Pregnant Pause

The hands that accepted five medals at the Sydney Olympics will rock a cradle in late July.

Describing herself as initially surprised but quickly overjoyed, Marion Jones said Wednesday she and partner Tim Montgomery soon will become parents. She has withdrawn from competitions this summer but intends to resume training later this year with the aim of preparing for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

“I’m feeling great. There’s been a little bit of pressure just because we wanted to wait until the right moment to release this news,” Jones said from the couple’s home near Raleigh, N.C. “We would have liked to share this awesome news with just our family and friends but we realize there are more people who care....

“I’ve always wanted to have a family and I’ve been blessed to have the wonderful family I already have. I’m so thrilled to say this now, so I can have a really normal, normal pregnancy.”

The child will be the first for Jones, 27, who won gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 100, 200 and 1,600-meter relay and bronze medals in the long jump and 400 relay. Montgomery, who set a world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100-meter dash last September, has a 21-month-old daughter from a previous relationship. He said in a statement, “I was thrilled when Marion told me. I couldn’t think of a more beautiful thing to share with such a wonderful person.”

Jones said the couple knows the baby’s gender but added, “We have to share so much of our lives, we wanted to hold this much to keep for us.”

Until her doctor advised her to cut back a month ago, she was training as usual. She still runs, swims and lifts weights. “I haven’t put on much weight at all, except a little pudge,” she said. “I haven’t had any cravings and I haven’t felt lethargic.”

Jones and Montgomery made international headlines late last year when they dropped their coach, Trevor Graham, and began to work with Derek Hansen and controversial coach Charlie Francis. They later dropped Francis because of the tainted reputation he has carried since he acknowledged supplying steroids to Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Because she is pregnant, it wasn’t necessary for her to find a new coach. She said Montgomery soon will announce his coaching choice.

“I plan to enjoy this experience,” she said. “I don’t plan to be on the treadmill and in the gym at 40 weeks. I’m a pregnant competitor. Being pregnant doesn’t take away from how competitive I am. I look forward to watching Tim compete and seeing how the ladies run at the World Championships [in August] and I look forward to getting back in training for Athens. The timing is great in terms of when the baby will be born. I’m confident I’ll have plenty of time to be ready in 2004.”

Jones, who graduated from Thousand Oaks High in 1993, also said she and Montgomery don’t plan to marry. Jones was married to shotputter C.J. Hunter, but the couple divorced.

“Tim and I are in love and we’re happy with our situation,” she said. “Everything I do, there’s a bit of criticism, and I’m sure there will be some now. But by no means will we let that take away from this awesome experience.

“We’re just very thrilled to begin this new stage of our relationship and our lives.”

Jones joins a number of elite female track athletes who have interrupted their careers to have children. Many have enjoyed equal or greater success after giving birth.

Dutch housewife Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympic Games when she was 30 and the mother of two. Valerie Brisco had a son in 1983 and returned at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to win the 200 and 400 and run a leg of the triumphant 1,600-meter relay team. Evelyn Ashford, a double-gold medalist in 1984, had a daughter in 1985 and in 1988 won silver in the 100 and gold in the 400-meter relay at Seoul. She later won gold in the 400-meter relay at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

“It’s better for you than a store full of vitamins or steroids or anything else,” Brisco said in 1986 of pregnancy. “I carried my baby on my hips instead of our front and it made me stronger in every way, but particularly in the hips, where I needed it ....It was easier to get back in shape from pregnancy than from an injury. There was less pain to overcome. I was not only stronger, I was faster.”