Athletics still haunted by Jones doping scandal

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — Marion Jones will watch the Beijing Olympics from a television in federal prison if she sees the Games at all but the former athletics star's downfall into doping disgrace continues to haunt her sport.

Jones began serving a six-month prison sentence in March for lying to US federal agents about taking performance-enhancing drugs and a check fraud scheme involving the father of her son, dope banned sprinter Tim Montgomery.

After being stripped of three gold medals and two bronzes she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Jones was sent to a Texas prison where she became prisoner number 84868054.

"She was someone I looked up to," US sprinter Allyson Felix said. "It was personally devastating to see what happened to her.

"I feel a greater...