One piece of Marion Jones' Olympic plan was crushed Saturday evening at the Olympic Trials and Sunday night, the same thing is almost certain to happen to her boyfriend, father of her infant child and fellow sprinter-under-suspicion, Tim Montgomery.

It turns out that a footrace is more swift, capricious and final than jurisprudence or protracted public relations campaigns. It turns out -- as it does every four years -- that the Olympic Track and Field Trials, however tainted, overshadowed or otherwise diminished, remain cruelly decisive. Finish in the top three or go home. You cannot cheat the clock with a news conference.

Jones' fifth-place finish in the 100-meter final was staggering only in the moment it occurred. To see the erstwhile Mrs. Jones, winner of five medals in Sydney, holder of the seven fastest non-Flo-Jo 100-meter times in history and at her best an overwhelming presence on the track, flatten out at 50 meters and struggle home deep in the field was briefly disorienting.

Then it made sense. "The peanut gallery has been saying for weeks that Marion wasn't going to make the team," said Emanuel Hudson, the loquacious manager of the HSI sprint stable. Of course. Jones hadn't been dominant since 2000. Zhanna Block of Ukraine took her down at the worlds in 2001 and after running 10.75 seconds to win the Sydney gold, Jones hadn't run faster than 10.84 seconds. This year she hadn't broken 11 seconds without an illegal tailwind.

There was little doubt she was vulnerable. Yet it was only human to wonder if she would make the team on guts and memory. "Marion is a comeptitior," said Maurice Greene 15 minutes before the women's race.

"Marion Jones is the greatest women's sprinter in history," said her former coach, Trevor Graham (also under suspicion), after the race. "No matter how she's running, you've got to respect that."

She ran, in fact, like she did in finishing fifth at Prefontaine Classic in June.

Was she distracted from preparation by the Balco scandal? No sale. Sprinters train a few hours a day. She's supposed to be a professional and, what's more, it's her own high-priced legal and PR team that has pushed Jones to the front of the Balco Affair with an aggressive and questionably pre-emptive strategy.

Is she still recovering from childbirth last July? Of course she is. Upon hearing last year that Jones was pregnant, one of her non-American rivals told a friend, "We'll see her in 2005."

Is she finished? A couple of points, here: 1) She's a high-maintenance sprinter, one with long legs, long arms and a tendency to break down technicallty. Whether Graham was involved in doping is unresolved. That he helped Jones run cleaner is not. (Did he have help and advice from Charlie Francis? Jones has indicated that he did, but that's another matter). Right now she's a mess. In less than two years, she has gone from Graham to Francis to Dan Pfaff. Too many changes. 2) Gail Devers beat Jones on Saturday night. She'll be 38 in November. Jones is only 28. She's too young to be washed up, unless...

She was good on drugs and not good without them. She has repeatedly denied doping. Regardless of the outcome of the Balco case, we'll never know for sure. For those inclined to traffic in this neighborhood, the winner of Saturday's 100 meters was LaTasha Colander, who last year at age 27 made the improbable switch downward in distance specialty from the 400 meters to the 100/200, who is coached by the embroiled Graham and who used to chase Jones in workouts at North Carolina State. Go ahead and connect those dots if you like.

All we know right now about Jones is that she's not fast enough to run the 100 meters in Athens. She'll try the 200 next weekend, which looks like a long shot and before that, the long jump, where she has the three longest jumps this year, among U.S. athletes. Once her worst event, it's become her best chance.

Montgomery, meanwhile, will need to pull a performance from somewhere deep in his memory banks to make the men's team in the 100 meters. Why, he'll need his best race of the year to even get a lane in the final. On Saturday evening he finished fourth in his quarterfinal to barely get a spot in the semis.

In his favor, he looked better in the quarters than in the first round, closing a little from 60 meters to the finish. But that's a thin slice of hope. The men's 100 is stacked with sharp sprinters: Defending Olympic gold medalist Maurice Greene on the comeback; the purely fast Sean Crawford, Justin Gatlin (both of these coached by Graham) and 2000 Trials 200-meter champion John Capel. It's hard to imagine Montgomery cracking this bunch when he's been running 2/10ths of a second behind them for three months.

Late Friday night 21-year-old Dathan Ritzenhein, a rising junior at Colorado, limped home the last of 22 finishers in the 10,000 meters (four runners dropped out). Running with a stress fracture in his his left foot sustained during a punishing track workout three weeks ago, Ritzenhein was a shell of the runner who won the NCAA cross country title in November and attained the Olympic 10K "A" standard in April. He finished nearly four minutes behind the winner, Meb Keflezghi.

I first met Ritzenhein in the spring of 2001, while writing a Sports Illustrated feature on him and Alan Webb, who were, at the time, both high school seniors chasing long-cherished records. Webb broke Jim Ryun's mile record and comes to the Trials next weekend as the favorite in the 1,500 meters. Webb just missed Gerry Lindgren's 5,000 meter record in high school.

As a high school runner, Ritzenhein was 18 but looked a waifish 13. His appearance belied his toughness. One afternoon at Rockford High School, near Grand Rapids, Mich., I watched him run the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters in a meaningless dual meet. He didn't kill himself, but he won all three and that's no soft workout.

Since coming to Colorado, he has had two stress fractures of the femur, related to bone density and growth issues. He fought through those to win the X-C title and seemed ready to make an Olympic team this summer until the foot injury. True to his passion, Ritzenhein ran the 10K injured and in spikes, no less.

 "I probably should have worn my training shoes," he said after the race, sitting on a bench with ice wrapped around the wounded foot. "I didn't feel like I was going to end my career out there, but I'm probably back where I was two weeks ago."

There's more. Because of the arcane qualifying procedures for the Olympics, Ritzenhein could still be on the U.S. team. Keflezghi has said that he will run only the marathon (Dan Browne might run both), therefore, a spot might be available for Ritzenhein, as one of only four eligible runners with the "A" standard. Asked about running in Athens, Ritzenhein said, "I would say, hopefully, yes. It depends on the next three weeks. Right now it's just frustrating because I'm in such good shape; my body just can't keep up with my mind."

There is little doubt that Ritzenhein is one of the most talented U.S. distance runners in history. He's still young and still growing. He should go to Athens if he chooses; he earned that right with his 27:38 in April. But he should also exercise as much patience as he can muster. There will be other Olympic Games for him.

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