Leap of Faith

Wave after wave, the writers converged around Marion Jones on Friday, armed with questions that amounted basically to variations on the same theme: her bid to win five gold medals at the Summer Olympics.

This had been going on for nearly an hour when a late-arriving British scribe poked his head into the scrum to wonder, “Still focused on the five for Sydney?”

Jones puffed out her cheeks, smiled wearily at the questioner and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Noooo,” she replied, leaning in conspiratorially. “It’s just come out late today: I’m only going to go for three.”

And then Jones and rest of the group burst into laughter.

That would be the easy way to go about it.

That would finally bring an end to all the questions about the long jump, the one weak link in her competitive repertoire, the one crooked club in her Olympic golf bag, the one event in which Jones regularly raises eyebrows rather than standards.

Barring illness or injury, Jones will arrive in Sydney this September favored to win gold medals in the women’s 100 meters, 200 meters and 400-meter relay--with reasonable expectations of a fourth in the 1,600-meter relay. But the long jump is a longshot--odds that haven’t been helped by Jones’ first two competitions of 2000.

In Osaka, Japan, in May, Jones jumped only 20 feet 7 inches--more than three feet shy of her career best.

On her home track in Raleigh, N.C., last week, Jones picked up 11 inches, jumping 21-6, but still lost to her training partner, Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas, who jumped 21-11 3/4.

And with every subpar mark, the volume of the skepticism surrounding Jones’ quest increases.

She’s wasting her time on the long jump--that’s one popular refrain.

She’s expending too much energy on the long jump and risking probable gold medals in her specialty events--that’s another one.

But Jones is nothing if not persistent, which is why she has entered the long jump competition as well as the 100 meters in today’s Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon.

“I’m not worried,” Jones said, “[but] I think I’m at the point where I want to pop off a good jump. I know I have the ability to do it. And I should start following through now.

“I just need to get one out there and convince myself I still have it . . . and kind of quiet all the criticism about it. Because I remember in ‘98, when I jumped far, there wasn’t any criticism. And the technique was as bad as it ever had been, but everybody was fine because I was jumping far.

“That’s what I need now--to pop a good one.”

Jones is buoyed by the knowledge that at this meet in 1998, on the same Hayward Field track, she popped the best long jump of her career--23-11 3/4, the top mark in the world that year.

Since then, however, she has struggled to approach that mark again. Her best effort in 1999 was 23-0, and she placed third at the World Championships with a jump of 22-3.

What went wrong?

“Perhaps listening to all of you,” Jones said, laughing as she spoke, but only half-joking about that theory’s validity.

Jones pays attention to what is said and written about her in the media, perhaps to a fault. She says she uses the criticism to motivate herself, but at times, the free advice about right and wrong techniques crept into her long jumping.

“In ’99 in particular, I was thinking too much about the technique in the air,” she said. “Because of that, without a doubt, I knew I had the speed on the runway. That’s never been in question. The problem I had was transferring that 10.70 speed from the track over to the runway. I was having problems with that.

“Of course, my rhythm was off. I think also in ‘99, I didn’t get a lot of long jump competitions in, which I regret a little bit.

“Things will definitely be different in the future. But you learn. I’m not a veteran at this, I’m not 31 years old--just 23 in ’99. So I learned.”

After a year spent tinkering and experimenting, Jones had gone back to her jumping style of 1998, as unrefined and unsightly as it may have been.

The reason why?

Jones answers in meters.

“Seven-thirty-one,” she said, referring to her 1998 jump of 23-11 3/4. “That should answer everything right there. Whether it was pretty, I never said it was. But it worked.”

Jones has kept at the long jump for the same reason critics have suggested she abandon it: Because she struggles with it.

“What I like right now about the long jump is that it’s kicking me,” she said. “It’s challenging me. I’m not dominating it. Until I get to that point where I was in ‘98, I’m going to keep at it.

“It’s definitely a motivation. I thrive on being the best and being one of the best in the world, and the fact that I’m not right now in the long jump motivates me every day in practice.

“Since I could remember, I’ve been running up and down the street, and beating everybody. And obviously starting the long jump when I was 17 in high school, my senior year, when a lot of my competitors have been doing it since they were 6--and that’s all they do. The fact I’ve had to juggle it with two other events that are my premier events [100 and 200 meters] has been difficult.”

Someone asked if Jones actually enjoyed that difficulty.

Jones laughed.

“I wouldn’t go as far as ‘enjoy,’ ” she said. “It was very enjoyable in ‘98--leading the world in the long jump, and I want to get back to that. And perhaps the constant questions regarding the technique and when will I jump far and why do I still do it have been a bit burdensome. And I’d like to get away from that.

“Definitely, ‘enjoy’ is not the word I would use.”

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PREFONTAINE CLASSIC

Eugene, Ore.

Today, Noon

Channel 2