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Marion Jones has a relatively simple guiding philosophy: "As long as you're running fast," she says, "life is good." If 1997 is any guide, her life figures to be good for a while. A two-sport star at the University of North Carolina (she played point guard for the basketball team), Jones passed up her final year of hoops eligibility after graduating in the spring and turned to track full time. In one 26-hour flash at the U.S. Nationals in June, she ran the three fastest 100s of the year—after just 13 weeks of serious training. In August Jones won her specialty at the world championships. Her time, 10.83, was the fastest in the world for the year, a personal best and equaled the sixth-fastest time ever run by a U.S. woman. "Marion Jones is what this sport needs right now," said Jackie Joyner-Kersee. "It's really important that new stars come to light." None is brighter.
From Sports Illustrated: Photograph by Al Tielemans
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