Jones Can’t Run Away From Her Problems

Once, in eminently happier times, Marion Jones based a career, a reputation, a marketing campaign and the future of her sport on a single number.

Five.

Five gold medals -- that was Jones’ great aim for the 2000 Sydney Games. She laid out her brazen game plan in the media, back when she was still talking to the media, the number following her from event to event, from track to long-jump pit to interview tent, wherever she roamed throughout Sacramento, where she reigned as queen for 10 days at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

She nearly pulled it off, too, coming home from Australia with five Olympic medals -- three gold and two bronze.

Four years later, the U.S. trials are back in Sacramento, and so is Jones, and so is the number five.

As in: Fifth place at 100 meters.

Yesterday a milestone, today a millstone. Jones ran fifth in Saturday’s women’s 100-meter final, finishing two places too low for a chance to defend her 2000 Olympic title, four places below a former 400-meter specialist now trained by Jones’ former coach and one place behind a runner nine years her senior.

Jones ran 11.14 seconds in the final. This was after she ran 11.38 in Friday’s quarterfinals and 11.14 in the semifinals earlier Saturday.

She covered ground nearly as fast blowing past the media throng waiting for her alongside the track at Sacramento State. Finding an extra gear she lacked in the race, Jones broke through the pack and legged it for the exit, where a meet-sponsored golf cart was waiting and idling, braced for her getaway.

Sliding into the back seat, Jones issued a quick, curt statement before the tires started spinning: “When I talk, you guys have something negative to say. When I don’t talk, you guys have something negative to say. I’d much rather not talk and spend time with my son if you guys have negative things to say. So have a nice day.”

Or, when the congregated writers are left coughing on exhaust fumes and dust clouds, swimmers will step in with negative things to say. A few hours earlier, down the coast in Long Beach, Gary Hall Jr. told writers covering the U.S. Olympic swim trials that Jones was a drug cheat and should be banned for life, saying, “Everyone she has ever associated with has cheated, everyone except her [son].”

No one has proved anything yet, except that Jones is much slower than she once was. But her name’s association with the ongoing BALCO investigation is a story that won’t go away, a story consuming headlines at both the track and swim trials, a story she can’t outrun any more than the 100-meter field that lined up against her in Saturday’s final.

Although, she could defuse the story by faltering here at the trials. If she doesn’t qualify in the 200 meters or the long jump, Jones will not be going to Athens. That’s one way to take a bite out of the controversy.

Chryste Gaines, facing a possible lifetime ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, failed to make it out of the 100-meter semifinals. A reporter mentioned this to Herman Frazier, U.S. chef de mission for Athens, observing that if this continues, the BALCO track dilemma could “resolve itself” before everyone breaks from Sacramento.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Frazier replied with a wry smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Frazier said, “We’ve just got to wait and see until the competition’s over and deal with this when the time comes.”

Two days into the competition, this is the women’s 100-meter team the United States is sending to Greece:

* LaTasha Colander, a converted 400 runner who works with Jones’ ex-coach Trevor Graham. She won the final with the only sub-11-second time of the day, 10.97.

* Torri Edwards, who finished a distant fourth to Jones in the 2000 trials. She placed second Saturday at 11.02.

* Lauryn Williams, a high school junior in 2000, who finished third, running 11.10.

Even Gail Devers, the four-time Olympian who turns 38 in November, outran Jones, taking fourth in 11.11 seconds.

Marion Jones, fifth place at 100 meters. Once, and not that long ago, such a sentence would have been unthinkable.

But once, and not that long ago, Jones’ world was a very different place.