Former track star Marion Jones goes from grace to disgrace

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Once ranked among the greatest athletes of all time, Marion Jones has seen the clouds of doping gather until they have irrevocably tainted what should have been a glorious career.

Jones, 31, was on Friday handed a two-year ban by athletics' world governing body, the IAAF, which also recommended that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdraw her five Olympic medals after she admitted doping last month.

Jones, who is now retired, admitted in a US federal court last month that she had used the designer steroid THG, or "the clear", from September 2000 to July 2001, ending years of angry denials of doping allegations.

Jones' confession came as she pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent about her drug use, a charge that could see her...