Jones Says She’s Not Worried

Despite reports linking her to the BALCO doping scandal, track and field star Marion Jones said again Thursday that she was drug-free and that she intended to “win gold” at the Athens Summer Olympics.

U.S. anti-doping authorities are reviewing documents related to the BALCO case, with an eye toward ensuring a clean U.S. Olympic team, but Jones said she had no worries, that she was “not concerned about any documents turned over to anybody.”

Jones added: “My life does not revolve around having to prove to anybody that I am drug-free. I think I never -- I’m probably one of the most tested athletes in the world in terms of drug use, and I’ve never, ever tested positive for any steroid or any drug use.

“So, I’m not at a point, and I don’t think ever have been in my career, where I’m searching to get public approval. I’m most happy with the fact that the people who know me -- the people that have watched me, since I was 7 years old, compete and have seen my progression of times and performances -- know that I would never do anything illegal, and I would never take any performance-enhancing drugs.

“You know, you have to take it at that. But I am not going to drive myself to the grave to convince people that I am a drug-free athlete. I know that I am. My family knows that I am. The people who truly know Marion Jones know.”

Jones, who won five medals -- three gold -- at the 2000 Sydney Games, spoke during a conference call to promote a meet at the Home Depot Center in Carson on May 22. Jones will run the 100-meter dash and compete in the long jump.

She said she hoped to make the U.S. team in the 100- and 200-meter sprints and the long jump at the U.S. Olympic trials, beginning July 9 in Sacramento.

Jones, who finished fourth in the 200 last month at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays -- she was running her first outdoor race of the year after sitting out the 2003 season to give birth to her first child -- and won the 100 and the long jump at a meet last weekend in Jamaica, said she was getting into competitive shape and hoped to peak in Sacramento and Athens.

She added that working with a new coach, Dan Pfaff, has made her confident she can jump 7 meters. Heike Drechsler of Germany won gold at the 2000 Summer Games with a jump of 6.99 meters -- 22 feet, 11 1/4 inches.

But, again and again, the conversation returned to doping issues and to BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative founded by self-described nutritionist Victor Conte in Burlingame, Calif.

Jones will address the issue again Sunday, in an appearance here at a U.S. Olympic Committee conference featuring some of the athletes expected to be on the 2004 U.S. team. Her boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, the world-record holder in the men’s 100-meter dash, is expected to join her Sunday in meeting the media.

Jones and Montgomery were among dozens of athletes who testified last year before a federal grand jury in San Francisco investigating BALCO. Conte and three others were indicted on 42 felony counts in February. All have pleaded not guilty.

Last week, the U.S. Senate turned over material to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that the Senate Commerce Committee had subpoenaed from federal prosecutors in the BALCO case.

According to reports last month in two Bay Area newspapers, Conte told investigators on Sept. 3, during a raid of the BALCO offices, that he had given steroids to Jones and Montgomery, as well as 25 other athletes. Jones and Montgomery have denied that.

Asked about it again Thursday, she said, “ ... I have never accepted, nor taken, nor been offered any performance-enhancing drugs by anyone. And that’s, you know, that’s what I’m going to stick by. That’s the truth. And so -- that’s how it is.”

The New York Times reported last month that a $7,350 check went to BALCO from Jones’ account in September 2000. The newspaper also reported, citing “two people familiar with the check,” that it had been signed by C.J. Hunter, her former husband who tested positive four times in 2000 for the banned steroid nandrolone.

Asked about the check, Jones said, “I’ve already stated that I knew nothing about a check. I never signed, endorsed, agreed upon or knew anything about a check.... We’ll have to leave it at that.”

Pressed by a reporter to explain how a husband could write a $7,350 check without his wife knowing about it, she said, “I think, and I’m not one to boast, but I think perhaps I make a little bit more money than you. And probably your wife. So a $7,000 check, a $33,000 check, a $200,000 check, you know, might mean nothing to me. It might mean the world to you.

“To not get into further detail -- that’s where I am with that.”