Marion Jones is born to George and Marion Jones in Los Angeles. Soon after the
birth, the marriage fails. The younger Marion will remain estranged from her father
until Thanksgiving of 1995. After a brief meeting, she parts ways with her
father
again.
1983
The elder Marion Jones marries Ira Toler, who adopts the younger Marion and her
half-brother, Albert, while the elder Marion works as a legal secretary. The
children love their stepfather. Four years later Ira dies of a stroke,
devastating Marion and her brother. "Ira was always there for my
sister," says Albert. "He talked to her, answered her questions,
helped her with homework, took her to tee-ball games. Then he was
gone."
Fall
1988
After watching Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee compete at the
Seoul Olympics, Marion, an eighth-grader, writes on a school blackboard: "I
want to be an Olympic
champion."
April
1990
Inger Miller, a senior at Muir High School in Pasadena, beats Marion, then a
freshman at Rio Mesa High in Oxnard, Calif., in both the 100 and 200 meters at
the prestigious Arcadia Invitational high school meet in Southern California.
Afterward Miller is told by a meet official: "It's a good thing you beat
her now, because I don't think you'll ever beat her again." Recalling the
incident at Arcadia, Miller says, "[Marion] wasn't very cordial after
getting beat by
me."
June 12,
1991
Marion sets a national high school record in the 200 meters, bolting to a mark
of 22.76 at the U.S. senior track and field championships. Although she finishes
fourth in the event, she receives an invite to appear on Good Morning,
America. "I don't think I'm a celebrity yet. But I think my name is
getting known throughout the country," says
Marion.
Summer
1991
Her mother moves the family from Camarillo, Calif., to Thousand Oaks so
Marion can play basketball for Thousand Oaks High. A junior, Marion sets a
national high school girls' mark when she clocks a 22.67 in the 200-meter dash.
She also runs the year's fastest high school girls' 100, in 11.14, .01 off the
all-time
best.
1991
Track & Field News names Marion female high school athlete of the
year.
March 1992
Marion tries a new event, the long jump. In her first meet she jumps 19' 10
3/4", longest in the country that year by a high school girl. Three weeks
later she improves to 20' 9 1/4", impressing world-record-holder Mike
Powell. "Give me three or four weeks with her," says Powell, "and
she'll be jumping 23 or 24 feet." At the state championship meet Marion
leaps 23' 0", the second longest jump ever made by a high school
girl.
June 28,
1992
Marion's best 200 of the year comes at the 1992 Olympic track and field trials,
where she finishes fourth with a 22.58 and misses a spot on the U.S. team by a
scant .07 of a second. No girl younger than 18 had ever run 200 meters as fast.
Only 16, she earns a spot as an alternate on the 4x100 relay team, which goes on
to win a gold medal in Barcelona. Since Marion would almost certainly have run
in at least one of the qualifying rounds, she, too, would have won a gold. But
she chooses to stay home. "I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to run in
the final," she says. "When I get my first medal, I want to have
earned it, sweated for
it."
Spring 1993
Marion finishes her high school basketball career, during which she averages 22.8 points and
14.7 rebounds per game her senior season as a shooting guard for Thousand Oaks. She is also named
California's Division I Player of the Year. Thousand Oaks goes 60-4 during
Marion's two years on the
team.
June 22,
1993
For an unprecedented third consecutive year, Marion receives the Gatorade Circle
of Champions National High School Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year
award. She is the only athlete to win the award more than once. "This is
one of the hardest, if not the hardest, awards to win," she says. "It
shows I've been
consistent."
Summer 1993
Although Marion earns state-player-of-the-year honors in basketball, not many
colleges are interested in recruiting her. But North Carolina coach Sylvia
Hatchell sees something and offers Marion a scholarship to play for the Tar
Heels.
September 1993
Marion arrives in Chapel Hill to play basketball for North Carolina. "We
like to take good athletes and make them into great basketball players,"
says Hatchell. When Marion, a 5'11" forward, shows up for practice in
November, Hatchell asks her to develop a "point-guard mentality."
Marion spends an extra 45 minutes a day working on dribbling and, by the fourth
game, she becomes the starter at point guard. Meanwhile, her mother also
relocates to Chapel Hill. Marion later reflects on the move: "I had always
been independent, but when I went to college, that was multiplied 10 times. My
mother and I butted heads a
lot."
April 1994
Less than six minutes into the women's NCAA championship final against Louisiana
Tech, Marion is charged with her third foul and is consigned to the bench for
the remainder of the half. While Marion sits, her teammates commit eight
turnovers, bang their heads against the Lady Techsters' iron-curtain defense and
look lost, falling behind by five late in the second half. But even though she
finishes the game with just two points, Marion returns in the second half and
provides a calming effect, helping the Tar Heels win the title,
60-59.
June
1994
Marion earns All-America honors in four events at the NCAA track and field
championships. She also improves her all-time best in the long jump to 22' 1
3/4", finishing second in the event.
Winter
1994
As a sophomore, Marion averages 17.1 points a game while guiding the Tar Heels
to an 18-0 start. "A lot of people didn't take her basketball
seriously," says Hatchell, who names Marion one of the team's co-captains.
"She's not a track athlete playing basketball. She's a basketball
player." The Tar Heels finish the season 30-5, falling to Stanford in the
NCAA regional
finals.
