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Former Olympic Gold Medalist Marion Jones Starts 6-Month Federal Prison Sentence


The track star was sentenced for lying to investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs and allegedly for participating in a check-fraud scam.

Track star Marion Jones has started her six-month sentence in federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Marion Jones turned herself in before 12PM Friday at the Federal Medical Center Carswell which is located on the Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base, but had until Tuesday to do so.

The track star was sentenced for lying to investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs and allegedly for participating in a check-fraud scam. In October 2007, Marion Jones admitted to having taken steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had lied when she previously denied using steroids in statements to the press, numerous sports agencies, and to two grand juries which one was impaneled to investigate the BALCO steroid ring, and the other impaneled to investigate a check fraud ring involving many of the same parties from the BALCO case.

According to reports, Federal Judge Kenneth Karas ignored Marion Jones lawyers’ request for a probation-only sentence, and opted to give her the maximum sentence suggested in her plea deal. Marion Jones was sentenced in January to six months of prison time, two months on the check fraud case and 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release.

Marion Jones-Thompson won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but was stripped of every medal dating back to September 2000 after admitting that she took the performance enhancing drugs.

About BALCO – BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) is a service business for blood and urine analysis and food supplements led by founder and owner Victor Conte. The company provided free blood and urine tests to a group of athletes known as the BALCO Olympians and reportedly steroids nicknamed “The Clear” and growth hormones.

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