Does Olympian Marion Jones Have Runaway Pride or True Talent?

Craig Masback, CEO of USA Track and Field, likes to boast that Marion Jones “has the chance to be the first female international athlete to transcend sports . . . only three people have done that: Pele, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan” (“Just Do It,” by Mike Penner, Aug. 6). Sorry, but that’s one race where Jones won’t be the first woman across the finish line. That distinction already belongs to the amazing Billie Jean King, who blazed trails in social change before Jones was even born.

Sylvia Green

Burbank

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I was most bemused by Jones’ comments. It seems that our country’s “track and field royalty” has an incredibly escalated view of herself. Her complaint of a lack of recognition from the P.E. students at North Carolina State University is most embarrassing. How is it that she can march onto the university track every morning as a nonstudent and expect the paying students to move to an outside lane so as not to disrupt her highness’ workout?

Susan Roth

Los Angeles