Marion, You Broke My Heart
Next to my wife and Mother, she was the woman I admired more than anyone else in the world. She had everything. A smile that melted the hardest of hearts, a God-given talent, a personality that charmed the meanest cynic and wholesomeness that was wondrous to behold.
The phone rang about 12:20am. I was working late recruiting for what has become the NIKE INDOOR NATIONALS. At that time, I was the sole recruiter for that competition. Doug Speck, one of high school track's most knowledgeable persons. "Byrnsie, you've got to get this kid. She the greatest talent I have ever seen and if you don't have her in Syracuse you're missing the boat," he exclaimed! My mind went on Full Alert. Speck was not one to exaggerate and his opinion was solid. I asked who this phenom was. MARION JONES.
I had never heard of the kid. What's she done I asked. As an eighth grader at the Sherman Oaks Middle school she'd run 12.01 and 24.46. That year, 1990 the AOY was Angela Burnham, also of California, 11.52/23.49. Jones was the #2 eighth grader, Texan Casey Custer's 24.44 holding top honors. Speck went on to claim Jones would be the greatest high school sprinter of all time. He gave me the phone number of her coach and we hung up. The next call I made was to the coach. He advised me to contact Marion's Mother for final approval. I did, she agreed and Marion came to Syracuse, her first major competition.
From her earliest years, she had been a gifted athlete. The only girl on her Little League team, a quality gymnast and a natural in basketball. But track was her first love. In 1985 she wrote, "My name is Marion Jones. I'm 5 feet 2 inches, 10 years old and in the sixth grade. I think I have a nice personality. My hobbies running and gymnastics. I like running the most because I can beat almost everyone at my school. My plans for the future are to be in the Olympics." Her speed was there and she was clean.
Her early years were tough. Her parents divorced and she had a cool relationship with her natural father. Her Mom remarried but Marion's stepfather suffered a stroke and died. It was, perhaps at this stage in her life she began developing the mental toughness that helped her throughout her career. Why it abandoned her just prior to the Olympics we'll never know.
My space is too short to go over every aspect of her career as an athlete. In her senior year, slightly bored with her easy success in sprinting, she tried the long jump. In her first meet, she jumped OVER the pit and landed in the grass on the other side! She had a best of 22'0.5 and had the top 10 jumps in the nation! She won everything and earned a scholarship to the University of North Carolina. For a time she soured on track and went out for basketball. Once again, she succeeded and was the sixth woman on UNC's NCAA championship team. She had never known failure.
What she did in the Sydney Olympic Games is legend. She wins the 100m, 10.75; the 200m, 21.84, takes 3rd in the long jump, 22'8.5, wins another gold as a member of the 4x400m relay and is recognized by the IAAF as the greatest female athlete in the world.
Now it's four years later. The pressure on her is immense. Even more so is her self-imposed pressure. "My goal is to win nothing but gold," she tells herself. "I don't know if it will be five events or four, but this time I'm going to eliminate any bronze. I will settle only for gold."
Was her self-imposed pressure the reason she lost confidence in her ability and resorted to illegal steroids? Was it the pressure from the media? Was it pressure from her coach, the now disgraced Trevor Graham? I doubt if we will ever know.
In a recent news conference, the now disgraced Jones admitted she had used steroids prior to those Games. Possibly the greatest female track talent in history felt the need to cheat.
Marion, you broke my heart.
