Marion Jones

If you're an avid reader of this blog, which I know none of you are (it's ok, I know that most of the time when I post something on here nobody will EVER read it) I mentioned in my January 3rd post found here, that one of my worst moments of 2007 was when Marion Jones admitted lying to everyone about taking performance enhancing drugs. The thing that makes me so mad about this is that she lied right to everyone's face deliberately thinking she could get away with it. And today it seems, that Justice has finally been served. Despite her pleas to the judge for a leaner sentence, the former track gold medalist was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying to federal investigators and also her involvement in a check-fraud scheme.

First of all, Marion, I'm sorry you have to go to jail. But maybe if you didn't put yourself in these kinds of predicaments, then we wouldn't be in this mess. All you had to do was tell the truth from the beginning about BALCO and maybe, the judge would have taken that into consideration when it came time to sentencing. But because you didn't, it's going to take years of sorting through all sorts of evidence and testimony to form a case. I know you did it because you didn't want to lose everything that you had worked so hard to earn but you also have to think, at one point, you were the most celebrated female athlete in the world. To millions of kids, you were their idol. Setting the kind of example you did not only lowers your credibility, it makes you look sneaky and manipulative, regardless if that was the message you were trying to send or not. I know you have two sons, one of whom is still nursing. But if we let you get away with what you've done, then others who do the same thing from now on will point to this case as a precedent.

And then on top of everything, to lie AGAIN claiming you weren't aware of the fraudulent check-scheme in which ex-boyfriend and father of your child Tim Montgomery cashed millions of dollars in stolen or forged checks is even more beyond me. This is going on IN YOUR OWN HOUSE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. How can you turn a blind eye to this? It's like walking into your house and discovering you have a homemade meth lab and think none the wiser.

The world will need time to forgive you Marion and for some that you've hurt so badly, forgiveness may never come. The important thing now is to spread the word and remind children to never do what you did. Because if we let cheating consume all of sports, everything that has ever been done will be under scrutiny.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/images/marionjonesconfessionsportsillustrated.jpg