner-table discussion. EPO, however, has likely been mentioned out and about – here and there, but Marion Jones likely had neither a reason – nor the occasion – to discuss it, and never really thought twice about it, she said.

Four calendar months and two ledger entries bearing her name – verified by the creator of both documents – would prove the case to be otherwise, however.

With the absence of her 2007 guilty plea to lying to investigators, let’s grant her the benefit of the doubt here for a moment – despite the on-record testimony provided by Graham associates who stated during his trial that he had a stash of EPO at home.

Then, instantaneously Marion Jones was immediately cast into an unknown pit, ladies and gentlemen – a place where accusations were made of her having taken an oxygen-enhancing drug typically used by athletes training for distance-running events.

Her coach, a known cheat caught up in a money laundering scheme for which Marion Jones had participated insofar as having lied to Federal investigators about a check deposited into her account, said he believed it didn’t make any sense that she would take such a drug, and neither did many of you. Riddick even said that he would bet his life on the fact that she hadn’t taken the drug.

His life must have been worth little, as the words of a cheat find no resting place when truth chases falsity with extreme prejudice, power and might.

EPO discussion – whether fairly or unjustly – had in recent times generally centred around athletes like former Kenyan Bernard Lagat, a 1.500m runner, and Olga Yegorova, a Russian 5.000m runner – two athletes who had been mixed up in this stuff – one of them wrongly accused and later vindicated, the other exonerated by having had no blood test taken as a back-up. It did not involve sprinters until American Kelli White, a California native, mentioned a thing or two about taking the drug in another major scandal involving Marion Jones’s own name and reputation.

Memory – especially selective as it may be – sometimes is fleeting at the most inopportune times, so let’s again provide Marion Jones the complete and sole benefit of our doubt that she had not been exposed to knowledge of what EPO was as a drug – this, again, in the absence of her confession of drugs use under Trevor Graham during a period which began four years earlier. One is not suggesting that Marion Jones, who has once graced the inside of Vogue magazine, had spent her leisure time reading medical journals on the internet. Do you? I certainly don’t.

Let’s leave it at this: Marion Jones said she’d never heard of EPO. And she was shocked!

Before she said she learned of EPO by going on to the internet and doing some research as she stated, she’s said to have received an early morning trans-Atlantic call in Zürich, Switzerland telling her that she had failed an “A”-sample drug test taken at the United States outdoor track and field championships, and then is stated to have immediately phoned her attorney. She was to have cried. She was thought to have been speechless…disturbed. She was shocked. Her attorney said that he told her to return home immediately. One can imagine he cared for his client and her best interests.

Marion Jones did return home immediately, and everyone lost track of her – including her coach, who, upon betting his life on his athlete’s innocence, remarked that he believed Marion Jones was the victim of sabotage, and the USADA was out to “get” her.

The world was thereby again thrown into a “has she always done it, but has only now been busted?” debate, where friendships were greatly tested due to the deep-rooted level to which one side had so vigorously defended her, the other, so daringly accused her with the absence of fool-proof adverse confirmation.

Fortunately, that step can now be avoided to a certain extent. The only agenda item which remains to be discussed is how long Marion Jones took drugs, and debate will continue for those who have been slow to convict and condemn Marion Jones based on their inability to have separated the gifted teenager from the actions which made her a convicted felon.

However shocked Marion Jones may have described her emotional state as having been, there was nothing more shocking than what lay festering underneath the surface which not one single, solitary fan was aware of: an in-depth web of monetary problems Marion Jones was facing which had spun the truth of the matter of Marion Jones and the Great European Adventure completely off into right field – for those who appreciate the baseball metaphor.

This story unfolded in its next stage with the world waiting two weeks to learn through a statement provided through the media that Marion Jones was shocked to have been connected to drugs taking, which was immediately followed by a rehash of the same generic lines she had provided on every debate concerning her innocence and drugs issues, namely of never having tested positive, having had taken a lie-detector test, and a short statement about wanting to get down to the bottom of things.

One will never get to the bottom of things with Marion Jones, but it takes only a superficial look to comprehend that having never tested positive and having passed polygraph tests were meaningless and useless in the grand scheme of things, because those tests were meant to reveal the presence of drugs in her system and provide evidence in support of strong moral character in her. She demonstrated to the world that she was both a cheat and a liar.

The athletics world and the sports world at large – this was an international story – would wait nine more months following the leaked EPO test to learn that there was a deeper secret brewing behind Marion Jones’s doors which suspiciously fell into place at precisely the same time as her diversion from Weltklasse.

Then Marion Jones would drop a bomb on world news in October 2007.

Let’s take a closer look at shock value, and certain items over which I believe you may consider it worth being shocked.

Few events in life have been truly shocking, but, at 31-years-old, perhaps Marion Jones was too young to know that the German warfare known as Blitzkrieg came as a shock. She is certainly of age to know that the Japanese kamikaze offensive on Pearl Harbor came as a shock. Certain films, theatrical plays and recorded songs have been shockingly awful. Other pieces of work never pass the critique sniff test. Folks who pay hard-earned money to watch these, despite warnings, do so at their own peril.

Nevertheless, Marion Jones demonstrated a flare for theatrics, because she, being a creature of habit, simply had no choice: she couldn’t run, she couldn’t hide, and she couldn’t make the imminent legal actions stop – on either end, personal and financial, because she had taken one step over the foul line – this, despite having been given legal reprieve from having done so, but opting not to take it.

The only imaginable free word association I could conceivably connect between Marion Jones and the word shock, is that I was shocked, personally, that so many fans had slaved at 40-hour/week jobs, had seen the heavy rain of toxic smoke surrounding Marion Jones, and continued supporting her in their free time, nevertheless. I was tempted to not describe those fans actions with the adverb shocking, but get down to the bare bones of this meaning, and call the actions what they really are: dumb. However, insofar as I don’t know that potential audience – with any number of them having the potential to make up part of this jury, I decided, therefore, to refrain from such comments, and keep such things to myself.

Would it be prudent to describe for Marion Jones the word shocked as being as such: a parent who takes a quick look through their rear-view mirror, observes their baby’s car seat fly off the roof of the car, scrape along the freeway at high speed, and, by some supernatural intervention – a stroke of luck, if you are inclined to believe it as being such – just miss being smashed and run over by a heavy, unmovable object? Would shocked be the correct word to describe the state of the driver who believed the baby to be a doll, only to see it move once the commotion had concluded?

One point of notation to make of Marion Jones – a sense which you’ll notice you will come to understand and not consider “shocking” as you keep your head above the sand level – is that Marion Jones’s athletics life had been consumed with having the right bodyguards and the right technology in place at the right times, and holding a steadfast watch and guard over her apparently impenetrable personal fortress, including that containing her deepest secrets.

Marion Jones should have been neither shocked nor surprised by an intruder hiding itself as a failed drugs test, as one finally tires after spending time on the observation deck with spy glasses looking out for unannounced, unwanted visitors for the past several years. One slip-up in the blocks left her too far behind to finish ahead, and opened the door for more than she had ever bargained for when she stepped to the line one final time as a cheater in June 2006. She put both hands up and raised the red flag in October 2007.

The definitive shock Marion Jones had apparently undergone was not so much the result of the news of her failure of that initial test screening for performance-enhancing drugs usage being leaked to millions of people around the world – that was the downward result of a calculated risk. Nor was it her discovery that fewer were shocked the event unfolded.

Marion Jones’s shock would unfold and be delivered in the form of having to provide a deposition to authorities less than a year later which would riddle holes in her leaky story – pun intended. That finding process would force an acknowledgment of truth which tied an entirely different story to events which occurred in August 2006.

Some people who were shocked by the original slate of events had been involuntarily coerced into believing Marion Jones had always been clean and pure with the burden of proof – or lack of it – having convinced them to continue having faith in that thought process.

Other folks who were oriented to the result, itself, looked straight through the event due to the provisional evidence pointing to the guilt they’d associated with Marion Jones, believing she was a person in a situation where she had likely not been honest; they’d come to a place where they’d believed she had finally been caught with her fist figuratively clamped around a piece of gold, unable to let go – not because she was incapable of doing so, but because she was greedy.

Marion Jones’s confession helps lean the evidence more that direction than the former.

Folks, as you’ve read through newspapers or perused through your favourite sports magazines, you may have observed one shockingly interesting fact about how many athletes were shocked when they were told of either the Marion Jones or Justin Gatlin initial positive test results, including 100m world record-holder Asafa Powell, who said of Gatlin’s positive test: “I was shocked, very shocked”; American 400m record-holder Sanya Richards, who also said of Gatlin: “So it was really a shock for me and I really hate that it has happened to him”; American sprinter Moushami Robinson, who said of Marion Jones’s positive test: “I’m shocked”; and European sprint sensation, Belgian Kim Gavaert, who stated, “I am a bit shocked and very disappointed”, about Marion Jones. There were a host of other athletes who expressed surprise at the revelations as well.

Richards, consequently, believes that drugs-takers should be banned for life.

This Swiss desertion provided one shocking fact that Marion Jones’s trainer, Steve Riddick – upon revelation and disclosure that his star pupil, Marion Jones, had made an immediate departure from Zürich – had no apparent idea of why Marion Jones had flown home at less than a moment’s notice. Or so we were led to believe.

“From what I gather it is some personal family matters. I'm not sure if her mother is ill. I know her son is OK. Charlie [Wells, Jones' manager] says it is a personal family matter," Riddick said. “Me, I'm a two-year-old coach with her so I don't go too far into detail.”[1]

This series of events was led some to presume that Riddick, sitting on the other side of the watch tower, had fallen asleep at his post. Marion Jones later submitted a brief statement through her attorneys which stated that they were the only authorised persons to speak on her behalf.

It was later revealed through a newspaper source – as everything, figuratively speaking, is with the Marion Jones camp – that her attorney, Rich Nichols, had received an international call from Zürich – Marion Jones was on the other side of the line – and he, himself told her to return home at the first instance. You’re led to believe that there were supposedly no calls between Marion Jones and her coach, there wasn’t a note left for him at the reception desk, and there were no details of any kind left for him to provide an entire world waiting for news of her abrupt departure, hence his statement as printed above, and her response.

Marion Jones would have the world believe that she supposedly waited in silence, disturbed and spooked that she, of all people, could have been wrongfully associated with performance-enhancing drugs usage – with EPO being the culprit, nonetheless. She is said to have waited three days, and then rose from her athletics deathbed to mutter an utterance – through her legal counsel – that she was shocked, so much so, apparently, that she was forced into hiding with family and friends – the impact on them, she’d later state, being as significant to them as it would be on herself.

Yet it was these same family and friends who would be even more traumatised by evidence she staked claim to the following year, namely that she was, indeed a drug user at some point in her career, though not by free choice.

Little did one realise that there was a further-reaching impact on her mother than we could ever come to understand, and it had nothing to do with an alarm bell drumming following a test result. From what Riddick gathered, it very well could have been personal family matters to a degree which I don’t believe he thought to really define as such. I’ll touch more on that in a few paragraphs below.

One would imagine that Marion Jones could have conjured up something with greater excuse-substance than simply being shocked, unless she, through the chapters of her life, had reached into the cookie jar one too many times and found it shocking and to her dismay that the sum of her lies was a handful of crumbs.

Some fans thought she had finally been strapped to using performance-enhancing drugs. However, upon further reflection upon that, one is led to believe that Marion Jones likely got conned on the con job, because her performance – at least in the declaration department – was not an enhanced one, rather an impaired one. She had been paralysed by staring out at the world instead of taking care of business in her own citadel, where the walls crumbled before her eyes as she purchased more buggies and carriages.

The heretofore golden girl is running – no, make that crawling – on empty verbal fumes these days; she waited in excess of 10 months to utter a word on her absence from the sport following her having used all her energy to deny rumours and accusations – some of them very personal, direct and wild, and seem to get away with it by the slimmest of foul-line margins in some circles of public influence. She’d been misguided, undecided, tired, and hadn’t known what more she could do to fight allegations, lies, lies and more lies – especially her own.

Then she caved in and spilled portions of truth on the floor in an effort to show how wrongfully she had been during a small course of her nine-year professional career.

Those fumes were low on substance matter as she defended herself in a structured interview on a news television programme in America following her “B”-sample result negating the “A”-sample test findings – a dialogue conducted where she wore a white top, stuttered, hinted at possible retirement and employed facial expressions which were not in coordination with her words. Draw your own conclusions. Not only had the vocal, media-friendly person abandoned her protocol of holding press conferences to make her declarations universal, she bundled her exonerating test result with any – and all – previous inquiries on her drugs usage to state that this test “proves” that she had never taken drugs, and didn’t take a drug.

What Marion Jones’s statement “proves” is that one simply must not take her word for being truthful – in whole, or in part. The “B”-sample was stated to have proven she had never taken a drug, yet Marion Jones stated a year later, on her own behalf, that she had taken drugs. The “B”-sample revelation was also meant prima facia to demonstrate that she hadn’t taken drugs in 2006, yet evidence to the contrary demonstrate that scientific processes revealed spores of EPO in her system to a degree consistent with drugs usage.

For those who paid a heavy price purchasing that hollow air, may I recommend that you look in the mirror and see if the person staring blankly back at you lives on this planet. There is not a test on the face of the earth which could categorically and unequivocally separate Marion Jones from any and all past suspicions and brushes with mortality – so much so that T.J. Quinn of the New York Daily News wrote that it was indisputably wrong to assert that Marion Jones was freed from past suspicions.

Wrong, wrong, wrong! It proves nothing of the sort. It proves that scientists were not able to look at the reading of her “B” sample and confirm that it met the threshold for a positive. That's it. Beating a traffic ticket on a technicality doesn't mean you've never sped, it means you don't have to pay the fine.[2]

Listen closely to what Marion Jones stated, and realise one important thing: there is such a comprehensive anti-doping test available to cover an athlete’s entire past history in one short sitting – and a 75-day-old back-up one at that!

Where was this test in October 2007 when she decided it was time to play nice girl and confess to wrongdoing? Certainly no information contained by Graham’s attorneys could bring Marion Jones down as a cheat, because she had taken a test which demonstrated that it was impossible to have done so at any time in her career, so help her God – the same one of whom she would later ask for a load of forgiveness.

You, like I, may have heard some big ones in your time, but apparently it would have been high time for us all to have returned to school before continuing any further in this court of public opinion trial against Marion Jones had she not confessed. When we return to university for a history lesson, we’ll learn the following from Sir Winston Churchill – a very applicable quote to Marion Jones’s fib: “We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.”

Marion Jones let a few words slip out to Federal authorities despite their stated goal of not punishing her for actions performed as long as she came clean. The word “clean” and Marion Jones are incapable of being synonymous with one another, and are conversely arch-rivals with one another.

Marion Jones appears to be headed to a slavery of sorts which begins behind bars and continues at the mercy of a probation officer to whom she will need to check in with on a monthly basis either in person or by having to dial a pay-number to leave her whereabouts.

[1] ESPN.com, “Sources: Sprinter Jones tested positive for EPO”, 2006-08-19

[2] The Sun Herald, “Tests don’t wash away dirt in Marion Jones case”, 2006-09-13

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. Nine

Eric — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:34:00 -0400

Story by Eric

This is the ninth segment in a long series, titled, "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones"

I left you, the reader, off last time with a couple of important questions to ponder, namely: How did she (Marion Jones) put together a nearly undefeated season in 1998—one which stretched her 36 competitions thin between the first and the final?

If Graham, who was her coach, didn’t begin doping her until 2000, how did Marion Jones, who maintains to have not been doped, run the fifth-fastest 100m time in the history of the world and take home another world championship the preceding year in what was another very long and taxing series of trials, qualifications, and finals?

There are many who state that Marion Jones was a gifted high-school athlete who simply took a few years away from serious competition to focus on basketball; that, upon her return to the track, she simply needed to get re-tooled and sharpened to find her previous speed.

If one were to ask Marion Jones, this could all be neatly explained by her, I’m sure, but what she will never discuss with you, with me, or even with authorities is that she failed an EPO test in June 2006, following a season in 2005, which was the worst of her career—slower and more humbling than her freshman high school days at Rio Mesa, when she was 14 years old.

Her attorneys, in her defence—quoted and captured in this blog series, put the same spin on adverse matters concerning Marion Jones, citing issues with the test itself. What they will not state to you is the duration of time between testing the “A”-sample and “B”-sample provided in Indianapolis, nor of those implications. What they will also not discuss is that their client was not fit in 2005, yet was somehow able to withstand the stresses of multiple rounds on multiple days in order to make postseason championship teams, which is one very mitigating factor in one’s taking EPO.

EPO, according to Victor Conte, increases the red-blood-cell count and enhances oxygen uptake and utilization. EPO provides a big advantage to sprinters because it enables them to do more track repetitions and obtain a much deeper training load during the offseason. EPO, states Conte, becomes undetectable about 72 hours after subcutaneous injection (stomach) and only 24 hours after intravenous injection.

In direct relation to that test failure, Marion Jones lied to the public about the circumstances surrounding the leaking of that test. That sequence of events was crafted in such a way as to have Marion Jones’s financial difficulties, namely foreclosure for breaking a promise to pay her mortgage—a result of “maintaining the lifestyle”—not become exposed to the general public.

Marion Jones lied to the financial institution which granted her favour in loaning her more than two million dollars with a promise to repay them in selected, manageable instalments—something known to you and I as a mortgage, and she lied to you to cover up that lie as well.

Marion Jones is not a changed woman who is attempting to right the wrongs, ladies and gentlemen. She did, rather, spend the final days of freedom living in a cave in her own wilderness, though she did make a trip to a big city in October 2007 to talk a little bit of track, a little bit about lies, and to charge the atmosphere by crying on the small amount of electricity she was attempting to create with a half-remorseful story about finding God, wanting to live in peace, and having made mistakes from which others could learn.

What many learned that day is questionable—a point Michael Johnson brought up following Marion Jones’s sentencing:

“But I question if Marion is really remorseful for anything other than having been caught and the consequences she now has to suffer...She stood before us all and accused USADA of conducting a kangaroo court in regards to their investigation of her. Marion only came clean about the steroid use as part of a plea deal in hopes of having her sentence on the perjury charges reduced.”

Folks heard what she said, saw what she did, but then they went home back to whatever it was they were up to on a Friday evening before CNN and Fox News carried the torch to the finish line in case anyone hadn’t become aware that Marion Jones was a self-confessed drugs cheat.

The news came suddenly, but not surprisingly, and the shock value among people on the ground was hardly noticeable once the missile she shot off four years earlier had landed on an unintended trajectory – straight on her own head.

The brief statement Marion Jones passed off as contrition to please the court was meant to demonstrate to the authorities—folks who don’t know her entire story—that she had changed her ways and was not quite the scoundrel she had been made out to be by wicked old men who’d either divorced her, coerced her or just plan used her as a laboratory rat without her permission, though part of her sentencing is dependent on the degree of her remorse and regret.

Somewhere in the text of her message was something about letting people down and asking for her forgiveness from God Almighty.

Her postal code changed when the delivery truck, Felons on Wheels, made its stop in a neighbourhood far away and gave those on board a free pass to a place hardly known as paradise—but known to repeat offenders on board to be a stop somewhere between Soddom and Gemorrah.

Over the many years of Marion Jones’s professional life, as an athlete in the sport of track and field, many of Marion Jones’s fans—apologists—had begun to be fiercely disloyal and unsupportive towards her. Yet, she treated knowledge and understanding—tantamount to their capacity to make sense of this entire mess—through the text of her message as though those gifts belonged in a postal code far beyond these same people’s collective reach; though some of them were doctors, lawyers and teachers of education to name a few.

Marion Jones stated that her reason for retiring from track and field was for her having made several mistakes. Being Marion Jones doesn’t exclude her from making them, and one can be forgiven for certain offenses committed against the body as well as hostile to the sport.

Those mistakes were deemed to have impacted her fans, USATF and her family – though IAAF, a component of her fame and Nike, a part of her great fortune, were conveniently left out in the dark. The fault she committed, according to her statement, was in having lied to federal authorities – folks who don’t like being taken for a ride. She wanted the lesson of having lied to them to teach people that lying doesn’t pay.

Apparently drugs-taking, did pay, however, as she never mentioned having taken drugs, nor did she distance herself from the given fact that she pled guilty to obstructing justice in the BALCO case.

Conte, on the other hand, had plenty to say about the types of drugs Marion Jones took following her confession, despite his apparent stance behind her in her corner. Conte mentioned time and again throughout the course of time over the past four years that Marion Jones took drugs, and following her 2006 EPO revelation, made the expectant, “I told you so,” statement to the world.

He wasn’t slow in making the same point in 2007, either.

“Marion took both species of the clear,” Conte said in an e-mail. She took “Norbolethone from August 2000 until December 2000. She then used THG from January 2001 until September 2001.”

Marion Jones shed tears during the second minute of her 265-second aired statement, which was broadcast live on television in America, and shown via satellite around the world. She apologised for having let down people who’d supported her, naming a lie to Federal agents – something she deemed as being “stupid” – as being the reason she was in trouble.

The President of the International Association of Athletics Federations chimed in with mixed emotions concerning the confession.

“First of all, I am deeply disappointed that an athlete with Marion Jones' immense natural ability gave in to the corrupt, ‘get-rich-quick’ spin of a dope dealer like Victor Conte,” Diack told PA Sport.

“If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self-sacrifice and hard work I sincerely believe that she could have been an honest champion at the Sydney Games.

“Now, instead, Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history.

“It is a tragedy, and I am glad that Marion Jones is aware not only of the damage that her action caused herself and her loved ones, but also her fans, her country and her sport of athletics, both in the USA and all over the world.

“A lot of people believed in the achievements of Marion Jones and this confession leaves a bitter taste, and tarnishes the image of a sport in which a majority of athletes are honest and clean.”

Perhaps Diack could have been speaking from his heart – far down from the depths of his soul – rather than from his logic facilities when stating that he was “deeply disappointed that an athlete with Marion Jones’ immense natural ability gave in to the corrupt, ‘get-rich-quick’ spin of a dope dealer like Victor Conte.”

Marion Jones is believed to have possessed incredible talent at one stage in her life – during a time when she was a teenager with big ambitions to someday win the Olympics. Then Marion Jones grew up into the adult world, and she put more time in under gymnasium lights than under the glow of natural light on the athletics field, and, in having traded love for running for one of dribbling, shooting and scoring, she diminished her ability and capacity to run as she once had...as a teenager.

She re-emerged on the scene five years removed from being a precocious adolescent, and had had injuries and lack of focus on her with which to overcome during that stretch of time. She never re-gained even a semblance of her former self whilst at university, and, having made up her mind to suddenly give athletics one more go – now at the age of 22, she set forth on the course which has led to this very moment.
Graham and Conte were two of the means to the end, but this path was initiated with a plan. That plan had its genesis in 1997, and came to fruition in a timeframe which was a meagre, paltry and anorexic 13 weeks later.

Marion Jones had few close friends as a teen at Thousand Oaks High School during her two years with the team, but one person, Samantha (Clark) Hollister, enjoyed playing basketball and running track with her, and believes along the same line as others captivated by Marion Jones’s ability as a youth.

"I just feel awful that these things have happened to her and that she felt like she needed to do more in order to excel," Hollister said.

"She’s such a natural talent. . . . If there was ever anyone you met who you thought wouldn't have to do [steroids] to be a success, it was her. She was just so naturally gifted. She could have done any sport and won a gold medal, in my opinion."

Diack, like Hollister and so many other previous supporters have appeared to overlook that part, but they aren’t alone in believing that Marion Jones had the talent to succeed. That talent, however, was wasted away during four years of inactivity and heartache, injury and weight issues non-conducive to being a world-class sprinter – or any sprinter for that matter.

Marion Jones may have gathered a few more supporters in her corner with her declaration of guilt before the world, but as far as athletics was concerned, it was interested in hearing Marion Jones state she had taken undetectable performance-enhancing drugs and having lied about that to authorities is what caused her to fall into peril, not a short spiel about lying to authorities.

Even her old Thousand Oaks High School long jump coach, Jerry Sawitz, lamented the fact that Marion Jones had ended up in this state of affairs.

"She was just one of the most amazing athletes you're ever going to see.

"I mean, once-in-a-lifetime kind of athletes,” Sawitz said.

"I've seen her take a tennis ball and dunk it in a basketball hoop. I'd always defended her because what she was doing at 15 or 16; running the 100 meters in 11.1 (seconds) wasn't that much of a stretch from what she did on the world stage. I just thought it was a natural progression for a great athlete.

"But the Marion Jones you see today is a different person than the Marion Jones we knew in 1992. The Marion you see now is the result of a lot of poor decisions. It's really sad."

Marion Jones made an admission to those same family members and friends about having made poor decisions through a letter written to them – one which spread across the Internet, but was unable to tell them in person when the cameras were rolling and live broadcasts were taping her every word.

Marion Jones would have had the greatest amount of exposure as a contrite person had she named drugs, her use of them, her cover-up, and offered to provide the IOC and IAAF the medals which she had won as an athlete who’d won those distinctions by way of fraud.

Instead, what the world received was what appeared to be one more in a line of prepared statements, crying queues and lack of substance by which to judge the veracity of the truthfulness meant to be implied by the words she chose to use to communicate her message.

One was simply awaiting a similar phrase as was stated in the courthouse, namely:
“I consumed this substance [THG] several times before the Sydney Olympics and continued using it after. By November 2003, I realized he was giving me performance-enhancing drugs.”

In hindsight, however, perhaps such a statement would have brought about boos, jeers, hisses and heckling in the crowd from someone who was wise enough to know that Marion Jones had again played victim and pulling a fast one over the senses.

So, the world was left with, “It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust.” The great shame manifested here in this statement was that she again misinformed – deceived – those who were following the broadcast with their hearts and had reacted to her tears.

Three days later, however, she relinquished possession of her five Sydney Olympic medals, and had stated she was sorry to her teammates and competitors – though she never said so when she had the grand opportunity to have done so; this was reported as her having been sorry according to a source close to the case, not Marion Jones physically stating she was sorry.

Many of her former competitors could care less how ‘sorry’ Marion Jones has become. She robbed them of the opportunity to finish first, experience the rush of emotion which is stored up for special occasions such as the Olympic Games and world championships, and to hear their national anthems played in front of millions of people around the world—a true symbol that one had been elevated to the highest mountain and had been victor on the one day of one’s life when it most counted.

Russian Irina Privalova, who anchored her 4x400m team in Sydney to the bronze medal, could care less about trading in the bronze for a silver one.

"No, I'm not happy at all to get that silver instead of the bronze," Privalova, who retired after Sydney, was quoted as saying by the All Sport news agency.

"I’m not happy because Marion's admission to drug use is a real tragedy for our sport."

Some of her other competitors really laid into Marion Jones following the reported EPO test. Others stated that Marion Jones should go to jail following her acknowledgment of having lied to federal authorities, though it was about drugs with which her competitors had taken issue.

Others, including Richardson, stated simply that the entire matter was “sad”, and that due to the decision Marion Jones chose to make, she took the decision and choice away from the rest of her team, concluding that whether or not the IOC takes their team’s medals, the characters of the US team will forever be questioned.

And those of many future teams as well.

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. Eight

Eric — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:47:00 -0400

Story by Eric.

(This is the eighth installment of a long series, titled, "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones")

Marion Jones is a liar, and her attorneys did everything in their power to prove to the courts that she was a good-natured person who had simply made a mistake—her first one of criminal consequence.

They also, apparently, did nothing as Marion Jones lied to the Federal agents, despite her legal counsel’s pleas to speak truthfully whilst she was being interviewed in their presence.

They wanted you to see her as a humanitarian—a person of great devotion to her children, and one who has affected people in positive ways, not negative ones. They wanted you to see Marion Jones as a mother providing for her family; a contributor of good will toward all men through charity work; an ally to family and friends; and one who has provided humility and respect for others. Her chosen supporters also wanted you to see her as a God-fearing Christian.

They didn’t want you to view the persona that was Marion Jones, rather the person, or “the lesser-known side of Marion.”

Unfortunately, despite the spin control her support team attempted to put on her personal life, the sport of athletics viewed her as a liar.

And so did the U.S. Federal government, which has, in no uncertain terms, stated that “wilful and corrupt taking of a false oath in regard to a material matter in a judicial proceeding” is perjury and punishable by fine and/or imprisonment—or both. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated of Marion Jones:

“Deceiving federal agents in the course of their investigations disrupts and impedes the proper administration of justice and is a serious matter. Even if the truth is eventually uncovered, the lies throw investigators off track, waste time and resources, and create a real risk of a miscarriage of justice.”

Over the course of her 13-year professional life, Marion Jones lied to herself. She lied to her family. Marion Jones lied to God, and asked for her own forgiveness. She even had the gumption to lie to Oprah of all people—a woman who had once interviewed Marion Jones on the importance of self-esteem, and who’d featured Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery on her show.

And she lied to you, me, and everyone in between who ever watched her run a race as a professional athlete, notwithstanding any arbitrary dates Marion Jones provided the presiding judge in her case.

Now, following scrutiny and punishment—both in public and in the inner sanctuary of a court of law, she attempted to clear the air to the best of her ability, though those efforts would never reach far enough to expose the truth in its entirety—only parts of it. Partial truth is not complete truth and is not truthful on its own.

The IAAF Council, held a formal meeting on Friday, 2007-Nov.-23, and decided on six points concerning Marion Jones, but leaves Marion Jones’s career prior to judgment safe from further punishment:

_______________________________

IAAF Press Release on Marion Jones
Friday 23 November 2007

At its meeting held in Monaco on 23 November 2007, the IAAF Council reviewed the case of Marion Jones in light of her admission that she was using the prohibited substance known as 'the clear' beginning on 1 September 2000 and confirmed the following consequences of her admission of doping and acceptance of sanction:

1. A 2-year period of ineligibility beginning on the date of her acceptance of sanction on 8 October 2007 i.e., until 7 October 2009;

2. Disqualification of Marion Jones from all competitions on or subsequent to 1 September 2000.

3. Annulment of all her individual competitive results on or subsequent to 1 September 2000;

4. Annulment of the results of all relay teams in which she competed in IAAF competitions on or subsequent to 1 September 2000;

5. Forfeiture and return of all awards and medals obtained in relation to the above competitions;

6. Forfeiture and return of money awarded to her in relation to the above competitions. The IAAF Council further recommends to the IOC Executive Board to disqualify Ms Jones and the USA women's 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams from the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and to insist on the return of all medals and diplomas.

_______________________________

Marion Jones disappears from existence for a period of time. She’s gone as though she almost never existed. Her marks and places in one Olympic Games, where she stole five medals by way of fraud, and the subsequent IAAF World Championships are gone. Most people who merely follow along for the four-year ride between Olympiads will be glad justice was served and the evil-doer of the sport was finally put away.

She won’t be able to compete again following the ban until she pays back the $700.000 she owes from having illegally collected prize money and appearance fees.

Moreover, 39 European meeting arrangers are suing Marion Jones for approximately $3.1 million for prize and appearance fees she collected from 2000-2006—the years she has had her results annulled.

If it were only that simple to cast away Marion Jones’s career as though this judgement captured the bulk of what she had done against the sport. In fact, it doesn’t. Marion Jones’s drug use began long before her date of admission of guilt, and her best marks long before she won—stole—Olympic gold. In fact, her previous results prompted her insanely high salary from Nike in her effort to win (steal) five gold medals in Sydney.

The just punishment the U.S. government decided to give her is equal in the matter of the jurisdiction of the judicial branch of the Government of the United States, to the degree of her having knowingly and willfully falsified, concealed, and covered up by trick material facts and made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements or representations.

That violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 called for an imprisonment not more than five years, a fine, or both—so help the judge’s discretion.

Judge Karas’ discretion was used to draw a conclusion that six months confinement in Federal prison was the just punishment for such behavior and rule-breaking.

Expectedly, Marion Jones’s attorneys played her as the good girl in this story—a person who had no previous criminal history, and who is raising two small children—one of which has been raised for nearly four years without the biological father’s monetary assistance.

They attempted to draw parallels to other law-breakers who have been granted a satisfactory sentence of probation rather than a custodial term, and hoped the Federal judge presiding over this case would draw a similar inference and conclusion.

They wrote in a memorandum to the United States prosecuting attorney that the mere fact that Marion Jones was convicted of the crimes of having made false statements should be deterrent enough to hinder others from following in the same footsteps; they argued that since Marion Jones had spoken about her lies, she had been “publicly shamed, vilified and excoriated.” Under those circumstances, they argued, “a custodial term is not necessary to achieve individual or general deterrence.”

I.R.S. Special Agent Jeff Novitzky persuaded Marion Jones to admit to her steroid use by using the leverage of the check-fraud charge against her. Each case carried the weight of their own punishments—a point Federal Judge Karas weighed one week before rendering effective her punishment before him in Courtroom 218 in the United States Southern District Court.

Even when the end times drew near, Marion Jones lied about how deep, how far, and how involved she had been with the disgraceful subject of performance-enhancing drugs, and here’s why I believe that:

Marion Jones took performance-enhancing drugs in 2000—a fact to which she has reluctantly admitted. What she has failed to admit is that it would have been as impossible now—as it was then—that in 1997, Marion Jones could have picked up her track spikes and become USA sprint champion following four years of either inactivity or very limited competition in an event which craves the utmost of physical training, races, timings, and practice to power one’s body 100m down a lane built on a synthetic surface, and to do it in less than 11 seconds, nonetheless.

That Marion Jones was able to run sub-11 seconds isn’t the issue here. The fact that she did this with less than 13 weeks of training following four years of basic non-activity is.

Athletes—people—who make money through illegal means don’t simply turn and walk away once one particularly stated objective has been met. The implication made by the Sydney drug-taking is that Marion Jones needed fast recovery times between events in order to not succumb to the numerous strains she would have to endure in participating in five events—most of which had qualifying rounds or jumps. Marion Jones left Sydney with endorsements and marketing capabilities unrivalled by her peers. She began to form a certain lifestyle, and the expectation she had was one of maintaining it.

One doesn’t suddenly stop cold turkey and hope that their natural talent—something killed off by inactivity several years earlier—is able to take them through the rest of their career at the same level as they had been on drugs.

Marion Jones wants you to believe, however, that she was unintentionally drugged during the timeframe she provided the U.S. District Court and that she found herself sluggish and tired once she stopped taking those drugs provided by Graham—in the end of 2002.

Marion Jones may want to point to her subsequent seasons as proof that she was not on performance-enhancing drugs, as her times and marks did not improve in any of her events following her departure from Trevor Graham’s camp, and that drugs were the reason she had done exceptionally well during the time-frame she stated.

This brings up a good point, one which asks how, therefore, did Marion Jones come out of nowhere in 1997 and not only take home national honours in the USA Championships by winning the 100m, but went on to win a world championship two months later—sufficiently recovering along the way and withstanding the duration of the season?

How did she put together a nearly undefeated season in 1998—one which stretched her 36 competitions thin between the first and the final? If Graham, who was her coach, didn’t begin doping her until 2000, how did Marion Jones, who maintains to have not been doped, run the fifth-fastest 100m time in the history of the world and take home another world championship the preceding year in what was another very long and taxing series of trials, qualifications and finals?

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. Seven

Eric — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:49:00 -0400

Story by Eric.

(This is the seventh installment in a long series, titled, "Why You Should Not Believe Marion Jones". This section contains Marion Jones's confession letter and her subsequent news statement on the matter.)

“Dear family and close friends,

I hope this letter finds all of you well. I know some of you must be wondering where the pictures are that I so often attach to my emails. Unfortunately, this is a much different type of letter. I write this letter to all of you for a few reasons.

The first is simply because I love you all. Some things will be happening in the next week that I want you all to know about from me FIRST. You deserve this because you have been there for me from the very beginning. You have supported me throughout the many struggles that I have had in my life and continue to do so to this day. You deserve to hear about Marion from Marion and not from the USA Today or CNN.

The second reason is because I finally want to shed much baggage that has been tearing me down for a long time. I want to share with you all my humanness. The fact that I have made mistakes in my life, made bad decisions, and have carried a great amount of pain and hurt throughout my life. I want you all to understand that I have constructed, what I thought, was this impenetrable wall, to protect me from hurtful and harmful people and things.

In doing this I, unfortunately, have distanced myself from loved ones and made myself impossible, at times, to connect with. I want you all to know that I sincerely apologize for this.

One day soon, I hope you will understand the reason for me having such behavior. I am not trying to justify it, but simply want you all to have a better understanding of why I have done certain things in my life. Having said this, I realize the need to be up front and honest with you about several things that have transpired in my life. I will not candy coat the following statements, as I have done this and tapped around the truth for too long.

As many of you know I am not one for a lot of small talk so I will get right to the crux of this letter. On Oct. 5, 2007, I plan to plead guilty to two counts of lying to federal agents. I will travel to New York on Friday, Oct. 5, where my mom will meet me, and return home to Austin on the following afternoon. I will now try and explain the details of all this to you all.

In 1999, my track coach Trevor Graham provided me with some nutritional supplements. There is one in particular that he called 'flaxseed oil.' He advised me to take this supplement by placing a few drops under my tongue and then swallow. He told me that it was necessary to add this to my diet so that I could be in peak running shape.

I, unfortunately, never asked him any questions about it. I trusted him and never thought for one second that he would jeopardize my career, nor his own. He told me to administer it by placing a few drops under my tongue for a few seconds and then to swallow. He supplied me this for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

In 2001, I noticed a change in how my body felt, how I was able to recover and my strength level. I felt generally weaker in my entire training routine. At that time I attributed the noticeable change to being burnt out from the Olympics, etc. It was not until after I left Trevor at the end of 2002 that I began to wonder to my self whether or not Trevor had given me something to enhance my performance.

Looking back in hindsight, red flags should have been raised in my head when he told me not to tell anyone about our workouts or supplementation program. At that time my rationale was, well it makes sense not to give out any information about what we do, why give my competitors any edge.

In 2003, I was interviewed by federal agents regarding the Balco scandal. For those of you that do not know, Balco was the name of a company that provided nutritional supplements and steroids to athletes through its owner Victor Conte. You can just Google it, if you need further explanation. In that interview, agents asked me several questions regarding my involvement, if any, with Balco or Victor Conte. There are two questions, in particular, that have gotten me into part of the trouble that I am involved in today.

Agents asked me if I had ever seen this substance called the 'clear.', and they then showed it to me. Up to this point I had heard about this steroid called the 'clear,' but had never seen it, or so I thought. It was the brain child of Victor Conte. When shown the substance I recognized it immediately as the supplement that Trevor Graham had given me and had referred to as 'flaxseed oil,' and knew at that moment that I had taken it for nearly two years.

I panicked and told the agents that I had never seen the substance before. This was a lie. I indeed had seen it before but was introduced to it under a different name.

The agents concluded the interview by asking me if I had ever taken a performance enhancing drug, or PED, as I will refer to it the rest of the letter. I told them that I had never taken a PED in my career. Prior to this interview, before seeing the 'clear' I could have honestly said and did, that I never knowingly took any banned substances. But once they showed me the 'clear' and total me that it was indeed a PED, I knew that what I had taken and been given was a banned substance and I lied about it.

I lied for a few reasons. I lied because I panicked. I lied to protect my coach at the time. I lied to protect all that I had worked so very hard for in my life and career. And lastly, I lied to protect myself. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do. I made the decision to break the law and have to take full responsibly for doing so. All of this was after my attorneys had specifically told me several times the need to be totally truthful with the agents.

That will be the first count that I will plead guilty to on Friday. As you can all imagine, the story will be front page news, and I want you all, as I have stated in the beginning of this letter, to have heard the truth from me.

Regarding the second count of lying to a federal agent-.At the beginning of 2006 I met with prosecutors in New York regarding a check fraud and check counterfeiting scheme they had been investigating. They had called me in because a $25,000.00 check had been deposited into my account in 2005, and apparently it was one of the counterfeit checks. I was asked if I knew anything about the check. I told the prosecutors no. This was a lie!

The facts are these—Tim Montgomery, Monty's biological father, gave me the check in 2005 and told me that it was from the sale of a refurbished vehicle that he owned and it would be towards partial repayment of $50,000.00 which I loaned him for attorney expenses back in 2004. The government believes that I knew about the check fraud scheme from the beginning and that I knew that the check was counterfeit. This is not the case.

Once again I panicked. I lied because I wanted to protect Monty's biological father. Although my relationship had ended, I did not want to be the one responsible for putting him in jail or getting him in trouble. And lastly, I wanted to protect myself. I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away from it as possible. And so I lied. I am not giving excuses for what I have done. I just want you to understand, even if it is only slightly, my bizarre reasoning behind lying to a federal agent, for the second time.

This brings us to the present. Both the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York cases will be presided over by one Judge in New York. They call this a global resolution. The sentencing will be held in approximately three months, or sometime at the beginning of January. The sentencing guideline for an offense such as this is zero to six months in jail.

Although it is extremely hard to fathom being away from my family for any length of time, I have to put the rest in God's hands and pray that this horrible chapter in my life, be resolved as soon as possible. I wanted you to know this and not be surprised when you pick up the paper or turn on the computer within the next week. You deserve more than that.

The next several months will be very difficult for me and my family, and all of you as well. With all of this happening though I want you to know that I feel a huge relief already being lifted as I will finally be able to tell the truth, as hard as it might be.

I want to apologize to you all for all of this. I am sorry for putting you all through this after you have been there for me through everything. I want to apologize to you, in advance, for the questions that you will be asked about me and about your relationships with me. And lastly, I am sorry for disappointing you all, in so many ways. My intent was never to hurt any of you.

I hope that one day I will be able to share with you, and the world, my struggles with certain things in my life. And in addition use my story to help direct, motivate, and possibly even inspire young people to make better decisions in their lives.

Please keep me in your prayers.

Love,
Marion
____________________________

Marion Jones’s confession preceded immediate action which was to be taken against her by U.S. Federal authorities and by the athletics governing body of her nation. The legal hearing against her was nearly instantaneous (yet six months following her confession to agents), following her letter above and prompted Marion Jones to hold a press conference outside the courthouse following her judgement:
____________________________

“Good afternoon, everyone,

“I am Marion Jones-Thompson, and I am here today, because I have something very important to tell you, my fans, my friends and my family.

“Over the many years of my life, as an athlete in the sport of track and field, you have been fiercely loyal and supportive towards me. Even more loyal and supportive than words can declare has been my family – and especially my dear mother who stands by my side today.

“And so it is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.

“I want all of you to know that today I plead guilty to two counts of making false statements to federal agents. Making false statements to these agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do, and I am responsible fully for my actions. I have no one to blame but myself for what I have done.

“To you, my fans—including my young supporters, the United States Track & Field Association, my closest friends, my attorneys, and the most-classy family a person could ever hope for, namely my mother, my husband, my children, my brother and his family, my uncle, and the rest of my extended family—I want you to know that I have been dishonest. And you have the right to be angry with me. I have let them down, I have let my country down, and I have let myself down.

“I recognise that by saying ‘I am deeply sorry’, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and the hurt that I have caused you. Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

“I have asked Almighty God for my forgiveness.

“Having said this, and because of my actions, I am retiring from the sport of track and field—a sport which I deeply love.

“I promise that these events will be used to make the lives of many people improved—that by making the wrong choices and bad decisions can be disastrous.

“I want to thank you all for your time.”

Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones: Vol. Six

Eric — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:58:00 -0400

(This is the sixth installment of a long series on Marion Jones titled, "Why You Should Not Believe Marion Jones". This information sets up the charges which Marion Jones faced for lying to authorities.)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
- v. - : S6 05 Cr. 1067 (KMK)
MARION JONES,
Defendant.

COUNT ONE
(False Statements to a Government Agency)
The United States Attorney charges:

Background

1. At all times relevant to this Information, MARION JONES, the defendant (“JONES”), was an elite, professional track and field athlete. Among other achievements, JONES won five medals, including three gold medals, at the Summer Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

The Northern District of California Criminal Investigation

2. At all times relevant to this Information, Balco Laboratories, Inc. (“Balco”), was a California corporation performing blood-testing, among other functions. Balco was located in Burlingame, California.

3. At all times relevant to this Information, Trevor Graham (“Graham”), was a coach for track and field athletes, including professional and Olympic athletes, and had coached MARION JONES, the defendant, from approximately 1997 to 2002.

4. A federal criminal investigation commenced in the Northern District of California (“the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation”) in or about 2002. The Northern District of California Criminal Investigation concerned the distribution of anabolic steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs and the related money laundering of proceeds from said distributions and centered around Balco. The Northern District of California Criminal Investigation subsequently expanded to include, among other things, investigation into whether various witnesses made false statements during interviews with federal agents. The Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CID”), San Jose Office, was the lead investigative agency throughout the course of the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation.

5. As part of the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation, on or about Sept. 3, 2003, a federal search warrant, issued by a United States Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of California, was executed at the Balco premises in Burlingame, California. Among other things, investigators obtained evidence concerning MARION JONES, the defendant, and her relationship with Balco, Graham, and other professional athletes.

6. As part of the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation, on Nov. 4, 2003, a Special Agent of IRS-CID, along with other Government officials, interviewed MARION JONES, the defendant. Prior to the interview, a letter agreement between JONES and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California covering JONES’s interview was executed. The letter-agreement provided that any statements made by JONES during the interview would not be used against her in connection with any prosecution of JONES, except under limited circumstances. The letter-agreement specifically stated that JONES was not immunized from prosecution for making false statements during the interview.

7. During the interview on Nov. 4, 2003, a Special Agent of IRS-CID asked MARION JONES, the defendant, in the presence of her attorneys, about the following matters, among others, all of which were material to the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation:

(a) Whether JONES had ever seen or used a performance-enhancing drug known as “the clear”;

(b) and (b) Whether JONES had received the item referred to in paragraph 7(a) from Graham.

The Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation

8. Timothy Montgomery (“Montgomery”) was an elite, professional track and field athlete. MARION JONES, the defendant, and Montgomery lived together at various times between in or about 2002 until in or about the summer of 2005.

9. A federal criminal investigation commenced in the Southern District of New York (“the Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation”) in or about June 2005 concerning a series of counterfeit checks. The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), was the lead investigative agency throughout the course of the Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation.

10. The Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation included investigation into a counterfeit check for $850,000 deposited in or about April 2005 into a business account controlled by Nathaniel Alexander (“Alexander”), an individual who resided in Norfolk, Virginia, and the distribution of the proceeds of the $850,000 counterfeit check. Alexander was a friend and officemate of the person who was, in or about 2005, the track coach of MARION JONES, the defendant, and Montgomery.

One check for $25,000 from Alexander, which represented part of the proceeds of the $850,000 counterfeit check, was made out to JONES and was deposited by JONES into an account maintained by her.

11. The Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation also included investigation into a counterfeit check for $200,000 deposited by Montgomery in or about May 2005 into a business account controlled by Montgomery and MARION JONES, the defendant. JONES and Montgomery executed documents to add JONES as a signatory to that business account several days before Montgomery deposited the $200,000 counterfeit check.

12. As part of the Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation, a Special Agent of ICE, along with other Government officials, interviewed MARION JONES, the defendant, on August 2, 2006, and September 5, 2006, at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. During the interview, JONES was asked, in the presence of her attorney, about the following matters, among others, all of which were material to the Southern District of New York Criminal Investigation:

a. Whether JONES was aware of a $25,000 check from Alexander to her;

b. Whether JONES was aware of Montgomery’s receipt of any large checks, including the $200,000 counterfeit check, in or about 2004 or 2005; and(c) Whether JONES had any knowledge of Montgomery’s involvement in a counterfeit check fraud scheme.

13. On or about Apr. 9, 2007, Montgomery pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349, and two counts of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344 and 2, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Montgomery’s guilty plea was predicated upon, among other things, the deposit of the $200,000 counterfeit check into the account controlled by Montgomery and MARION JONES, the defendant.

STATUTORY ALLEGATIONS

14. On or about Nov. 4, 2003, in the Northern District of California, MARION JONES, the defendant, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly, in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government of the United States, falsified, concealed, and covered up by trick, scheme, and device material facts, and made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations, to wit, in an interview with a Special Agent of IRS-CID conducted as part of the Northern District of California Criminal Investigation, JONES made the following false statements and concealed and covered up the following material facts:

a) JONES falsely and fraudulently stated that she had never seen or ingested a performance-enhancing drug known as “the clear,” when, in truth and in fact, JONES had seen and ingested a performance-enhancing drug known as “the clear”; and

b) JONES falsely and fraudulently stated that she had never received a performance-enhancing drug known as “the clear” from Graham, when, in truth and in fact, JONES had received a performance-enhancing drug known as “the clear” from Graham.

(Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001.)

COUNT TWO
(False Statements to a Government Agency)

The United States Attorney further charges:

15. The factual allegations set forth in paragraphs 1 and 8 through 13.

2008 USA Olympic Team

Eric — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:15:00 -0400

USA Olympic Team

Men 100m: Tyson Gay, Walter Dix, Darvis Patton 200m: Walter Dix, Shawn Crawford, Wallace Spearmon 400m: LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner, David Neville 800m: Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating, Chris Smith 1.500m: Bernard Lagat, Leonel Manzano, Lopez Lomong 3.000m: Steeplechase: Anthony Famiglietti, William Nelson, Josh McAdams 5.000m: Bernard Lagat, Matt Tegenkamp, Ian Dobson 10.000m: Abdi Abdirahman, Galen Rupp, Jorge Torres 20km Walk: Kevin Eastler 110m hurdles: David Oliver, Terrence Trammell, David Payne 400m hurdles: Bershawn Jackson, Keron Clement, Angelo Taylor High Jump: Jesse Williams, Andra Manson, Dustin Jonas Pole Vault: Derek Miles, Jeff Hartwig, Brad Walker Long Jump: Trevell Quinley, Brian Johnson, Miguel Pate Triple Jump: Aarik Wilson, Kenta Bell, Rafeeq Curry Shot Put: Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson Discus: Ian Waltz, Michael Robertson, Casey Malone Javelin: Mike Hazle, Leigh Smith Hammer: AG Kruger Decathlon: Bryan Clay, Trey Hardee, Tom Pappas Women 100m: Muna Lee, Torri Edwards, Lauryn Williams 200m: Allyson Felix, Muna Lee, Marshevet Hooker 400m: Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg, Dee Dee Trotter 800m: Hazel Clark-Riley, Alice Schmidt, Nicole Teter 1.500m: Shannon Rowbury, Erin Donohue, Christin Wurth 3.000m Steeplechase: Anna Willard, Lindsey Anderson, Jen Barringer 5.000m: Kara Goucher, Jen Rhines, Shalane Flanagan 10.000m: Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher, Amy Begley 20 km Walk: Joanne Dow 100m hurdles: Lolo Jones, Damu Cherry, Dawn Harper 400m hurdles: Tiffany Ross-Williams, Queen Harrison, Sheena Tosta High Jump: Chaunte Howard, Amy Acuff, Sharon Day Pole Vault: Jenn Stuczynski, April Steiner Bennett, Erica Bartolina Long Jump: Brittney Reese, Grace Upshaw, Funmi Jimoh Triple Jump: Shani Marks, Erica McLain Shot Put: Michelle Carter, Kristin Heaston Discus: Aretha Thurmond, Suzy Powell-Roos, Stephanie Brown-Trafton Javelin: Kara Patterson, Kim Kreiner Hammer: Amber Campbell, Loree Smith Heptathlon: Hyleas Fountain, Jacquelyn Johnson, Diana Pickler

Track and Field News: Anti-Doping Pressure Rising?

Eric — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:06:00 -0400

Story written by Eric.

UK Sport is putting together a new task force which it hopes will hit the anti-doping initiatives it has squarely on the head, drive out cheats, shore up the sport's fragile image with the public and prove to be a good opportunity for athletes, trainers and medical professionals in contact with each other to report suspected anti-doping violations according to a report in The Guardian.

John Scott, head of the United Kingdom's anti-doping authority, said that UK Sport currently attempting to develop start-up national anti-doping organisation independent of UK Sport that will place a much larger emphasis on intelligence gathering and investigation than current anti-doping measures in place.

"What we want to do is demonstrate through rigorous pre-games testing that we are doing everything that we can to prevent anyone who is cheating going to the Games," Scott stateed. "Whether it will be 100% successful we don't know but we are sending out very strong messages to discourage people."

The apparent message which will be sent out to athletes is one which sounds like it comes straight from a British spy novel.

The new agency, which will be functional before the Beijing Games begin, has a goal of having athletes keep an eye out on other athletes on the track and in the locker rooms; trainers keep a look out for irregularities in their groups which could signal one of their members breaking an anti-doping rule; and for medical staff - including trainers, doctors and anyone else who treats athletes to break out a state of what it is considering complacency and speak up when suspected drug abuse has occured.

"Tests will be planned using our intelligence-based testing approach which focuses the allocation of tests around where they have a maximum impact in terms of detection and deterrence," said Scott on the UK Sports home page (link).

"Whilst the overall aim is to test everyone at least once, obviously those in more high-risk sports or disciplines can and will be tested more often. Essentially there is no limit to the number of times we might test any individual athlete."

It all sounds good on paper to a certain degree, though there are some inherent risks involved as well as a margin of payback which must be factored in to the equation as well.

A track and field agent approached me two years ago regarding a prominent athletics group in the United States which had been notorious for what he considered breaking anti-doping rules.

Had the UK Sport inititiative been in place then, perhaps a few of the group members would have been caught earlier - and even more of them rounded up and suspended than the nearly dozen or so who ultimately were.

However, had this particular person had a bone to pick with the particular trainer or any of the athletes for whatever reason, he could have used this against the group and began submitting anonymous claims to the relevant agency to have the group investigated.

UK Sport will need to have a procedure in place which will weed out false claims and be able to truly understand which ones are of true significance. It will also need to be able to handle non-analytical positives whereby one athlete may make a claim that another athlete has spoken about illegal drug use or methods, has employed them and/or has requested the same of the athlete.

UK Sport is hoping that this initiative will gain thorough support from the groups it intends to market the idea to, and that the sport's image will clean up as internal accountability between the atheltes, trainers and medics becomes better. Their aim is to have a clean team compete in Beijing, and they hope that all finalists will have had deposited either a urine or blood sample prior to the Games.

Dwain Chambers' name naturally surfaces when discussion about catching cheats in sport - specifically in the United Kingdom - arises.

Chambers was part of the BALCO scandal which netted his main rival, Tim Montgomery, a ban from the sport and a stripped world record-title and time and netted Chambers a lifetime Olympics ban from his governing body.

Chambers travelled to the United States to train with Ukrainian Remi Korchemny, and became part of BALCO's illegal drug organisation.

UK Sport has been consistently and more openly in pursuit of information Chambers may have which can connect dots between other athletes and BALCO; other athletes and unknown suppliers; trainers and suppliers; and potentially medical staff with whom Chambers may have been in contact whilst under the doping regime. The belief is that Chambers has more information to provide the anti-doping pursuers than that which he has been fortcoming.

Victor Conte, BALCO's founder, has on occasion - and in no uncertain terms - stated that he would not ever reveal the identities of athletes who were caught up in the BALCO debacle but who had not been publicly brought to light. Chambers, who may have information on one or more of those athletes - or their trainers - from his time in California, would be a good asset to tap into, say UK Sport.

Conte and Chambers have both been willing to help out the cause of cleaning up sport, but Chambers' request appears to have too steep a price for UK Sport, namely re-instatement into the Olympic opportunity should he have the opportunity to qualify.

Will the new initiative find favour with other athletes who, unlike Chambers, have not been caught in a net of deceit, but have perhaps chased athletes who have been suspected of doping?

I don't believe the programme will have the stirring success it is attempting to achieve at the on-set, but it does have potential to be of terrific benefit in the longer run in the lead-up to London 2012.

The Beijing Games are only four months away, and, according to Conte, most world-class athletes who are doping (whether or not that is a large percentage of the athletes, themselves, or a smaller one is up to debate) finish their strength cycles in March. Any athletes who should test positive in the next few months would have done so by slipping up and using past the expiration date, so-to-speak.

On that front, there is a small hope that some cheats may get caught if they are left out to compete without any preparation on how to mask their drugs.

However, this is an apparently small percentage of athletes, and the fight to catch them will be more costly than the reward - though preventing any Olympian from shaming their nation before millions of people may be a just cause to make such pursuits.

Given time, more means and better opportunity to reach the inner circles in which athletes travel, the UK Sports initiative can have a greater effect of persuading athlete "A" to discuss with authorities the illegal events he (or she) knows that athlete "B" is employing to gain an advantage over their competitors.

Two of last year's surprise doping tests on Bulgarians Venelina Veneva and Vanya Stambolova netted positive results following what is believed to be a tip by an athlete or their trainer on their out-of-competition whereabouts.

Veneva had long been suspected of taking performance-enhancing drugs, but had never had an analytical positive result, hence leaving her performances simply up to speculation in the absence of proof.

There are other anti-doping measures out here in the EU which attempt to help athletes who compete clean to turn in those who they suspect are dirty. WADA has an initiative which permits athletes to leave anonymous tips, as well as does the IAAF - the governing body of track and field in the world.

Due to the lack of reporting on how athletes are caught, it is impossible to make a guesstimate on how successful the programmes are, however.

UK Sport's goal is to promote the highest standards of sporting conduct whilst continuing to lead a world-class anti-doping programme for the UK and being responsible for improving the education and promotion of ethically fair and drug-free sport, according to its website.

Ceplak Banned Two Years

Jolanda Ceplak, the world indoor 800m record-holder who tested positive for EPO at a meet in July 2007, has had a two-year ban upheld by her athletics federation, AZS, reports stated on Thursday.

Ceplak, who is 30, has likely lost an opportunity to ever compete for a gold medal in any future Olympic Games, as she will be 34 when the Games head to London four years from now.

Older age has not always prohibited athletes from achieving amazing results, but it has been a hindrance more than athletes have been able to defy it.

Ceplak set her current world indoor standard of 1.55,82 six years ago in Wien, and set her outdoor best - 1.55,19 - later that outdoor season at Heusden-Zolder.

Ceplak finished 2007 with a 1.59,86 run at Lignano Sabbiadoro.

Yelena Soboleva Earns My 2008 Female Indoor AOY Vote

Eric — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:32:00 -0400

Story written by Eric.

Last week-end's NCAA Championships officially closed the lid on the 2008 indoor season, and there were no shortage of great performances and record-setting marks accomplished around the globe by athletes on the elite level down to United States prep athletes who have yet to get much press or experience on the international stage.

Three women produced world records this season, and scores of other ones sprinted, jumped and leaned their ways to superlative marks which would have made headlines and captured votes on their own merits had the super elite failed to strike gold when it counted.

Yelena Soboleva, Susanna Kallur and Yelena Isinbayeva - names which reverberated from stadium to stadium this winter as they competed at their absolute bests this indoor campaign - each etched their names in the record annuals, and were each picked for gold in Valencia two week-ends ago when the entrants were declared.

Soboleva and Isinbayeva found favour and fortune on their side during the two-day event by coming up with victories.

Kallur, who led the world at 60m hurdles, had the untimely displeasure of becoming injured following her first-round heat and was never able to make it to the semi-finals, unfortunately, knocking her from the top of my personal AOY list despite her previously undefeated season and capturing three of the top-5 times ever recorded indoors in the event.

So that left the two Valencia teammates who share the same name, Yelena, up to take the honours.

Soboleva and Kallur started off the 2008 world-record chase by breaking all-time standards on 10-February, with Kallur, competing in Karlsruhe, knocking off a dubious hurdles record set 18 years and six days earlier by Ludmila Engquist - from whose dubious shadow she was attempting to run under.

Soboleva, on the other hand, knocked a few ticks off her own 1.500m world indoor record the same evening in Moscow.

The last of the record trio, Isinbayeva, competed six days later in Donetsk, Ukraine - a meeting site where she has earlier found vaulting nirvana, and set her third-consecutive world-record at the meet which vaulting legend Sergey Bubka had arranged.

The two athletes - tied at one world-record apiece - were even on paper, but one understands clearly that Isinbayeva, the superstar, having set her fourth world indoor record in as many years, was clearly ahead of her rival.

That was until Isinbayeva's next competition brought her back down to earth and behind Russian Svetlana Feofanova at Pedro's Cup in Bydgoszcz, Poland four days later, leaving Soboleva and Kallur undefeated prior to the world championships.

Soboleva, who finished the winter campaign with three personal bests, three national records and a world record to her credit, finished undefeated in five finals and contested one more meet than had Isinbayeva.

Soboleva earns my vote for Female Indoor Athlete of the Year for 2008 for twice bettering the previous 1.500m world indoor record (3.58,05 and 3.57,71); for netting the fourth-fastest mile ever recorded (4.20,21); and for demonstrating an incredible amount of resolve in taking two seconds from her previous 800m best at her national championships, running the fifth-fastest indoor time in history (1.56,49) - all without having run a step indoors last season.

Soboleva, a 25-year-old who competes for the Trade Unions club in Moscow, opened her 2008 compaign with a low-level 2.01,61 victory at the Moscow Challenge on 20-January.

Soboleva defeated Yekaterina Martynova, a 2.00,85 800m runner, by nearly two seconds in her first race since finishing four seconds down to Bahrain's Maryam Jamal in last September's World Athletics 1.500m final in Stuttgart.

The 800m time indicated Soboleva had decent fitness following an excellent outdoor campaign, and that she was on her way to perhaps a successful indoor campaign following a one-year hiatus from the winter season.

How much Soboleva would improve could never have been wildly guessed of one's life depended on it.

Soboleva, competing in her second indoor race in two years, contested the mile at the Russian Winter Games seven days later and demonstrated for both herself and her competitors that the world indoor 1.500m record-holder was at the top of the queue and may have genuinely had something incredible in store once the season picked up, clocking a national record time of 4.20,21.

Soboleva's achievement was history's fourth-fastest ever run, and the fastest since Romania's Doine Melinte set the current world indoor standard of 4.17,14 in February 1990.

Soboleva's outdoor best, 4.15,63, was set in Moscow in 2007.

Soboleva rested after her tiring mile and prepared to contest her national championships to again be held in Moscow 11 days later. She'd been entered in both the 800m and the 1.500m, and faced considerable competion in each event as single competitions, let alone coming in a double.

The 800m race was first.

Soboleva qualified first in her heat, running 1.59,56 - a time which wasn't completely taxing, but one which would take its toll on her by the time her 1.500m final was contested the following day. Waiting in the wings for an opportunity to strike at Soboleva's strength was Natalya Ignatova, who would run only 11/100 slower than Soboleva in the heats and qualify for the final.

Soboleva returned the following day to win the four-lap final with a very hard third 200m split, breaking apart from the field and powering home to a new personal best. Ignatova (1.58,84), Mariya Savinova (1.59,46) and Mariya Shapayeva (1.59,71) all set personal bests behind Soboleva, with the top-three each ending the season with the top marks in the world this year.

Being a world record-holder does not afford one an automatic gold medal - especially if one is contesting in the fiercely competitive Russian National Championships.

Soboleva would learn that lesson a few hours following her 800m victory, as 2006 World Indoor Champion and teammate Yuliya Fomenko attempted to run the legs off of Soboleva during the middle of the race.

Soboleva, who had considered dropping out of the 1.500m due to exhaustion, hung on in the race and drew from the well one final time to rush home and stop the clock in 3.58,05 - 0,23 faster than the world record she had set two years earlier.

Five of the nine women in the field set personal bests.

Soboleva travelled to Valencia rested and barely trained following a short, yet very intense, period of racing in February which had tired her.

The 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships 1.500m final generated the top-level excitement and energy fans had come to expect and anticipate, with Fomenko and Soboleva taking care of business up front and pushing each other up the 1.400m mark where Soboleva ultimately pulled away and ran away from her nearest three rivals in fast pursuit.

Soboleva's world record-setting performance (3.57,71) dragged Fomenko (3.59,41), Ethiopia's Gelete Burika (3.59,75) and Jamal (3.59,79) under the four-minute barrier, with all four women setting personal bests, and three of them new national bests in the process.

No woman in 2008 had the impact on the sport, the record books, their nation and their fellow competitors like Yelena Soboleva did. She inspired her comeptitors to run at their fullest capabilities, and she came out on the victorious end in the three races which counted most to her: her national championships and the world championships.

Yelena Soboleva just may take off 2009 as she did 2007 following a long season, but 2008 will leave memories far and deep to last several seasons over.

Croatia's Blanka Vlasic would have gotten a strong nudge at Soboleva's level had she been able to tie or break Kajsa Bergqvist's 2.08m world-record. She will receive an honourable mention, instead.

Yelena Soboleva's Personal Records:

800m indoors: 1.56,49 NR
800m outdoors: 1.57,28
1.500m indoors: 3.57,71 WR
1.500m outdoors: 3.56,43
Mile indoors: 4.20,21 NR
Mile outdoors: 4.15,63

Yelena Soboleva's 2008 Season:

2.01,61 Moscow Open Championships
4.20,21 Russian Winter
1.59,56 (Q) Russian National Championships
1.56,49 Russian National Championships
3.58,05 Russian National Championships
4.07,85 (Q) IAAF World Championships
3.57,71 IAAF World Championships

Dick Pound's Righteous Fury Causes Lawsuit

Eric — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:10:00 -0400

You either appreciate his hard stance or you don't.

Richard "Dick" Pound's subtlety has on more occasions than not been in serious deficiency. He's been warned by athletes, their attorneys as well as entire sporting entities alike to pipe down on his negativity toward them without having proof to substantiate claims they had either participated in on-going doping or were covering it up.

Pound had even backed himself and WADA into corners at times due to his brazen style and in-your-face manner of speaking.

Pound has been a one-man marching band who's played a tune which strikes out hardly and loudly at suspected drug-takers, and he has not been shy at defending a set of values to which he upholds the institution of sport.

He has bumped heads with Marion Jones, and he's clawed and boxed against the entire sport of cycling, stating on occasion that they, like USATF (the American track and field governing body), had been slow in dealing with apparently open problems within their sport and had not acted in good time to prevent further scandal from breaking out.

Pound's unrelenting nature has gotten him into an issue with UCI who, on Thursday, released a statement that it was suing Pound before Swiss courts for "continual injurious and biased comments" against world cycling's ruling body and its president, Hein Verbruggen.

"On many occasions, Mr. Pound has publicly questioned the extent of the UCI's efforts in the fight against doping," the short statement concluded.

"He shoots any target he can, left and right. I'm fed up of him discrediting my athletes," Verbruggen once stated of Pound following the 2003 L'Equipe leak which stated the way riders were notified about being tested allowed room for cheating.

Pound appears to be facing issues stemming from his having questioned the UCI's willingness to fully investigate a 2005 L'Equipe's accusation that Lance Armstrong doped and wondering whether he was merely looking to accuse UCI and use it as a "scapegoat."

Pound may or may not deserve the lawsuit he’s believed to have brought upon himself, despite having been construed as being a brash, take-no-prisoners dictator. His goal is now, and has always been, to keep sport clean, even as he attempts to head to the vacant Court of Arbitration for Sport position.

Pound believes in clean sport, but has less belief in athletes' ability to play within the rules, and between the lines.

"Here’s the deal," he says.

"The shot-put weighs this much. The race is so many laps long. You can’t hollow out your shot-put and make it 12 pounds instead of 16. You don’t start before the gun. Run 11 laps instead of 12."

"And part of the deal is don’t use these drugs. It’s kind of an affirmation when you show up at the starting line. You are making an affirmation that you are playing the game the way it is supposed to be played.”

Pound may have had justice on his side through WADA as far as world-wide disciplining is concerned, but the UCI is taking Pound to a justice department in Switzerland for disciplinary procedures for flapping off at the mouth, a tool which he has used to state in no uncertain terms that he has believed the USA had drug issues it had swept under the rug.

Pound has made no secret that he believes the USA is involved in cover-ups, especially when it comes to Carl Lewis having tested positive for low levels of drugs found in Sudafed and being permitted to participate in the 1988 Olympics nonethless.

Pound considers the Lewis affair one of an anti-doping violation and Lewis' participation in Seoul illegal.

Pound, engaging the United States directly, one of his biggest targets in the fight against doping due to what can be perceived as cover-ups, sounded off in a New York Times piece dated January 7, 2007:

“There aren’t too many people who are prepared to point the finger at America and say: ‘Hey, take off the [expletive] halo. You’re just like everybody else.’ That’s a problem in America. America has a singular ability to delude itself.”

On another occasion last year, Pound told the UK Telegraph:

"It's a matter of confronting cheating when you see it," he says.

"There is organised cheating going on and it's not going to go away if we all hold hands and say 'ummmm'. These are people who know the rules and in 99.9 percent of cases, they don't give a shit about them. They're destroying sport and taking rewards away from fellow athletes."

"If you're not being confrontational, you're not doing your job. Being confrontational, you're going to attract some static. It's like when you're fighting. The most dangerous time for any boxer is when he's just scored a very good punch."

"It's the retaliation you've got to look out for. I'm happy to be known by my enemies. Nobody who is playing fair is mad at me."

One question which arises, however, is what kind of fingerprint he wants to leave on the sport of athletics and what kind of legacy he will have left imprinted on sport in general if UCI has their way and has a muzzle put on Pound.

Pound has an opportunity to help rid the sport of cheats and uncover the other BALCO types out there, namely other lines of chemists, coaches, athletes and trainers who are involved in doping schemes hidden to the outer circle looking in.

He has changed a bit over the past year, meeting Victor Conte in January and going over war stories and strategies to build a better, more viable drug-testing method to test the crooks.

However, if he continues pressing on at all costs in a solo fashion, destroying chains of command in the process, folks will be less than willing to point him in the right direction, and he may be taken to town again by less enthusiastic folks than UCI.

Sport, according to the ancient Greek tradition, was broken down into two elements within the participants: the harmonious development of mind of body, agon, if you will, and arête, the conscious ideal of perfection.

Athletics, along with other sports within the Olympic movement, can be restored to a more even playing ground where athletes are competing clean over time and the harmony between the pursuers and those pushing the envelop to cheat is smoothed out.

As more wisdom is applied to the fight against doping, and athletes are held even more accountable for their crimes against the sport, fans can appreciate sport for what it is: entertainment and excellence.

In order to effect the change where mind and body develops naturally in the absence of drugs, Dick Pound would be of better service if he continues his fight quietly and away from the headlines, not creating a perception of being a one-man show.

If he is unsuccessful, and his desire to stand at the centre can not be quashed, folks will lose faith in the organisation as a whole, even though it is Pound with whom they have their disagreement.

One thing is for certain, however. Pound, a tax attorney, won't be afraid to stand before a court full of his peers.

IAAF: Only Three Percent of Athletes Tested in 2007 Were Positive

Eric — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:24:12 -0400

The International Association of Athletics Federations stated on Thursday that roughly three out of every 100 athletes tested both in and out-of-competition failed doping tests conducted under its jurisdiction in 2007.

According to IAAF records, 3.277 urine samples were collected from the period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 2007, with 1.759 sampled from place out-of-competition (OOC) tests by 749 athletes, 1.426 from athletes selected during a competition event, and 92 urine+ EPO samples taken pre-competition.

The IAAF state that 164 athletes received four or more OOC tests, 66 received six or more, and 18 received eight or more. The IAAF is unable to reveal the identities of those who have been tested most frequently, but did state that one athlete had 12 OOC test performed on them last year.

Americans Sanya Richards, Leonard Scott, LaShawn Merritt, Deena Kastor, Ryan Hall, Tyson Gay, Damu Cherry, Marcus Brunson and Xavier Carter were all tested at least four times according to the information provided in the IAAF report.

Athletes from Russia, Kenya and the United States were the three highest-tested groups, but of the 10 athletes whom the IAAF publicly stated tested positive last year, the biggest names involved were Bulgarian 400m sprinter Vania Stambolova and her teammate Venelina Veneva, a high jumper.

Both Bulgarian athletes—who share the same coach, Georgi Dimitrov—had their urine samples collected at an unexpected check during training in Budapest, Hungary on Jan. 24, 2007, and had them later turn up with positive traces of testosterone. Veneva also provided a further positive sample from an IAAF OOC doping control conducted on 2007-February-6 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

IAAF president Lamine Diack, praised the IAAF's efforts in a statement released today.

"I am proud that the IAAF continues to conduct one of the world's largest out-of-competition testing programs," he said.

"And the crucial importance of this is shown in the fact that the majority of our positive results are found in this form of testing."

The great majority of the tests conducted in 2007 done during times where competition schedules are at their peak, with 983 of the tests (30 percent) conducted at the spring season and 1.321 (40,3 percent) conducted during the summer season.

The remaining 29,7 percent of the tests were conducted primarily in the late winter (18.7 percent), and the remaining 359 samples collected Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

ARE TESTERS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME (OF YEAR)?

Victor Conte was the posterboy for cheating.

Where there was a will, there was a syringe and a calendar to make the way. The former BALCO founder helped propel many an athlete up and over the top, and to a crashing halt once they were discovered to have cheated and deceived their ways to the top.

Since his release from prison and home-confinement, his pitch has changed over the past two years from supporting a premise that one must cheat to win to stating that the current state of testing for performance-enhancing drugs is unacceptable, because the testers are completely off key in their pursuit of the cheaters.

If the IAAF are happy with their testing measures, and the IOC believe that there will be a bonafide Human Growth Hormone (HGH) test in place by the time athletes are ready to compete in Beijing, who among those speaking is actually right?

There may be a viable test on its way to head off cheats in Beijing, but Conte's assertions have been that the testers are attempting to get to the athletes at the wrong times of the year—a point he discussed with former WADA head Dick Pound at a meeting earlier this year.

The IAAF have not broken their historical data down by quarters, rather by years—most of which have not been calendar years, but fiscal ones. It is difficult to ascertain with any certainty whether or not the IAAF have been surprising more athletes at off-peak times, but Veneva and Stambolova were two prime athletes who were OOC tested during such time and were caught with illegal substances in their bodies.

Nevertheless, of the nine cases the IAAF have stated brought to light, five of the OOC specimens were collected and tested Q1 (Jan. 1 to March 31) in 2007. Two athletes flunked their drug tests in Q3 (July 1 to Sept. 30), and two failed their tests in Q2 just ahead of the summer season.

Salbutamol (12-month ban); rh-EPO (two-year ban); Prostanozol Testosterone (two-year ban); and six cases of Testosterone (two-year ban) were the drugs of choice named in the anti-doping offences.

The 10 confirmed cases the IAAF have discussed are far shorter than the number of cases on their 2007 sanctions list, however, as 55 athletes appear on the list, with Marion Jones the sole member who didn't fail an actual test in 2007.

Moreover, the IAAF have not yet indicated athletes who have failed "A"-sample tests and are having their cases reviewed and/or arbitrated, as is their best-business practice.

Two world record-holders fall into that category, one with an indoor distinction and the other an outdoor event contender. Both have been mentioned by their athletics federations, and the information is available with the use of a search engine.

The IAAF, however, have not made that information readily available to the public on its pages dedicated specifically to anti-doping. IAF anti-doping measures were at their near peak in 2007, with doping control officers taking 3.277 samples, or only 127 fewer than they did in 2003—a world championships year.

There should be no speculation or inferences in who has been tested any given number of times, as several of the aforementioned Americans either won a national title (Drossin and Hall) or were in every IAAF Golden League competition (Richards) in 2007.

USADA REPORTING PHILOSOPHY

The IAAF does not make a distinction as to when any athlete is tested. USADA, the national testing agency in America, does make a testing history available, however.

USADA selects track and field athletes to test in an OOC based on an automated draw that considers a number of factors, including the athlete's ranking in the sport, their risk of doping and test their previous test history.

LaShawn Merritt and Michelle Collins were each tested 11 times in 2007, followed Mary Wineberg (10) and Reese Hoffa, who were selected for 10 tests, respectively.

Merritt came off the best season of his life in 2007, winning a silver medal at the World Championships in Osaka (43,96) and becoming the ninth athlete in world history to break the 44,00-flat barrier. Collins has been fighting a previous drug charge which has since gone back into arbitration by the IAAF.

Wineberg had a break-through season in which the then 27-year-old lowered her 400m personal record down to a very respectable 50,24 and was part of the gold medal-winning 4x400m quartet which defeated Russia in Osaka, and Hoffa was the 2006 USA national indoor and world indoor shot put champion.

There have been 24.829 IAAF anti-doping tests conducted on athletes from 2000-2007—an average of 3.103 each year.

If the number of cheaters are, indeed, reducing in numbers, the IAAF can hold its head high and claim to be catching the leaders in the cheating game. Unfortunately, Marion Jones was able to escape unscathed more than 150 times behind a wall of deception throughout her career, so to state that the testing system works and is a suggestion that athletes today are less apt to take drugs is not entirely true.

Athletes Sanctioned for a Doping Offence in 2007:

ADEOYE, Susan Olufunke (NGR), In Competition 05.07.07, Ephedrine*, Public Warning & Disqualification
AJJAJI, El Mokhtar (MAR), In Competition 18.03.07, Stanozolol Strychnine Norandrosterone, 3 years ineligibility from 22.06.07 - 21.06.10
BALSEN, Julien (FRA), In Competition 09.12.06, Prednisone* Prednisolone*, six months ineligibility from 12.07.07 - 11.01.08
BELL, Kenta (USA), In Competition 24.06.07, Methylprednisolone*, Public Warning and three months deferment
BOTEZAN, Mihaela (ROM), In Competition 28.04.07, Chlorthalidon, two years ineligibility from 17.10.07 - 16.10.09
CHEPKEMEI, Susan (KEN), IAAF OOC 10.09.07, Salbutamol, one year ineligibility from 19.10.07 - 18.10.08
CHESANI, Silvano (ITA), In Competition 26.08.07, Formeterol*, Public Warning & Disqualification
DEHIBA, Hind (FRA), IAAF OOC 23.01.07, rh-EPO, two years ineligibility from 16.02.07 - 15.02.09
DENISOVA, Lyubov (RUS), IAAF OOC 20.03.07, Prostanozol Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 27.04.07 - 26.04.09
FILIPPIDIS, Konstantinos (GRE), In Competition 16.06.07, Etilephrine, two years ineligibility from 11.07.07 - 10.07.09
FORTES ANDRE, Bruno Miguel (POR), In Competition 11.02.07, Cannabis**, two years ineligibility from 15.03.07 - 14.03.09
GAUTHIER, Franck (FRA), In Competition 09.04.07, Heptaminol*, Public Warning & Disqualification from 20.07.07 - 19.10.07
IVANOVA, Alena (BLR), In Competition 14.07.07, Furosemide, two years ineligibility from 06.08.07 - 05.08.09
JAYSUNA, Saidy (NOR), In Competition 28.06.07, Cannabis*, Public Warning & Disqualification
JIMLA, Omar (MAR), In Competition 15.04.07, rh-EPO, three years ineligibility from 31.05.07 - 30.05.10
JONES, Marion (USA), admission of use of a prohibited substance, two years ineligibility from 08.10.07 - 07.10.09
JOSEPH, Jasmine (IND), In Competition 12.02.07, Nandrolone, two years ineligibility from 07.05.07 - 06.05.09
KAOUCH, Adil (MAR), In Competition 13.07.07, rh-EPO, two years ineligibility from 08.08.07 - 07.08.09
KECHI, Héni (FRA), In Competition 19.06.07, Cannabis*, three months ineligibility from 09.10.07 - 08.01.08
KEHLER, Lisa (GBR), In Competition 07.07.07, Terbutaline*, Public Warning & Disqualification
KEITA, Naman (FRA), IAAF OOC 20.08.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 01.09.07 - 31.08.09
KHANFARI, Ahmadreza (IRI), In Competition 08.05.07, Stanozolol, two years ineligibility from 31.05.07 - 30.05.09
KOCABAS, Jonathan (BEL), In Competition 23.06.07, Cannabis*, Public Warning & Disqualification
KOLAROVA, Teodora (BUL), IAAF OOC 26.06.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 10.08.07 - 09.08.09
KONEVA, Yekaterina (RUS), In Competition 14.02.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 23.03.07 - 22.03.09
KRAVCHENKO, Olesya (RUS), In Competition 07.02.07, Stanozolol, two years ineligibility from 20.02.07 - 19.02.09
KUMAR, Gajendra (IND), In Competition 11.02.07, Mephentermine, two years ineligibility from 14.07.07 - 13.07.09
KYYRO, Mikko (FIN), In Competition 05.08.07, Methylprednisolone*, Public Warning & Disqualification
LACASSE, Florent (FRA), IAAF OOC 18.05.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 13.07.07 - 12.07.09
LEWANSKI, Mikolaj (POL), In Competition 30.06.07, Cannabis*, Public Warning & Disqualification from 30.06.07
LING, Peng (CHN), National OOC 19.09.07, Methandienone, four years ineligibility from 08.10.07 - 07.10.11
LIPSCOMBE, Jesse (CAN), In Competition 12.05.07, Ephedrine*, six months ineligibility from 16.08.07 - 15.02.08
MAHDAVI, Seyed Shahrokh (IRI), National OOC 20.10.07, Methandienone, two years ineligibility from 20.11.07 - 19.11.09
MOSAZADEH, Kavian (IRI), In Competition 24.05.07, Norandrosterone, two years ineligibility from 25.06.07 - 24.06.09
MUCERINO, Giuseppe (ITA), In Competition 11.03.07, Tuaminoheptame*, Public Warning & Disqualification
NIKODEM, Dawid (POL), In Competition 27.01.07, Cannabis*, six months ineligibility from 27.01.07 - 26.07.07
PAYNE, Jamie (TRI), In Competition 17.03.07, Stanozolol Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 22.05.07 - 21.05.09
PINTO, Luzia Souza (BRA), In Competition 01.04.07, Sibutramine*, Public Warning & Disqualification
RAVI PINTO, Rosalba (ITA), In Competition 25.03.07, Furosemide, two years ineligibility from 05.07.07 - 04.07.09
SANCHEZ-REY, Pablo Lopez (ESP), In Competition 06.05.07, 13.05.07, Nandrolone, 2 years ineligibility from 30.07.07 - 29.07.09
SAVI, Stefano (ITA), In Competition 31.07.07, Cannabis*, two months ineligibility from 05.11.07 - 04.01.08
SECHNEV, Yuriy (RUS), In Competition 06.10.07, Stanozolol, two years ineligibility from 20.11.07 - 19.11.09
SEGATO, Marco Francesco (ITA), In Competition 25.02.07, hCG, two years ineligibility from 14.06.07 - 13.06.09
SEVUKTEKIN, Yahya (TUR), Tampering or attempting to tamper with doping control (Rule 32.2e), two years ineligibility from 11.04.07 - 10.04.09
SHMAGAYLO, Vadim (RUS), In Competition 21.04.07, Norandrosterone, two years ineligibility from 25.05.07 - 24.05.09
SIHAMMANE, Abdeljabbar (MAR), In Competition 07.01.07, Furosemide, two years ineligibility from 20.02.07 - 19.02.09
SLEPOV, Aleksander (RUS), In Competition 09.06.07, Stanozolol, two years ineligibility from 03.07.07 - 02.07.09
STAMBOLOVA, Vania (BUL), IAAF OOC 24.01.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 10.04.07 - 09.04.09
TURSKIS, Tomas (LTU), In Competition 15.09.07, Nandrolone, two years ineligibility from 04.12.07 - 03.12.09
UUDMÄE, Jaanus (EST), In Competition 23.06.07, Sibutramine*, Public Warning & Disqualification
USLU, Binnaz (TUR), IAAF OOC 13.03.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 24.03.07 - 23.03.09
VENEVA, Venelina (BUL), IAAF OOC 24.01.07, Testosterone, two years ineligibility from 03.04.07 - 02.04.09
WANG, Yaqi (CHN), National OOC 22.08.07, Nandrolone, two years ineligibility from 11.09.07 - 10.09.09
ZOLADKIEWICZ, Christin (GER), National OOC 07.09.07, Refusal, two years ineligibility from 30.10.07 - 29.10.09
ZOUBAA, Khalid (FRA), In Competition 27.01.07, rh-EPO, three years ineligibility from 22.02.07 - 21.02.10

* = substance which was classified on the WADA 2007 Prohibited List as a "Specified Substance" and as such may result in a reduced sanction ** = Second offence

Doping statistics and list of offenders courtesy of IAAF.

Carolina Klüft's Motivation Renewed: Wants to Contest LJ in Beijing

Eric — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:13:23 -0400

She has taken laps of honor with a sorority of women who've crawled across the finish line one final time following the seven events which make up the heptathlon, and she has felt a oneness with them both in spirit and in exhaustion.

That electricity and buzz which the world has come to expect of "Carro" as we call her here in Sweden began to die down to infrequent pulses of energy following her third-consecutive IAAF World Outdoor last season, and Klüft, who is a staunch supporter of one taking the opportunity to follow their dreams, began to dream of how far she could leap through the air and land in a sand pit rather than how far she could fling a javelin or how fast she could run 800m.

She'd considered throwing in the towel after setting her personal best and establishing a new European record in Osaka, but to say that a woman who hasn't lost a heptathlon competition since 2001 is "throwing in the towel" is to speak falsely.

Carolina Klüft has simply lost motivation for contesting the heptathlon after winning everything there is to gain in this sport.

Olympic medal? She has one.

Two would be great, and she'd be a near certainty to keep her unbeaten streak alive in Beijing had she decided to keep at it for one final hurrah.

But, she's opting for other events, and will watch from the side-lines and read results on the Internet as her competitors stake claim to medal opportunities they may have once wished to get, but now smell as the months draw closer.

World outdoor titles? Carro won her first one in 2003, and followed up her senior barrage of honors collected with titles in 2005 and 2007.

World indoor championships? She has a global pentathlon title earned in 2003.
As a matter of fact, Klüft has won two European indoor championships, two European outdoor ones and has taken home a European Cup title as well.

Carolina Klüft has flown around the world to contest events in front of crowds which grew exponentially as her fame and stature did, and she'd always had a sense of positive learning experiences to go with the utter exhaustion it takes to command victory against the best in the world time and time again.

She felt happy to be on the field and to line up on the track; she was having the time of her life, it looked like, and the 25-year-old seemed destined to spend several more years at the top if she simply wanted to.

Desire and motivation are two key words which had been associated with Klüft through the years following her 2001 European Junior title and her two World Junior records set in 2002—one indoors, one outdoors.

Where there was an event to contest and a good time to have, Carro would show up and strike gold—not simply with the type of medal she would take home, but with her competitors whom she inspired, the fans whom she entertained and the journalists like me whom she always seemed to provide the most simple and basic words to sum up her characteristics for success, namely that she was out to "have fun".

Fun and games were great for a girl from Växjö who had the world at her fingertips, Reebok on her feet and a competitive schedule which only called for two to three major events per year.

Carolina Klüft is a married woman now and has moved home to a location outside of Karlskrona on the southern tip of Sweden with the confines of a beautiful archipelago.
Part of her idea of fun has, naturally, become shopping for items which fit the decor in her home, and to be a good wife to a husband whose pole vaulting career was cut far short due to a persistent injury.

Klüft still supports kids in Africa through UNICEF, and she still finds time to be an ambassador to fighting hunger and poverty through a number of personal initiatives which she feels are very important in life.

In short, however, the reigning Olympic heptathlon champion has grown up in the four years since she travelled to Athens to tackle on fiercely competitive rivals in a four-year cycle where victory spells out large bonuses and lucrative contracts.

She took on the world then, and can take them on now—though in a different set of events which she really enjoys "having fun": the long jump and the triple jump.
However sad this state of events could appear to fans who'd hoped Carro would give it one more go in the heptathlon, Klüft may find herself waiting at home this summer instead of mixing it up with rivals in different events.

The Swedish Olympic Committee stated today that Klüft must qualify for the Olympic Games and show top form within the next three months—a tall order for Klüft, but not an impossible one for a woman who has jumped 6,97m in the long jump and stated she's breached the 15.00m barrier in the triple jump in practice.

Klüft's official best at the hop-skip-and jump event is 14.02m, but it's best not to be fooled into thinking that a woman on a mission to show the world that changing events has not changed her desire to have fun and compete well will not succeed where she puts her mind, her focus and her willpower.

First things first, however.

"We're not taking back her pre-selection, but we need to see if we get the opportunity to confirm that in the end of June," says Peter Reinebo, Swedish Olympic Committee's sports boss.

"Just like everyone else, she must show that she is following her plan. In her case, it means that she needs to show results in a new event. That is our position, but we are counting on and hoping that she will make it."

Klüft stated during a press conference held in Växjö today that she is planning on getting a berth to Beijing, and would never have made a decision to give up the heptathlon had she not believed in her ability to fight among the leaders in the long jump pit.

"I would never have made this decision if I did't hope and believe that I would take myself to the Olympics," she stated.

"That is what I am pointing toward very hard."

"Now I am looking forward to something else and have rediscovered my motivation. It's risky, I know, but it just seems so right," she told Svenska Dagbladet.

Britain's Kelly Sotherton looks to be the beneficiary to this risky Klüft decision, as the oft bridesmaid can finally step up and let the Olympics be hers and teammate Jessica Ennis' to shine.

Tanya Lebedeva will inherit Klüft as a serious competitor of hers in the long jump—though not as a fierce rival, as Carro has never never been a top-3 placer on the world list in her career.

Carolina Klüft set a new personal, Swedish and European record in the heptathlon last summer, scoring higher (7032 points) in history than everyone except the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who has the standing world record of 7291 and has five marks better than Klüft's best.

Klüft hadn't set a personal record in the overall combined events for three-consecutive seasons dating back to her break-through performance in Paris St. Denis, when, in 2003, she scored 7001 points and won her first world championship title five months shy of her 20th birthday.

Some folks wondered during the three seasons leading up to Osaka if Klüft was tiring of winning an event devoid of any real contenders to dethrone her from any of her global crowns.

Klüft was still out there having fun, holding her competitors' hands and pulling them along for a collective victory lap after thrashing both mind and body against the same people - her friends, but she appeared to have hit a stalemate along her path to supremacy.

She could still defeat all comers, even at less than her best, and questions arose about her motivation even before she revealed that she was left in want in that department.
Klüft put all of that to bed last summer when she took Japan by storm, setting a new personal best in the high jump during the heptathlon—1.95m—and reversing a trend in which her season's best worsened each year from 2004-2006.

Klüft, coming down from the high which surrounded this particular effort, never fully gained an appreciation for this victory. She felt like chasing and catching the record was "finally over", but didn't feel the inner gladness she usually did when hoisting her hands high, standing on the highest podium spot and listening to Du Gamla, Du Fria play across a stadium reverent in silence as the golden girl listened to words about wanting to live and die in the North.

Carolina Klüft's dreams have lived on in a fairy-tale world where no borders could keep her from reaching the potential she demonstrated as a junior.

Her continued efforts in the sport may be spared a shot of athletics death as she puts her mind to her tasks and climbs up another ladder.

She was bullied as a child and called a geek. She won't be bullied by a selection process in place to separate Olympic hopefuls from their Olympic dreams.

Carolina Evelyn Klüft has stamped her approval on a new venture this season, and will reach as far as her willpower, drive and determination take her. Her enthusiasm and energy will continue to compliment her, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see her on the medal stand next to Russian Irina Simagina and Portugal's Naide Gomez in the long jump.

The Swedish Olympic Committe is counting on it, because last year at this time, they were banking on Carro to win an almost guaranteed one in Beijing. Carro's fans are expecting it. Swedish track and field is dependent on it, as the loss of Kajsa Bergqvist to retirement in December and Stefan Holm likely following in her footsteps at season's end being two very big holes to fill despite Emma Green and Linus Thörnblad taking their own turns at future stardom.

Most importantly, however, Carro is counting on making a positive impact in the summer months, and inspiring herself and her rivals to achieve great marks as they play in the sandbox.

Carolina Klüft Gives Stamp of Disapproval

Eric — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:42:00 -0400

Carolina Klüft has electrified souls with her positive energy and incredibly deep well of enthusiasm, and she has penetrated interest in a two-day event which few people around the globe really ever paid attention to prior to her reign at the top.

She has taken laps of honour with a sorority of women who've crawled across the finish line one final time following the seven events which make up the heptathlon, and she has felt a oneness with them both in spirit and in exhaustion.

That electricity and buzz which the world has come to expect of "Carro", as we call her here in Sweden, began to die down to infrequent pulses of energy following her third-consecutive IAAF World Outdoor Championship last season.

Klüft, who is a staunch supporter of one taking the opportunity to follow their dreams, began to dream of how far she could leap through the air and land in a sand pit rather than how far she could fling a javelin or how fast she could run 800m.

She'd considered throwing in the towel after setting her personal best and establishing a new European record (7032 points) in Osaka, but to say that a woman who hasn't lost a heptathlon competition since 2001 is "throwing in the towel" is to speak falsely.

Carolina Klüft has simply lost motivation for contesting the heptathlon after winning everything there is to gain in this sport.

Olympic medal? She has one. Two would be great, and she'd be a near certainty to keep her unbeaten streak alive in Beijing had she decided to keep at it for one final hurrah.

But, she's opting for other events, and will watch from the side-lines and read results on the internet as her competitors stake claim to medal opportunities they may have once wished to get, but now smell as the months draw closer.

World outdoor titles? Carro won her first one in 2003, and followed up her senior barrage of honours collected with titles in 2005 and 2007.

World indoor championships? She has a global pentathlon title earned in 2003. As a matter of fact, Klüft has won two European indoor championships, two European outdoor ones and has taken home a European Cup title as well.

Carolina Klüft has flown around the world to contest events in front of crowds which grew exponentially as her fame and stature did, and she'd always had a sense of positive learning experiences to go with the utter exhaustion it takes to command victory against the best in the world time and time again.

She felt happy to be on the field and to line up on the track; she was having the time of her life, it looked like, and the 25-year old seemed destined to spend several more years at the top if she simply wanted to.

Desire and motivation are two key words which had been associated with Klüft through the years following her 2001 European Junior title and her two World Junior records set in 2002, one indoors and one outdoors.

Where there was an event to contest and a good time to have, Carro would show up and strike gold, not simply with the type of medal she would take home, but with her competitors whom she inspired, the fans whom she entertained and the journalists like me whom she always seemed to provide the most simple and basic words to sum up her characteristics for success, namely that she was out to "have fun".

Fun and games were great for a girl from Växjö who had the world at her fingertips, Reebok on her feet and a competitive schedule which only called for two to three major events per year.

Carolina Klüft is a married woman now and has moved home to a location outside of Karlskrona on the southern tip of Sweden with a beautiful archipelago. Part of her idea of fun has, naturally, become shopping for items which fit the decor in her home and to be a good wife to a husband whose pole vaulting career was cut far short due to a persistant injury.

Klüft still supports kids in Africa through UNICEF, and she still finds time to be an ambassador to fighting hunger and poverty through a number of personal initiatives which she feels are very important in life.

In short, the reigning Olympic heptathlon champion has grown up in the four years since she travelled to Athens to tackle on fiercely competitive rivals in a four-year cycle where victory spelled out large bonuses and lucrative contracts.

She took on the world then, and can take them on now, though in a different set of events which she really enjoys "having fun": the long jump and the triple jump.

However sad this state of events could appear to fans who'd hoped Carro would give it one more go in the heptathlon, Klüft may find herself waiting at home this summer instead of mixing it up with rivals in different events.

The Swedish Olympic Committee stated today that Klüft must qualify for the Olympic Games and show top form within the next three months, a tall order for Klüft, but not an impossible one for a woman who has jumped 6.97m in the long jump and stated she's breached the 15.00m barrier in the triple jump in practice.

Klüft's official best at the hop-skip-and jump event is 14.02m, but it's best not to be fooled into thinking that a woman on a mission to show the world that changing events has not changed her desire to have fun and compete well will not succeed where she puts her mind, her focus and her willpower.

First things first, however.

"We're not taking back her pre-selection, but we need to see if we get the opportunity to confirm that in the end of June," says Peter Reinebo, Swedish Olympic Committee's sports boss.

"Just like everyone else, she must show that she is following her plan. In her case, it means that she needs to show results in a new event. That is our position, but we are counting on and hoping that she will make it."

Klüft stated during a press conference held in Växjö today that she is planning on getting a berth to Beijing and would never have made a decision to give up the heptathlon had she not believed in her ability to fight among the leaders in the long jump pint.

"I would never have made this decision if I did't hope and believe that I would take myself to the Olympics," she stated.

"That is what I am pointing toward very hard."

"Now I am looking forward to something else and have rediscovered my motivation. It's risky, I know, but it just seems so right," she told Svenska Dagbladet.

Kelly Sotherton looks to be the beneficiary to this risky Klüft decision, as the oft bridesmade can finally step up and let the Olympics be hers and teammate Jessica Ennis' to shine.

Tanya Lebedeva will inherit Klüft as a serious competitor of hers in the long jump, though not as a fierce rival, as Carro has never been a top-3 placer on the world list in her career.

Carolina Klüft set a new personal, Swedish and European record in the heptathlon last summer, scoring higher (7032 points) in history than everyone except the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who has the standing world record of 7291 and has five marks better than Klüft's best.

Klüft hadn't set a personal record in the overall combined events for three-consecutive seasons dating back to her break-through performance in Paris St. Denis, when, in 2003, she scored 7001 points and won her first world championship title five months shy of her 20th birthday.

Some folks wondered during the three seasons leading up to Osaka if Klüft was tiring of winning an event devoid of any real contenders to dethrown her from any of her global crowns.

Klüft was still out there having fun, holding her competitors' hands and pulling them along for a collective victory lap after thrashing both mind and body against the same people, her friends, but she appeared to have hit a stalemate along her path to supremacy.

Her scores began to demonstrate that even untimely, freak injuries may prevent her from ever reaching the pinnacle of her career as a new world record-holder. She could still defeat all comers, even at less than her best, and questions arose about her motivation even before she revealed that she was left in want in that department.

Klüft put all of that to bed last summer when she took Japan by storm, setting a new personal best in the high jump during the heptathlon at 1.95m and reversing a trend in which her season's best worsened each year from 2004-2006.

She put her best foot forward and put up a number on the scoreboard which was better than anyone in the world not named Jackie Joyner-Kersee had ever been able to achieve.

Then came the bombshell and finally the explosion.

Klüft, coming down from the high which surrounded this particular effort, never fully gained an appreciation for this victory. She felt like chasing and catching the record was "finally over", but didn't feel the inner gladness she usually did when hoisting her hands high, standing on the highest podium spot and listening to Du Gamla, Du Fria play across a stadium reverent in silence as the golden girl listened to words about wanting to live and die in the North.

Carolina Klüft's dreams have lived on in a fairy-tale world where no borders could keep her from reaching the potential she demonstrated as a junior. Her continued efforts in the sport may be spared a shot of athletics death as she puts her mind to her tasks and climbs up another ladder.

She was bullied as a child and called a geek. She won't be bullied by a selection process in place to separate Olympic hopefuls from their Olympic dreams.

Carolina Evelyn Klüft has stamped her approval on a new venture this season, and will reach as far as her willpower, drive and determination take her.

Her enthusiasm and energy will continue to compliment her, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see her on the medal stand next to Irina Simagina and Naide Gomez in the long jump.

The Swedish Olympic Committe is counting on it, because last year at this time, they were counting on Carro to win an almost guaranteed one in Beijing. Carro's fans are expecting it.

Swedish track and field is dependent on it, as the loss of Kajsa Bergqvist to retirement in December and Stefan Holm likely following in her footsteps at season's end being two very big holes to fill despite Emma Green and Linus Thörnblad taking their own turns at future stardom.

Most importantly, however, Carro is counting on making a positive impact in the summer months, and inspiring herself and her rivals to achieve great marks as they play in the sandbox.

Foto: Magnus Wennman