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Down but not out Hunter's troubles won't keep Jones from five golds
SYDNEY, Australia -- Two things to consider before making the assumption that Marion Jones' despair over her husband's drug scandal will prevent her from winning five gold medals: 1. Mrs. Jones is a big-stage player, has been since she was a little kid. Bright lights do not intimidate her. I remember a story that North Carolina women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell told me about Jones. When Jones was a freshman starting at point guard for the Lady Tar Heels, on a team that would eventually win the national title, Hatchell approached Jones in the locker room before the first round of the ACC Tournament. Hatchell thought Jones might need a little lift, a little motherly advice before her first big tournament game. Jones looked up at Hatchell and her eyes were so ablaze with intensity that Hatchell thought she might cry. "I couldn't believe how ready she was," Hatchell said. Outside concerns do nothing but sharpen her focus. Jones is upset over what has happened here since Monday. That was obvious from the blank, exhausted look on her face during a press conference with C.J. Hunter on Tuesday. But she'll deal with it. 2. Jones's mother, Marion Toler, once told me that nothing motivates her daughter like anger. Well, she's angry now. She's either angry that her husband was stupid enough to use a drug -- or a supplement -- that would cause him to test positive four times in a single summer, as Hunter has; or she's angry that the media and the IAAF have been so rough on him. Either way, watch the anger fuel her.
During the joint Hunter/Jones press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, Hunter called overcoming the scandal "a walk in the park" after what he and Jones have been through. He didn't get specific, but surely he was referring at least in part to the difficult first 18 months of their relationship. They met in the winter of 1996, when Hunter was coaching track at North Carolina and Jones was playing basketball. When Jones left Carolina to concentrate on track in early spring of '97, the couple had little money. Hunter had to ask Nike officials for an advance on his small endorsement contract to help them live. Meanwhile, many people in the North Carolina community were criticizing their relationship, trying to sabotage the pairing by bringing up Hunter's difficult past, including a divorce and financial troubles. The couple weathered all of this in large part because they supported each other and closed the circle around them. They will do it again in Sydney. None of this makes Jones' athletic task any easier. She still has a tough day on Wednesday, when she has to run two rounds of the 200 meters and qualify for the long jump final. But she should win the 200 in a walk, with Inger Miller out and Cathy Freeman just not quite fast enough at the shorter distance. The long jump remains what it has always been: a crapshoot. As for the relays, the U.S. is at best a co-favorite in the 4x100 and a long shot in the four-by-four.
Miller still might run relaySpeaking of Miller, her official withdrawal from the 200 was not so much because she couldn't run at all, but because she couldn't run fast. "My goal in the 200 was always to win a gold medal, not just to show up and run," Miller told me Tuesday afternoon here. "I'm just not healthy enough to do that." Miller has serious doubts about her ability to run the 4x100 relay, but the U.S. women's coaching staff has serious doubts about America's ability to win without her and therefore has asked her to remain in Sydney and withhold a decision until late in the week. The first round of the relay is Friday morning. "The relay is a tough call," Miller said. "In an individual event, it's just you out there, so maybe you take a chance. But in a relay, you affect other people's medal chances. What if I go down? But the coaches have said they might need me, so I'm staying in Sydney." Miller is also fully aware that because she has withdrawn from both the 100 and 200, her name has joined the list of athletes who have pulled out of the Games and thus attracted suspicion that they were trying to avoid a drug test. "It's been a terrible trip as it is," Miller said. "There's nothing I can do about people saying that." Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is in Sydney covering the track and field competition for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Layden's behind-the-scenes reports from Down Under.
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