Marion Jones Biography - "i Want To Be An Olympic Champion", High School Star, Tar Heels Point Guard, Chronology - CONTACT INFORMATION
field track medals athlete
1975-
American track and field athlete
Marion Jones
Marion Jones is widely considered to be today's greatest female athlete and one of the greatest athletes of all time. She became the first woman to win five medals in a single Olympics when she won three gold and two bronze medals in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Jones has also won scores of other medals and awards, including being the unanimous choice as Track & Field News's Athlete of the Year in 1998. Jones played basketball for the Lady Tar Heels at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and may consider a future career in professional basketball, but first she has her sights set on winning track-and-field gold at the 2004 Olympics.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: U.S.A. Track and Field, One Hoosier Dome, Suite 140, Indianapolis, IN 46225.
Additional Topics
Marion Lois Jones was born October 12, 1975, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of George and Marion Jones. Her mother, a medical and legal secretary, had immigrated to the United States from Belize. When Jones was an infant, her parents divorced, leaving her mother to raise her and her older half-brother, Albert Kelly, alone. In 1983, Mrs. Jones married Ira Toler, whose death four years lat…
In her sophomore year at Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, California, Jones set a national high school record in the 200-meter, at 22.76, and was named Track & Field News's Female High School Athlete of the Year. The following summer, she won five state titles and set a U.S. high school record in the 200 meters (22.58 seconds). Playing basketball for Thousand Oaks High School her juni…
As a 5'11" point guard with the Lady Tar Heels at UNC, Jones developed a natural leadership role and earned the nickname "Flash" for her speed with the ball. The team won North Carolina's first national championship in 1993-94. Winning All-American honors in track the following season, Jones came back in the 1994-95 basketball season to help her team finish 30-5.…
By the spring of 1997, Jones decided to devote herself solely to track and field. She began training with coach Trevor Graham, a Jamaican who was a silver medalist in the 1988 Summer Olympics. Jones won the 100-meter dash and defeated Joyner-Kersee in the long jump at the 1997 U.S.A. Outdoor Track & Field Championships. At the 1997 World Championships, she won gold in the 100 meters and as …
Jones got off to a blazing start at the Olympics in Sydney, winning a gold in the 100-meter final, with a time of 10.75 seconds, .37 second over silver medalist Ekaterini Thanou of Greece. Jones's winning margin was the second largest in Olympic 100-meter history. On winning her first gold, Jones sobbed, "It's been my dream for 19 years, and finally it's here." S…
After the 2000 Olympics, Jones has continued to compete and win, although she lost the 100-meter to Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block—Jones's first 100-meter loss in four years—as she was going through the separation from Hunter. She reclaimed her 100-meter title at the Goodwill Games and brought home her fourth 200-meter championship in the U.S.A. Outdoor in 2001. In 2002 sh…
Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 21. Edited by Shirelle Phelps. "Marion Jones." Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Newsmakers 1998, Issue 4. "Marion Jones." Detroit: Gale Group, 1998. Sports Stars, Series 1-4. "Marion Jones." Detroit: U•X•L, 1994-98. "10 Greatest Women Athletes." Ebony (March 2002): 74. "Breaking the Tape: Tr…
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User Comments
over 2 years ago
sam B.
DEAR MARION JONES,I JUST FINISHED WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT YOUR AMAZING STORY FROM PRISON,WITH 3KIDS TO BEGIN A CAREER IN THE WNBA.AFTER I FINISHED WATCHING IT,I WAS CRYING.THE LORD GOD IS USING YOU TO TELL ALL OF US THAT IN LIFE YOU NEVER GIVE UP.MARION,YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON.I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WILL HATE TO SEE YOU ON TOP BUT THERE IS NOTHING ANYBODY CAN DO,YOU ARE BLESSED.
over 1 year ago
jhkyk
Marion Jones Biography - "i Want To Be An Olympic Champion", High School Star, Tar Heels Point Guard, Chronology - CONTACT INFORMATION
about 2 years ago
i think this is very bad!!!!!
eny wuu2 these dayzz .x.
about 2 years ago
madeeha
hey wuu2?
almost 4 years ago
Marion my dad used to say 'they can take away all your worldly possessions, but your heart they can never touch.' I live by those words every day. He passed away 10 years ago and not a day goes by that I don't live those beautiful words he instilled in me. I want to share them with you and hope they will mean something to you in the years to come. Like you, I was a track athlete but for me time and place was impossible to do so, but now I have decided to help others to a smoother pathway join me at www.blackwomeninsports to give these girls a voice. Love to hear from you. Editor
about 4 years ago
Thomas Goff
Dear Marion, I followed you for years and admired you very much. I want to assist you in getting back into full running form and prove to the world that you are a quality person in both athletics and in your heart. I could not run for 10 years due to a hip injury and now just today, I ran my 199th time after taking a patented natural product that is regaining peoples lives. I want to see you back on the stand again, I want to see you outpacing the field again, and I want to see you speak to people of all ages and tell them openly about their lives. They as well can come back. We live in the age of grace and it is yours to have as well. I promise you that you will be pleased. A friend of mine, 67 years old broke the Masters Mile record of 37 years by 10 seconds. Thanks,Thomas G
about 4 years ago
Dear Marion Jones:I want you to know that you are a great role model I have been doing a research on you for my english paper I have find out so much about you.By doing my research you have I nice family an you are a nice person yourself.I want to tell you that I still look up to no matter what happen and, yes you are still a good role model no matter what anyone has to say..I was also think would you train someone for track if they ask to.Last but not less I also want to thank you for sharing your story with use an I want you to know you mean alot to me.Love Alexis P
over 4 years ago
Dear Marion Jones Thompson: GOD BLESS YOU!
Congratulations on choosing to know that you have "so much life to live, and so much love to give!" You and our eldest son are the same age, and your beauty, tenacity, willingness to see the "opportunity" and seek the help to understand and master that portion of yourself is part of the amazing you that we fell in love with via your track&field life-chapter. I'm so glad you have yourself, your husband, your beautiful sons and family. Know that I am one of your "fan-club" members, rooting you on and knowing that TRULY, "The Best Is Yet To Come!" Thank you for living it and sharing it with others.
In your corner and so proud of You!
Nece DJ Hollis
Another Mother
over 4 years ago
Marion,
I am sure you have had your share of dark nights of the soul as you underwent your trials. I want you to know that I, and I am sure many others, feel that you have conducted yourself with grace and courage. You were forced to endure far more than your misdeeds warranted and no allowance was made for your youth and for the huge chunk of that youth and of your childhood that were sacrificed to the sport. It is not a world of justice, but you already know that. I hope you had- or found- the consolation of faith as you endured these trials so magnificently. We all screw up sometimes and it is a short-sighted and dishonest society that deals so harshly with its errant children. You are a real and present hero to me. You admitted your error and took far more heat than you deserved. Welcome back. I wish you joy and blessings on your journey to the sunlit uplands.
Anthony
over 4 years ago
Marion should have never been sent to prison. She is a stand up woman to admit her mistakes when there was no real proof showing she used steroids. Why do we choose to support some stars and not others> look at bonds and maguire. Sports needed a scape goat and unfortunatelly it was Jones