Marion suffers a setback that will cause her to miss the 1996 Atlanta Games. She
breaks the fifth metatarsal bone in her left foot while practicing with the U.S.
basketball team at the World University Games. She later re-breaks the foot in
December while rehabilitating it on a trampoline. The injury prevents her from
making the U.S. Olympic team as a sprinter or long jumper the following
year.
January
1996
Marion begins dating the man she'll eventually marry. North Carolina strength
coach Jeff Madden introduces her to C.J. Hunter, a bronze-medal-winning
shot-putter at the '95 worlds. People in the Tar Heels community aren't
necessarily happy with the pairing, leading Hunter to say, "People who
criticize us don't give a damn about Marion." Hunter resigns his assistant
track coach's position because university rules prohibit coach-athlete dating.
"Easy call," says Hunter.
Spring
1996
Marion and Hunter become engaged to be
married.
March
1997
Marion walks into coach Hatchell's office and tells her she is forgoing her
final season of basketball to concentrate on track. "She said she wanted to
be the fastest woman in the world," says Hatchell. But quitting the team
doesn't come without controversy. Many believe that Hunter, seven years her
senior and divorced with two children, influences her decision to forgo her
final year of eligibility. During the three years that Marion ran the point,
North Carolina went 92-10 and didn't lose an Atlantic Coast Conference
tournament
game.
April
1997
While Marion works out with Hunter at North Carolina State, track coach Trevor
Graham watches her in awe. When Graham is asked what he thinks of Marion, he
asks if he can make a small adjustment to Marion's technique. Graham ends up
making several changes and Marion runs faster and faster. "That had never
happened to me," says Marion. "Trevor changed little things, like the
angle of my blocks or the way I carried one arm, and I improved
immediately." Marion and Graham decide they're a match for one
another.
June 15,
1997
Two months after quitting basketball, Marion wins two titles at the U.S.
national championships in Indianapolis. She runs the 100 in 10.76 seconds,
equaling the fifth-fastest time in history. Then she leaps 22' 9" to secure
the gold in the long jump. After the victories, Nike signs Marion to a
contract.
August 8,
1997
Marion supplants Gail Devers and Merlene Ottey as the fastest woman in the world
when she wins the 100-meter world championship in Athens, Greece. Her time in
the final: 10.83 seconds.
May 13, 1998
With a winter of training behind her, Marion runs a 10.71 in Chengdu, China, the
fastest 100 ever turned in by any woman not named Florence Griffith
Joyner.
May 31, 1998
At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., Marion jumps 23' 11 1/4", the
best mark of the year, and best mark of her career.
June 20, 1998
At the U.S. national championships in New Orleans, she becomes the first woman
in 50 years to win three individual events -- the 100, 200 and long jump -- and
she matches her 10.71 in the 100. "What she's getting ready to do is going
to blow everybody's mind," says sprint coach John Smith, a 1972 U.S.
Olympian in the 400 meters. "We're talking about 10.50 or better for the
100, 21-flat for the 200 and, in the long jump, at least 25
feet."
Just 23, Marion is the first U.S. woman to be ranked No. 1 simultaneously in
three different events: the 100, 200 and the long jump. She is so dominant in
'98 that she finishes second just once in 37 consecutive sprint/jump events.
Marion is also track and field's top female athlete in terms of estimated
earnings. With on and off the track agreements, it's estimated that she pulls
in $7 million in
1998.
September
1998
At the World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, Marion sets a personal best in
the 100, breaking the tape in 10.65 seconds -- the fourth-fastest time in
history. What's more, she also takes the 200 in 21.62, another personal record.
It's the last meet of the season, which is welcome news to her. "I'm ready
to go home. My body's due for some rest," she
says.
Oct. 3,
1998
Marion marries shot-putter C.J. Hunter. "Everybody says I'm not good for
her," says Hunter. "She's my best friend. And that's all I'll say
about it." Says Marion: "I've never in my life had somebody whom I
could tell everything to. Now I can. I have a
companion."
March
1999
Picking up where she left off, Marion cruises to victory in the 100 at the Engen
Grand Prix Summer Series in Roodepoort, South Africa. She stays consistent,
never losing a race in the 100 or 200 until the world championships in
August.
August 20,
1999
While attempting to win four golds at the world championships in Seville, Spain,
Marion is hit with back spasms in the 200 semifinals and withdraws from the rest
of the competition. Her season is finished. She takes home a gold in the 100 and
a bronze medal in the long jump, but also a heart full of disappointment.
"I've learned to listen to my body more," she says, dismissing the
notion that she may be vulnerable to injury. Despite her anguish, Marion
celebrates her husband's victory in the shot put, where Hunter unleashes the
best throw of his life on his final attempt to claim the
gold.
February
2000
Marion reiterates her desire to attempt an unprecedented Olympic sweep in five
events: the 100, 200, long jump, 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay. "If I go to
Sydney and happen to run [slowly] and I still win, I'll take it," she says.
"The most important thing is ... coming away with the five gold
medals."
May
2000
In the first of several planned ads, Nike airs the "The Mysterious Mrs.
Jones" as a way to drum up publicity for Marion, the shoe company and the
Sydney Olympics. With cameras showing only the lower half of her face addressing
a microphone, Marion pontificates about pay disparities between male and female
athletes: "Why are our sisters making less when they're busting their butts
to the max? I'm speaking of pro women athletes. Are they playing any less hard
than the fellas?"
July
2000
At the Olympic trials in Sacramento, Marion keeps her dream alive of winning
five golds in Sydney. She cleans up in the 100 and 200, and then, while facing
elimination in the long jump, she records 23' 1/2", her best mark in two
years. "Even though she was under a lot of pressure in the long jump, she
was having a lot of fun," says
Graham.
NBC president Dick Ebersol says his network will cover Marion's attempt to win
an unprecedented five track and field gold medals at Sydney "like a
miniseries." Says irked rival Inger Miller, "It shouldn't be as if no
one else is even competing in her races. It's not like Marion Jones is
Superwoman and everyone else is
poultry."
August
2000
Reflecting on her goal of winning five Olympic golds, Marion says, "Right
now, at 24, I think I can do what I say I can do. I've always been that way. As
a kid I was a little badass, confident, able to walk around and do it all, or at
least think I could do it all. ... My ultimate goal is to be mentioned in the
same sentence as Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali or
Pele."
September 24,
2000
Her quest for five gold medals underway, Marion runs the 100-meter final in 10.75 seconds, winning by .37 seconds over Ekaterini Thanou of Greece. It is the second biggest margin in Olympic 100-meter history. "It's been my dream for 19 years, and finally it's here," a sobbing Marion said afterward. Marjorie Jackson's win by .38 over Daphne Hasenjager in 1952 was the only bigger winning margin in an Olympic 100-meter final, either men's or women's. Only one track athlete, the 'Flying Finn' Paavo Nurmi, won that many in one Olympics. He did it in Paris 76 years ago.
September 25, 2000
Two days after Marion wins her first Olympic gold, news surfaces that Hunter allegedly fails four separate tests over the summer for the use of the steroid nandrolone. Hunter withdrew from the Olympics a month prior to the Games after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. At an emotional news conference Hunter is emphatic that he never took the drug. Says Hunter: "Nobody on the planet could say that I don't love my wife and I don't love my kids. I have never in my life, nor would I ever, do anything to jeopardize their opinion of me."
Photographs by, Bill Frakes, Al Tielemans, Mike Powell, Al Tielemans
