Sunday, September 24, 2000
Jones' challenge all mental now
Five gold medals within her reach
SYDNEY, Australia — She won gold in the 100 meters, wearing silver shoes that reflected the promise of the week to come. Marion Jones blasted
off in the last 50 meters, torching the rest of the world's best sprinters. In the next five minutes, she ran a marathon of emotions.
Jones pumped her fist. She ran to her family and cried. She carried the American flag around the track, along with the flag of Belize, birthplace of her mother. She skipped, she exulted, she cried some more.
“Overwhelming,” Jones decided. “An incredible experience. Everything I've dreamed of, and more.”
And she only gets to do it four more times.
This is where it gets tricky for Jones, the would-be star of these Games. She wants to win five gold medals. It's an ambition that would look foolish on a lesser athlete. With her, it's practically expected.
The first gold was pure adrenaline. No race lends itself more to raw emotion than the 100.
Now what?
“Now, we have to start all over again,” said her husband and mentor, C.J. Hunter.
Excuse me. But how do you do that?
How do you sit back and calmly stick the 100-meter gold in the Mission Accomplished file and erase it from your thoughts, all in the name of “focus”?
“I vowed when I crossed the line, I was going to keep cool. When I crossed the line, that went out the window,” Jones said. “This is 19 years of believing and dreaming about this. It all comes down to this one moment.”
That's as fine a definition of an Olympian's mindset as you'll ever get. Will it help Jones win five gold medals?
She said she didn't sleep much Friday night. She'll need to fix that. The 200-meter heats begin in two days. The 200 final is Sept.28; the long jump final is the next day. The 4x100 and 4x200 relay finals are Sept.30, within two hours of each other.
The wonder isn't if Jones can rally physically for all this; it's where her mind will allow her to go.
"Having a ball'
At her press conference, someone asked Jones about the less-than-stable state of the U.S. relay teams. She began rolling her eyes as soon as she caught the drift of the question.
“Can't I just enjoy this one now?” she asked.
Sure. But not too much. And not for long.
One night, Australia's Ian Thorpe won gold in the 400 freestyle, then anchored the Aussies winning 800 relay team. Two nights later, still exhausted, Thorpe was upset in the 200 free.
The Olympic cauldron is more than just the flame at the top of the stadium.
That said, Marion Jones will make her run as enjoyable as possible. Her personality is not nearly so taut as her legs. “This is not a stressful time. I'm having a ball,” she said.
There was no denying that Saturday night. Nobody celebrated as much as Marion Jones, who must have hugged the whole country. “When I crossed the line, (I felt) joy that all the hard days were for something. Then I saw my family and pretty much lost it,” she said.
On the medal stand, Jones spent considerable time staring at her medal. “I just really wanted to inspect it. There are no rough edges,” she said. “It's very smooth.”
Metaphor for Jones' week? Stay tuned.
Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at (513) 768-8454.
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