Would Marion Jones choose dark path?

On the night Marion Jones returned to track and field in the spring of 1997, angry skies hung over the track in Indianapolis, threatening thunder and lightning and rain. It was the type of evening that heightens senses. Mrs. Jones scorched the field in the 100 meters that night, leaving experienced runners in her slipstream. "To come out like that, with so little training, it was discouraging," said Inger Miller, one of the beaten sprinters. Jones was finished with basketball. It felt as if something remarkable had begun on that ominous night.

In a grassy area next to the track, writers tried to quickly construct the means by which this former high school superstar had so quickly dropped one sport and ascended to the top of another. We talked with her then-boyfriend, shot-putter C.J. Hunter. How did this happen? "Coaching," glowered Hunter. (Hunter often glowered; that's just his style.) It turns out Jones had hooked up with a former Jamaican Olympian named Trevor Graham, and he was now her coach.

What a story it was. Graham was working with some folks on the track at N.C. State one day in the winter of '97 when Hunter and Jones showed up to work out. "Oh, my God, it's Marion Jones," Graham said to himself. Minutes later, Hunter asked Graham to take a look at Jones. Graham recommended a couple of minor adjustments, and before he left the track he was hired to coach one of the most extraordinary talents in U.S. track and field history.

They stayed together long enough for Jones to win four medals at the 2000 Olympics and another three at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton. Jones was the dominant female track and field athlete in the world, and she openly credited Graham for guiding her career.

Of course, track coaching relationships are fragile things. Rumors surfaced two months ago that Jones had left Graham, although the split wasn't announced until last Friday. What's disturbing is that Jones is apparently now training in Toronto with Charlie Francis, even though her formal statement said that her new coach was one Derek Hansen. (Photographs this week showed Francis stretching Jones before a workout; Hansen is perhaps Francis' assistant, or even just a front). Francis is one of the most notorious names in track and field history, the man who once coached Ben Johnson and also supervised Johnson's steroid use. Tim Montgomery, Jones' post-Hunter boyfriend, went with her to Toronto and was also seen with Francis.

It's possible that Jones is simply trying to milk another two-tenths of a second out of her 100 meters, to get a sniff of Florence Griffith Joyner's untouchable world records. It's possible -- although scarcely believable -- that she knew little about Francis. But Jones has wanted those records for five years. Maybe she'll get them -- but the cost will be huge, to her reputation and to the sport.

Nothing has happened in the 14 years since Seoul to wash the stink off Charlie Francis. His reputation alone is enough to tarnish anything that Jones does under his tutelage. But it's not just reputation. Francis can be found all over the Web, espousing controlled drug use for elite explosive athletes, explaining that success is impossible without drugs.

Is this what Jones wants to associate herself with? Just as she was emerging from the Sydney scandal involving Hunter? It's implausible. And so sad.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

Related information

Stories

Tim Layden's Insider Archive

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video