Go Marion. That's Right, I Said It.

I remember the 2000 Olympics. Well, actually, I just remember Marion Jones in the 2000 Olympics. Her face was everywhere, even on the cover of Vogue (a jock? on the cover of Vogue? How awesome!):

Everyone talked about how she was going to win FIVE GOLDS. Five??? In Track & Field?? I know Natalie Coughlin makes that seem very doable, but I must say that it is more difficult to win multiple medals in Track & Field than in Swimming. It's a lot of pounding on your body. But I digress.

She won three golds (100m, 200m, 4x400m) and two bronzes (Long Jump, 4x100m) in the end.

She was heralded as America's Sweetheart, and the sportscasters and other media outlets loved her sweet-looking smile off the track and her intense and fierce demeanor on it. I liked her because she wore half-tights instead of buns, and I was entering college and dreaded the bunhuggers I was going to have to wear for the cross-country team. I thought Marion was cool because she was a real jock who didn't act like she wasn't. She was tough and strong and people still called her beautiful. Cool!

Of course, when America loves an athlete, what we really like to talk about is his or her squeaky-clean image. We want them to be our hero, our superwoman! Marion was Perfect! She was Unstoppable! Let's put her face everywhere and attach it to anything and everything we all want out of life!

When will we stop putting human beings on pedestals, worshipping the ground they walk on, giving them everything under the sun, and then gasp with such surprise and horror when we find out they're NOT idols but people who make mistakes, sometimes BIG ones.

Look, cheating is not OK. I'm not trying to argue that it is. Also, to clarify, smoking pot is illegal, sleeping with someone who is not your spouse is wrong, and driving while under the influence is very bad.

You know what else isn't a very good idea? Forgetting people are human. Maybe it's because I read Marion's book See How She Runs that it was easy for me to see her as a human who messed up when I heard the news that she'd used steroids before the Syndey Olympics in 2000. Don't get me wrong, I was mad. I threw the book away - didn't even take it to Goodwill, just threw it away.

No longer did we see Marion's smiling face on the TV or in the magazines. Instead we saw pictures like:

and

Soon Marion Jones' life consisted of (in no particular order):

A divorce

Involvement in fraud

Steroids

Perjury (she lied about the fraud and steroids)

Jail time for the fraud, steroids and perjury

Going flat broke

Everyone hating you and talking about how terrible of a human being you are. Everything you had, gone.

If your life looked like this, what would you do? I don't want to hear "I'd never let that happen to me," because we all make mistakes, on one scale or another. Just pretend you made mistakes on a large scale, like Marion did. How would you handle it?

What it seems many people want her to do is to crawl in a hole and hide and be miserable for the rest of her life. She's 34 and has a husband and three kids. She has a whole life ahead of her. Can she not try again? 

It appears that she is trying again. She's going to try to play in the WNBA. She's been working with a trainer and appears to be in great shape, even though she had a baby just four months ago. What else has she been doing? Travelng around the country and speaking to young girls about thinking before you make a decision. Her program is called "Take a Break." 

“I certainly have my days when I wake up, where I sit back and just think, ‘If you could have just taken a break, used 30 seconds to make a wiser decision,’ ” she said. “If I had consulted with an adviser, if I had just gone to the bathroom and just thought this through, things would have been a lot different."

What a valuable message for young girls to hear. And they have a once-superstar-turned-convict to stand up there and say, "Look, you are not invincible! Look at what I had and what I ruined with my bad decisions! I went to JAIL. I didn't get out of it, no one saved me, I went to JAIL because decisions have consequences."

Marion makes a great point when she says, "I thought it would be an interesting journey if I decided to do this. It would give me an opportunity to share my message to young people on a bigger platform. It would give me an opportunity to get a second chance. I think I can be an asset to a franchise, so it comes down to, Why not? Really. Why not?”

Why NOT let her play in the WNBA? Why NOT watch a fallen hero work hard to win back some respect? What else would we like her to do? Give up? Hide in shame forever?

I think she's remorseful. I think she's an impressive athlete. I think we should give her a chance to prove it because a wise man once said "he who is without sin, cast the first stone."

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• Filed Under:  
• Basketball, Track & Field, Sports, OpEd, WNBA

• Tags:
• WNBA
• Steroids
• marion jones

There are 2 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

megankillian

Ann,
Thanks for writing this. I think Marion is so brave for speaking to youth about what she went through. It's answering the questions that so many of us have, not just with her but with other pro athletes as well. People make mistakes. They pay the consequences. Life moves on. For someone like Marion, with all that athletic talent, her life IS sports.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 1:52pm EST

stephaniemp

This was a really awesome entry Ann! Many people forget that the ones they look up to are, in fact, humans. We saw this with Jenny Barringer, who although did not take illegal drugs, was scorned for being human and succumbing to the stresses of life. We all have the "opportunity" to have breakdowns (or make mistakes) without having people whispering in our ears constant reminders that we made a mistake; except we do not give that privilege to our idols! I have done this very same thing myself actually. It is much easier now that I am older, but sometimes it can be hard to put someone that you feel is above you talent-wise on the same level as you human-wise. Although there is no real solution. People are bound to have an opinion about something... if these talented athletes stay out of the limelight then they are either not proud or not true to their fans, but if they complain a bit they are ungrateful of their talent. I think if we had interviews that put these athletes in a light that us "common" people could catch a glimpse of their humman-ness it might might be beneficial! Hearing about them going through the struggles that all of us go through would knock them down a notch on the pedestal. Some interviews with athletes can be so fluffy! I wish someone would go into an interview and just say "yeah, yesterday really sucked. My mom/dad/brother/boyfriend/girlfriend/friend really drove me nuts, and I tripped down the stairs on my way out the door, and my workout was really sucked too but my coach talked me through it and I made it through."... now that would be good representation!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 7:54pm EST