Why Marion, Why?

For several years there has been widespread suspicion of many athletes from various sports implicated in using performance enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). The range goes from pro-wrestlers to baseball players, boxers to gymnasts, and from biking to swimming. Now there are even whispers that athletes in more “gentlemanly” sports like golf and tennis are using steroids. But perhaps the sporting event with the most extensive history of illegal drug use is the Olympics, including many heralded Track and Field events.

From the East German swim team in the ’76 Olympic Games to Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson in the ’88 Olympics, steroid use has been a major problem. The East German women won all but 2 gold medals in those games, while Ben Johnson annihilated a then-world record time of 9.93 seconds, clocking a time of 9.79 seconds in the 100 meter dash more than 11 years before that number was matched again.

With the advancement of technology, as in all sports, the use of performance enhancing drugs has become more widespread and prolific in Track and Field. Many Track and Field athletes from multitudinous disciplines have been caught using steroids. Names like shot-putter CJ Holder and sprinter Tim Montgomery come to mind.

But one lady sprinter has been suspected, but never caught. That lady is Marion Jones.

Over the years, Jones has vehemently denied any use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. She spoke many times, often defiantly and adamantly, to the press expressing her frustration at even the suggestion that she wasn’t a “clean” athlete. And because she was so candid in her denial, coupled with the lack of a positive test, we believed her…at least I did.

But I should’ve known better, she had smoke all around her. And I’m learning that with steroids, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. She was once married to the aforementioned Holder, and Montgomery is one of her baby’s daddies. Her trainer Trevor Graham was implicated in the federal investigation of the steroids producing company BALCO. Seven other athletes trained by Graham had tested positive for or admitted steroid use. Victor Conte, Founder/President of the BALCO Company, named Marion Jones as one of the athletes that he distributed illegal substances to. She even had to be defended by famed attorney Johnny Cochran while in high school to be cleared of doping charges. And the list of reasons to doubt her innocence could go on.

Yet I believed in her.

But now I question if ANY of her accomplishments on the track are legitimate—from her high school days until now.

And I don’t know why she’s admitting things now; perhaps she is truly remorseful and wanted to come clean. However, I suspect that she watched what happened to Michael Vick, and figured that it was wisest to come clean now and get a good plea deal than to continue denying and be forced to plead guilty later.

What her admission demonstrates to me is that I can’t trust these athletes anymore. Not even when they consistently test negative for steroid use. The fact that Jones denied so consistently, and had eluded a positive A and B sample test, is a very scary reality from a sports fan’s perspective.

What her accomplishments (as well as Johnson’s in ’88, and the East Germans in ’72, and Floyd Landis’ Tour de France victory last year) tell me is that these performance enhancers definitely make a major difference. Clearly these drugs give one an edge over the competition, sometimes years and years before “clean” athletes can match their “dirty” counterparts’ feats.

With Jones’ admission, I pretty much think that an athlete is dirty if their name comes up in steroid suspicions. I recently heard that Alex Rodriguez is on steroids (implicated by admitted user Jose Canseco), so to me, he’s guilty. Sammy Sosa, culpable; Bill Romanowski, a user; Barry Bonds…is there any question?!!

But here’s the worse thing, I am now skeptical of people who have gone down in the annals of history with records that stood for decades or still stand today. The late Florence Griffith Joyner still owns the world record in the 100 meter dash for women (she still owns the 200 m record too, by a huge margin). She set it almost 20 years ago and her time of 10.49 seconds is 0.24 seconds faster than the next best, non-Marion Jones time (Jones fastest time was 10.65 seconds). So to me, she might have been ahead of her time in not only speed, but also in masking her use of performance enhancers. Current 200 meters world record holder Michael Johnson broke the former record by 0.40 seconds back in 1996. How did he do that (he holds the 400m record too)? Heck, Bob Beamon held the world record in the long jump for over 20 years. He might’ve been “juiced.”

Still worse, people who break records that have never been under suspicion are suspect to me. Current men’s 100 meter world record holder, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell (who recently clocked an unreal time of 9.74 seconds) is suspect to me. He is the only person to ever clock times less than 9.80 seconds 5 times, and the only other person to clock a time of 9.77 seconds, American Justin Gatlin, recently tested positive for steroid use.

So the allure to watching athletes has greatly diminished for me. Especially in events where actual skill is not as required as power, strength and speed to be successful. And I don’t know where we can go from here except to just allow all performance enhancing drugs. That way if people want to stay clean that’s their prerogative, but everyone has the option to use steroids, therefore leveling the playing field.

Since that won’t happen, I can’t believe what I’m seeing, and the only thing that I know is that what I’m seeing ain’t real.

-Maelstrom