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But for those who love track and field, even as it has become a niche sport along the lines of skiing or swimming (when it was once much bigger than either of these), every new face is a light that can take the sport out of the drug-induced darkness. Now those faces are Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards, Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner, among others. Before that, Justin Gatlin, who is suspended for doping, but fighting appeals.

Marion Jones was going to carry track and field for a decade. She was going to challenge the records set by Eastern bloc sprinters and by Flo-Jo, all of which are suspect in their own way. Instead, now she is utterly disgraced, retaining only the pride and bravery evident in her apology. She has given back her Olympic medals and soon she could be told to return prize money and find her best performances wiped from the record books. A very painful process for Jones is far from finished.

Through this process, I cannot help but wonder where and when Jones went wrong. She was a vision on the track. She was not graceful, but she was an awesome force in full flight. Tall and strong, pounding the surface of the track, giving huge efforts. How much of it was the drugs we will never know.

There are two problems with Jones's farewell story: The first is a matter of personal conscience. Both yours and hers. She says didn't realize that the notorious Trevor Graham, her coach, was giving her steroids. Could Graham have done this? Given Graham's history, it's difficult to dismiss the possibility. Yet both Hunter and Conte have said they saw Jones inject herself with steroids. Whom to fully believe?

Then there is the issue of Jones's performances in 1998 and '99. She says Graham began doping her in 2000, yet in 1998 she won 35 of 36 final competitions in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and the long jump. As I wrote this week in Sports Illustrated, she was Superwoman. Yet she says she was clean at the time, even though she never performed at a higher level than in those two seasons. Something does not connect.

Here, however, is what is most troubling of all: As much as we never know exactly when an athlete started using drugs or how much it helped them, appearances suggest that Jones was an athlete of immense talent and potential. She nearly made the Olympic team at age 16 (Drugs even then? I guess that possibility can't be dismissed, either). She was a starter on a national championship basketball team as a college freshman. As noted, she was (and remains) incredibly poised and telegenic.

Jones could have elevated her sport. She probably could have elevated two sports. Instead, she damaged it -- and herself -- irreparably.

It's hard to know who is to blame for this. International anti-doping bodies are clear. If you're drugged, it's your fault. But however Jones got steroids into her body, she was also the victim of her own terrible choices. Look whom she aligned herself with: Hunter, Conte, Graham, Tim Montgomery (a banned sprinter and now, a confessed felon awaiting sentencing), agent Charley Wells (indicted in the same fraud case as Montgomery). What a collection. Jones had been estranged from her mother for several years before they re-connected in 2000, but by then it was too late to save Jones's career and reputation.

Jones, too, was part of a system deeply rooted in doping culture. Conte has said that Jones was running against drugged athletes. One would argue this assertion only with great caution. The woman who will almost surely get Jones's 2000 Olympic gold medal, Eakterina Thanou of Greece, was at the center of a doping controversy in 2004 and did not run in her own nation's Olympics that year. Ukrainian sprinter Zhanna Block, who defeated Jones in the 100 meters at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, was reportedly listed in an investigator's report as receiving drugs from BALCO, although she was never banned and she denied involvement. Those are just two.

It is a very murky and uncertain world. Jones got entangled in it, either intentionally or unknowingly. She will pay an enormous price. Her sport will pay even more.