Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Cloud of suspicion hangs over Jones
Guilty or not, husband's scandal raises questions
Maybe we should let everyone cheat. Invite the weightlifters to bring their syringes onstage. Encourage the runners to shoot up on the track, allow the swimmers to stick themselves poolside. May the best pharmacy win. If everyone cheats, no one is cheating.
The American shot-putter C.J. Hunter tested positive for a forbidden drug at a meet in July. That was revealed Monday. You might not know who C.J. Hunter is, or care, if he weren't the husband of Marion Jones.
Jones is trying to win five gold medals here. She got the first one two nights ago. It's an ambition worthy of
the Olympics. If she can do it now, it will be beyond Olympian.
She's working beneath a drug cloud. Did she know her husband was taking nandrolone? One thousand times the “acceptable” limit, according to the head of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission. Doctors would call that an overdose.
Did she know? Did she condone it? Why didn't she walk away from her husband, with so much on the line? These are fair questions in an unfair situation. This is the last thing Jones needs.
Hunter declared his innocence. “I know what's going on, and I am aware of the allegations and I'm going to defend myself vigorously,” he said. He'd pulled out of the Games just two weeks ago, eight days after arthroscopic knee surgery.
But the juice is out of the needle. Again.
It doesn't make you more cynical. When it comes to doping at the Olympics, there is no cynicism left. Cynicism has scaled Mt. Olympus. But it makes ev eryone a suspect. You look at disproportionate biceps and thighs. You look at long jawlines. On women, you check for inordinate facial hair.
The first thing you want to ask medal-winning weightlifters is, “Before we go on, is there anything you'd like to tell us?” You celebrate the athletes' triumphs. Then you wonder how they do it. It's a little like watching a magician.
If Marion Jones wins five golds, or four, or three, some will look at her and wonder if she shared her husband's alleged habits and medicine chest. That's just how it is.
“Hopefully, you (media) will allow her to continue to focus on what she's here to do,” said Michael Johnson, who knows a little about the weight of expectations.
That won't happen. Especially now that local heroine and national treasure Cathy Freeman has finished competing. Freeman won the women's 400 meters Monday night, after a week of hype that could only be called world-ending. Now, the attention will shift to Jones.
It's not the sort of notice she needs right now.
Now begins days of allegations and denials, and innuendo enough to make the gutsiest performer squirm. U.S. Track and Field chief Craig Masback was moved to speak at a news conference Monday to defend his organization against international suspicions that the Americans are soft on doping.
“We have set the standard for the rest of the sports world. We've busted more people than any other sport,” he said.
One Sydney paper said Hunter also tested positive for testosterone.
In the middle of it all is Marion Jones, preparing for the most trying five days of her life. Maybe her husband is innocent. If not, what was he thinking?
Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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