Sprinter Montgomery pleads guilty to heroin charge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. sprinter Tim Montgomery, an Olympic gold medalist now banned from the sport, pleaded guilty on Thursday to distributing heroin.

According to a guilty plea filed in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, Montgomery faces at least five years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.

Once known as the fastest man alive, Montgomery has since been banned from competing for his role in a steroid scandal and sentenced to another prison term for check fraud.

According to prosecutors, Montgomery provided an undercover agent with a total of 114 grams of heroin on four occasions between August 2007 and April 2008. The transactions were captured on video.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin.

Montgomery won an Olympic gold medal in 2000 as a member of the U.S. 4x100-meter relay team. Two years later, he set a 100-meter world record of 9.78 seconds but that was erased from the record books after the U.S. anti-doping agency found he had received steroids. He was barred from competition in 2005.

Separately, Montgomery was sentenced to 46 months in prison in May for a check fraud and money laundering scheme in which he tried to deposit three checks worth $775,000.

That case also ensnared his former girlfriend, the superstar sprinter Marion Jones, who was sentenced to six months for misleading investigators about the check fraud scheme and lying about her steroid use.

Jones has been stripped of her five 2000 Olympic medals and banned from the sport.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by John O'Callaghan)