Marion Jones tells Oprah she was tired of the lies

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympian Marion Jones, stripped of her medals and facing six months in prison, told Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday she admitted her steroid use because she could no longer live with her lies.

"I have no regrets for doing what I did on October 5, pleading guilty and admitting to the world that I lied," Jones told the talk show host.

"I want people to understand everybody makes mistakes ... I truly think a person's character is determined by their admission of their mistakes and beyond that what they do about it ... It's really about looking forward, looking to the future, how can I make this wrong a right," she said.

A New York judge last week sentenced Jones to six months imprisonment for lying to government prosecutors about her steroid use and two months, to run concurrently, for misleading investigators about a check fraud case involving her ex-boyfriend, former 100-metres world record holder Tim Montgomery.

Earlier the sprinter was stripped of the five medals she won in the Sydney Olympics, three of them gold, and all of her performances as of September 2000 were erased from the record books.

Asked by Winfrey why she had repeatedly denied the use of performance-enhancing drugs, Jones said: "I made a mistake. I made the choice to, at that time, protect myself, to protect my family, and I've paid the consequences dearly."

The talk show host then asked Jones why she decided to come clean.

"It's been a long journey," the 32-year-old athlete said. "The weight and the baggage of many years of knowing that. I've been blessed with a super amount of talent but I could not go on any more with this baggage, lying to the world, lying to God.