Marion...You are not a victim

SEPT 2000
As I sat on the practice track in Sydney Australia waiting for the women's 4x100 team to finish working on hand offs, I sit and think to myself, "Wow I am amongst a hell of a lot of people that I admire." One of those people was Marion Jones. From my freshman year in college to about 30 minutes after I had this thought I thought she was a Goddess! Attractive in her own right, marketable, talented and without a doubt to me one of the best athletes in any arena all time.

Now I had this thought like I said 30 minutes prior to all that changing or at least coming into question. I saw the relay team finishing up so I began to prepare myself for my workout. I cut off my CD player which had the Eminem - Marshall Mathers LP in it and switched to my special "warm up" CD that had all my favorite songs at the time on it. I get up jog 3 laps on the grass and then back to where my stuff and most of the other athletes stuff was next to the pole vault mats to get a drink of water and start to stretch.

As I am beginning to stretch Marion walks over with her things along with a chaperon from drug testing. I had my head phones on my head but not on my ears so I could hear the music but also my surroundings. As I am stretching I hear the drug tester ask Marion for her information to fill out the forms. Address, phone number, ID the usual things that they ask. What made me do a double take is when she asked Marion "So do you want to declare any supplements, vitamins or medication?" Marion replied, "No...Nothing at all."

Now I was fresh on the scene so I thought you had to tell them everything so I looked up like, "What...did she just say nothing? Not even a multi-vitamin or protein shake?" Pretty immature thoughts at that time because I didnt know that you did not have to tell them everything but at least medication if nothing else.

Fast forward...

NOV 2000
I get home in November and I am talking to a friend of mine that was the head of a college biology dept. and I am talking with him about everything. I just happen to bring up that story. He looked at me and said, "Man Marion Jones on using some next level shit. I can look at her and tell she is on some super shit." I said, "Wait, you can tell that by looking at her?" He replied, "Yeah its easy if you know what to look for." He then told me that he watched the games and then named everyone that he thought was using PED's and guess what...Everyone he named later on got busted for drugs. Imagine that...

Fast forward again...

SEPT 2002
I am sitting in the stands at the grand prix finals and the men's 100m is about to go off. I am sitting next to Michelle Collins and talking about nothing really important. The gun goes off and Tim Montgomery gets a hell of a start and crosses the line in a new WR 9.78. Now I am like "Oh shit, he did it!" I have known Tim for a few years. He ran for Norfolk state and I ran for HU...Not at the same time but thats how I knew him. I however met him through my coach at the time and he was from day one a cool down to earth dude. I had mad respect for him. I was happy for him. In the middle of my excitement and his victory lap Michelle asked me what I though about the race and if I thought it was legit. I replied, "Hell yeah with a damn near perfect start of like .107 and a perfect wind of 2.0. She looked at me with the what I call now the "wow he really believed it" look.

A few minutes later I am walking around the stadium and she mentions a few people names and that she was going to ask them where they get there supplements from. At that time mainly the 400m female from Mexico. Not even 10 minutes later I run into coach George Williams who heard Michelle talking and when I mentioned it he replied, "I already know who the guy is they getting stuff from." (all while laughing, shaking his head and looking disgusted)

All this made sense to me later on but I look back now and just go wow! All this was in my face and I never paid serious attention to it.

Fast Forward once again...

APR 2003
At Penn relays. I am there to run the 4x400 and I put my stuff down in my hotel room and I go back to the lobby to kick it with everyone I hadn't seen in a few months. I roll up on a good friend of mine Kelli White at that and the first thing that I think to myself was, "Damn Kelli done got thick in all the right place my God!" Now I am a little more knowledgeable of what may be going on in the sport now so I pulled her to the side and asked her straight up, "What the hell you been doing?" She looked at me smiling and said, "What are you talking about? I ain't been doing nothing." I knew better cause I always "liked" her but never, well you know...but lets just say knew enough about her body to know that it had changed.

Forward...

AUG 2003
I am sitting at home nursing a knee injury and watching the world championships I see that Kelli White failed a drug test. I jumped up and went, I fucking knew it!" but not happy that I knew though. So then it hits me..."Its some next level shit going on like my friend told me for real!" In my own arrogance I say to myself, "I'm going to get this knee right and train my ass off cause I dont care who is on what...I'm going to kick they ass."

...Rewind

AUG 2002
I am fresh off a PR in Zurich of 47.57...First time I ever cracked 48 seconds and I am happy as hell. I trained my ass off during the break while the European Championships were going on and it paid off. However I was tired as all to be damned. I leave Zurich and go to Glasgow for a US/GBR type of dual meet and I walk in the hotel and I run into Angelo Taylor who I have been racing since I was 18 years old. He congratulates me on my race and then ask me how the race felt. "I told him it felt no different then any other 48 low race." He then asked me how I felt now? I said, "Like shit!" all while laughing. He then says, "Ok now tell me your boy doing that shit every weekend?" Still dumbfounded I go man I dont know shoulders raised and everything.

5 Days later...
Im in London and after getting massages everyday since, very little practice (if I did it was very easy) and being named athlete of the week by USATF I am starting to feel pretty damn good again. I get that feeling like I am ready to roll out again.

The Next Day...
I am running the 400 hurdles. Me and Felix Sanchez are in the race and we run neck and neck to the finish line. 48.08 & 48.09 Him first & me second. I instantly thought, man someone check the photo on the finish. I wanted that win so bad cause it was 20G's for first place and 12G's for second place. Not to mention I was that close to beating the guy that was the best in the world. After the race I am sitting down and watching the rest of the meet and Felix is about to run the flat 400m. It was about 2 hours of a break so it was enough time to recover at least I thought. He races one of the Harrison twins Michael Blackwood & Leonard Byrd and beats them all with a 45.1 for the win. Now as I am watching this standing next to Chryste Gaines and she looks at me and says, "You better tell your boy to chill out." I said, "Huh, what you mean?" She goes, "Your boy is telling on himself. They going to get him." And then she walks off...

So when Marion Jones name came up with drug allegations I was by no means surprised. I was like well I guess its all coming out now. I cant lie I was on the internet everyday looking to see who was next to this list of drug cheats.

Skipping along...

NOV 2004
I made a move from VA to NC to train with Antonio Pettigrew because I felt my career needed a change. I was just finishing up a workout and me and him were talking as we always did. I later learned that he talked to me through out practice to test my recovery. So on this day we got to talking about Marion because she was in the news again and I asked him if he thought she did it and he replied, "Man hell yeah! Marion knew what she was doing. They all knew." Now this wasn't the first convo of this type that we had because we had quite a few but I thought to myself damn he knows a lot of whats going on...or does he? Well in 2008 I got my answer. Unlike most of these people though when he got caught up he straight up told me..."I did it, I was wrong and I have nothing else to hide now. I'm moving on."

It was at that point that I just knew that everything that he had told me in relation to drugs and the sport were true. I'm talking from NOV 04 - My last race in JUN of 2009 we had a good amount of convos about this stuff.

Now back to Marion...
Why is it so hard for her to just say "I did it and I was wrong?" Mater fact Antonio said he started in 1997 with the PED's. Wasn't that the same year that Marion burst on the scene as the new world champion and worlds fastest woman? Didn't she run her fastest ever time the next year of 10.6 in 98? Yet she says that she was "given" these PED's in 2000 and didn't know what they were...BULLSHIT! Not to mention she came back for a few months in 2006 and ran a few 11 lows looking like the Marion of old with yet another drug allegation. I believe it was Marion that sat down at the dinner table with me in Italy and asked, "Hey James, how is Grew doing?" He knew a hell of a lot about her and when she asked how he was doing it all made sense that what he was saying some how without a doubt all made sense.

Presently...
I have now seen Marion Jones on TV twice in the past month telling a portion of her life story and making herself look like a victim. What?! Someone key Ed Lover..."C'Mon Son!" I know you have a degree in journalism so you know exactly what to do in the media. You can sell it but I aint buying. And Marion you are not a victim by no stretch of the imagination! Some of the people you raced and beat...those are the victims. The meet promoters who were paying you around 80G's a race...those are the victims. The fans that believed in you like my sister that got your autograph at Penn relays one year because she believed you were just so awesome, yeah those are victims. Me and a bunch of other hard working natural athletes are victims to people like you in the T&F world but you, get the hell out of here!

What you are is a drug cheat that made millions, got caught and now you on the verge of making money again with a book that I am sure is full of more shit then a dirty diaper. What you should be doing is telling the entire truth to everyone you speaking to and writing it in that book. So lets take a look at her story very carefully and ask yourself...Who wouldnt cheat if they had a chance to live the life she living? She cheated through her career, fell from glory and is now getting paid to talk about it but not tell the truth about it? Not to mention she still world famous and loved by many. Is this the message that we want our youth to be taught?