Quietly next weekend, on the eve of the Super Bowl, no less (in Boston, no less), U.S. track and field will kick off its Olympic year. Talk about starting out in the shadows. Yet, as a track journalist (some of the time, anyway) and track fan (all of the time), I am looking forward to having many questions answered this year, among them:

*What can we expect of Marion Jones, the mother? By the end of 2002, Jones' performances had become decidedly mediocre, by her high standards. (Mediocre Marion, of course, is still better than most women in history). Since then she has changed coaches twice, given birth to her first child, stayed away from competition for a year and testified in the notorious BALCO investigation. The fact that she has committed to running -- and long jumping (!) -- indoors for the first time in her professional career is worth a raised a eyebrow. New passion? From 1997-2000, it looked as if Mrs. Jones might rewrite women's track records. It no longer looks that way, but does she have another chapter in her?

*How about Mo and TiMo? Between 1997 and 2001, Maurice Green won three world titles in the 100 meters, two gold medals at the Sydney Olympics and ran consistently faster than any man in history. Last year, however, he stopped running fast and winning, prompting reasonable suggestions that he was finished. Too many dances. He also suffered through the death of a beloved relative and, following a less-than-amicable split, signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Adidas, after spending eight years with Nike. So take your pick. "Maurice is healthy this year," says Greene's coach, John Smith. "He hasn't been healthy and motivated in a couple of years. None of the great sprinters ran fast every year. Look at Carl [Lewis'] career.'' Fair enough. Talk is cheap, however. The stopwatch will pass judgment on Mo.

Tim Montgomery, meanwhile, was to be Greene's successor, taking the latter's world record in the 100m in September of 2002. Yet, Montgomery too, disappeared in 2002. To be fair, Jones was pregnant with his child. Still, the track world wants to see if TiMo can run fast again. Otherwise he's a one-hit wonder.

*Is Allyson Felix ready to run with the big girls? When I met her last spring, she was a high school senior weighing the pros and cons of turning pro after running the fastest 200 in the world for the year (albeit at altitude). She made the right decision in leaving the amateur ranks, but a long summer in Europe ground her down and 2004 will be even tougher. We are always saying that college doesn't produce champions. And it doesn't. But Felix is still young and has a tough road ahead of her.

*Whither Webb and Ritz? In 2001, high school seniors Alan Webb of Virginia and Dathan Ritzenhein of Michigan were the biggest story in track and field, challenging long-held schoolboy records. Webb shattered Jim Ryun's mile mark and Ritzenhein nearly surpassed Gerry Lindgren's 5K record. Then Webb went to Michigan for a year before turning pro. Ritzenhein went to Colorado, ran well as freshman and got hurt. After a miserable 2002, both are back and running well this year. But can either of them make an Olympic team?

There are dozens of other questions that will be asked and answered in the coming months. Would that the focus could be solely on their resolution, but in a world dominated by the initials THG and BALCO, that will not be the case. At least not in the beginning. As the indoor season begins and quickly ends (with just four major domestic meets), and attention turns to the more interesting outdoor season, a much bigger shadow than the Patriots' Super Bowl appearance will again hang over the sport.

Even casual fans are now aware that four U.S. athletes (and one foreign) have tested positive for THG. There is a strong public perception that track and field is ground zero for pharmaceutical research in sport, despite the fact that more NFL players turned up positive last year than in all of track and field. So far. It is a perception that the sport of track will be fighting throughout the Olympic year.

If only performance could erase the stain of doping. In fact, quite the opposite is true. As former Stanford coach Vin Lananna, now the athletic director at Oberlin College, says, "No extraordinary performance can happen without the air of cheating.'' Chased by doping scandals and already fighting -- for several years -- to establish a foothold in the crowded sports world, track has little margin for error. It needs dramatic competition without implausibly fast times or long throws. It needs heroic performances by embraceable athletes. Track was once the centerpiece of the Olympic Games, now it is just another sport, fighting to maintain that status.

To keep the metaphor within track's own language, the bar has been moved terribly high.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden weighs in with a Viewpoint every Friday on SI.com.