Marion Jones

Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track-and-field athlete and former professional basketball player.

Toler became a stay-at-home dad to Jones and her older half-brother, Albert Kelly, until his sudden death in 1987.

Jones turned to sports as an outlet for her grief: running, pickup basketball games, and whatever else her brother Albert was doing athletically.

By the age of 15, she was routinely dominating California high-school athletics on both the track and the basketball court.

She was the Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1991 and 1992.

She was the third female athlete to achieve the title twice, immediately following Angela Burnham at Rio Mesa High School, who was the second to achieve the title twice.

She was invited to participate in the 1992 Olympic trials, and after her showing in the 200 meters finals, would have made the team as an alternate in the 4 × 100 meter relay, but she declined the invitation.

Jones is also a 1997 graduate of the University of North Carolina (UNC).

While at UNC, Jones met and began dating one of the track coaches, shot putter C.J. Hunter.

Hunter voluntarily resigned from his position at UNC to comply with the requirements of university rules prohibiting coach-athlete dating.

Jones and Hunter were married on October 3, 1998, and trained for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.

She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but was later stripped of her medals after admitting to steroid use.

Jones was one of the most famous athletes to be linked to the BALCO scandal.

The performance-enhancing substance usage scandal covered more than 20 top-level athletes, including Jones's ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, and 100 m sprinter Tim Montgomery, the father of Jones's first child.

In the run-up to the 2000 Olympics, Jones declared that she intended to win gold medals in all five of her competition events at Sydney.

Jones's husband, C.J. Hunter, had withdrawn from the shotput competition for a knee injury, though he was allowed to keep his coaching credentials and attend the games to support his wife.

Just hours after Marion Jones won her first of the planned five golds, though, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Hunter had failed four pre-Olympic drug tests, testing favorable each time for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.

Hunter was immediately suspended from taking any role at the Sydney games and was ordered to surrender his on-field coaching credentials.

Jones would later write in her autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane, that Hunter's positive drug tests hurt their marriage and her image as a drug-free athlete.

The couple divorced in 2002.

On June 28, 2003, Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Montgomery, Jr, with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery, a world-class sprinter.

Because of her pregnancy, Jones missed the 2003 World Championships, but spent a year preparing for the 2004 Olympics.

Montgomery, who did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic track-and-field team for poor performance, was charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), as part of the investigation into the BALCO doping scandal, with receiving and using banned performance-enhancing drugs.

The USADA sought a four-year suspension for Montgomery.

Montgomery fought the ban, but lost the appeal on December 13, 2005, receiving a two-year ban from track-and-field competition; the Court of Arbitration for Sport also stripped Montgomery of all race results, records, and medals, from March 31, 2001, onward.

Montgomery later announced his retirement.

The investigation into Montgomery's illegal substance use once more called into question Jones's protests about not using steroids and never having tested positive for steroids, especially in light of former trainer Trevor Graham's increasingly visible role in the BALCO case.

On February 24, 2007, Jones married Barbadian sprinter and 2000 Olympic 100 m bronze medalist Obadele Thompson.

Their first child together, a son named Ahmir, was born in June 2007.

She gave birth to daughter Eva-Marie on June 28, 2009.

Jones has also played professional basketball in the Women's National Basketball Association, as point guard in the team of Tulsa Shock between 2010 and 2011.

Marion Jones was born to George Jones and his wife, Marion (originally from Belize), in Los Angeles.

She holds dual citizenship with the United States and Belize.

Her parents split when she was very young, and Jones's mother remarried a retired postal worker, Ira Toler, three years later.

In 2010, Jones released a book, On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed, published by Simon & Schuster.

In high school, Jones won the CIF California State Meet in the 100 m sprint four years in a row, representing Rio Mesa the first two years and Thousand Oaks high school the last two.

She was successfully defended by attorney Johnnie Cochran on charges of doping during her high-school track career.

She was selected the Gatorade Player of the Year for track and field three years in a row, once at Rio Mesa and twice at Thousand Oaks.

Angela Burnham preceded her with the award at Rio Mesa, Kim Mortensen followed her with the award at Thousand Oaks.

Those schools joined Jesuit High School (Sacramento) and Long Beach Polytechnic High School in having two athletes win the award.