Jones Under Suspicion Since Sydney

Marion Jones was under suspicion for using performance-enhancing drugs from 2000 onwards, a senior athletics official admitted after the sprinter was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury. It was during the Olympics in Sydney, where Jones won a record five medals, including three golds, that it emerged that CJ Hunter, her shot-putter husband, had tested positive for record levels of testosterone.

'[There were] certainly no suspicions before,' said Craig Masback, chief executive of USA Track & Field. 'No evidence, no phone calls, no tests. Marion was someone who at age 15, 16 had made our Olympic team and so clearly was someone of extraordinary talent.

'The fact that she had not done well in college and then made a remarkable comeback all seemed logical, within the arc of her career. Obviously, once the CJ news emerged we had concerns.'

In October 2006, Jones acknowledged she took the steroid THG and admitted that she lied to federal investigators in November 2003.