Marion Jones plays liar’s poker
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The new boss of USA Track & Field didn’t wait long before jumping in feet first on a critical issue for his sport: doping.
Speaking to the press last week, Doug Logan called doping a ‘horrible, horrible plague’ and talked about the need for a cultural shift in people’s attitudes toward cheating if the sport is going to rid itself of the doping plague.
So it was no surprise when Logan, who began his new job Monday, was outraged by Marion Jones’ plea for a presidential commutation of her six-month jail sentence for lying to federal investigators.
And if Logan’s reaction -- asking President Bush in an open letter to deny that commutation -- smacks a little of grandstanding, so be it. Better that than letting Jones off easier, because she never has confessed to the extent of her doping.
As I wrote in my Chicago Tribune blog, Globetrotting, Jan. 10, when the judge was about to determine Jones’ sentence, I would have been lenient under three conditions:
That Jones tell the entire truth about her use of performance-enhancing drugs. That a percentage of any future income be garnished until she can return some of the $700,000 that the international track federation claims was ill-gotten gain.That she do a substantial amount of community service.
But I also wrote this:
In asking for leniency, Jones’ lawyers said, ‘She has lost her livelihood. She has been ruined financially. She has lost her reputation.’And why shouldn’t she have lost all those things, having been exposed as a duplicitous fraud and something of a pathological liar?That ugly picture of who Marion Jones really was -– not the track superstar who was the first athlete on the cover of Vogue -– will haunt her future. But it serves no useful purpose to put Jones in jail, provided she finally faces her past.
She has not faced her past. The judge gave her six months and a big chunk of community service.
Now she wants out early. Doug Logan doesn’t want that to happen, and, in the preamble to the letter that USATF released today, he has asked others to take a stand. Form your own opinion.
Below is the USATF preamble to Logan’s letter, which appears after the jump:
USA Track & Field has written to President Bush to express our concern at Marion Jones’ application for pardon or commutation of her conviction for making false statements to federal investigators. Make your own voice heard and join USATF in writing to President Bush. For more information on how to write the White House, click here.
Dear President Bush,
They say you can’t always believe what you read in the papers. So, when I read that Marion Jones has applied to you for a pardon or commutation of her federal conviction for making false statements to investigators, I couldn’t believe it. She lied to federal agents. She took steroids. She made false statements in a bank fraud investigation -- not necessarily in that order. She admitted it. And now she apparently wants to be let off.
As the new CEO of USA Track & Field, I have a moral and practical duty to make the case against her request.
With her cheating and lying, Marion Jones did everything she could to violate the principles of track and field and Olympic competition. When she came under scrutiny for doping, she taunted any who doubted her purity, talent and work ethic.
Just as she had succeeded in duping us with her performances, she duped many people into giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She pointed her finger at us, and got away with it until federal investigators teamed up with USADA and finally did her in. It was a sad thing to watch, the most glorious female athlete of the 20th century in tears on courthouse steps.
Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes. If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.
To reduce Ms. Jones’ sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.
In my new job as CEO of USA Track & Field, I must right the ship that Ms. Jones and other athletes nearly ran aground. I implore you, Mr. President: Please don’t take the wind out of our sails.
Respectfully Yours,
Douglas G. Logan
CEO, USA Track & Field
-- Philip Hersh
