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C.J. Hunter, her ex-husband, known to be quite a boar, was the world record hold in the shot put. He was shamed out of the Sydney Olympics for testing positive for steroid use. It was at least the fourth time he’d tested positive. Marion stood by her man at internationally televised conferences as he tearfully denied steroid abuse. A knee injury and subsequent surgery ended his career. And Marion promptly ended their marriage. Marion and CJ had a relationship with BALCO, the San Francisco area lab for performance enhancing nutrition. BALCO’s founder, Victor Conte, had developed a myriad of legitimate cocktails to enhance professional athletes’ performances. The most widely used was a zinc and magnesium supplement associated publicly with Marion. She has said that she had a “limited relationship” with BALCO. C.J., on the other hand, obviously went further into BALCO’s products to augment his enormous body to compete in the shot put. Did Marion know? I don’t know. I do know that a wife can be the last to know when her husband is using illicit drugs on the down low. I’ve seen it too many times. But association does not equal guilt in America. The USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) has threatened to bar Jones from competing in the upcoming Athens Olympics without a positive drug test or indisputable evidence that she shot up with THG. She has retained a lawyer to fight this battle with her and has made it plain that she will sue for the right to compete in August. That’s OK, but I think the proof is an 11-month-old baby boy. It seems that nobody but me has taken a look at this. If Marion were on steroids, which are male hormones, she would not be ovulating and therefore would not be fertile! Hello! And if by chance a woman who was taking steroids were to conceive, chances of a full term pregnancy would be slim. And if a woman who was taking steroids were to carry a baby to full term, the probability of serious birth defects would be astronomical. And finally, if a man taking steroids impregnated a woman on steroids (as Tim Montgomery, her boyfriend is accused of, as well)….you get the picture. The kid would have looked like something out of Star Wars! The probability that Marion was taking steroids is slim to none. She wouldn’t have delivered a healthy baby. Period. So my advice to Marion is to get a doctor and statistician on her legal team, because her baby is living evidence that it her body probably wasn’t full of male hormones. And besides that, this is a country where a person is innocent until proven guilty. Kobe is cutting up in the playoffs while his rape case is proceeding. Why should it be any different for track and field athletes? I’m not equating the two situations because they are vastly different. The point is that until proven guilty, an athlete should be able to compete. Marion is not skirting the issue. She asked for and received a meeting with the USADA to argue her case. She has requested that every sample ever taken from her be retested to prove her innocence. Nobody else has asked for that level of scrutiny. Marion’s association with C.J. Hunter and Victor Conte has no doubt cast a dark cloud of suspicion over her. But her baby boy is her shining light of innocence. I hope she succeeds in her bid to defend her titles in the Athens Games.  WANT TO REACH THIS WRITER Copyright 2006 by BlackAthlete.net, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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