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FACTBOX: American sprinter Marion Jones

NEW YORK
Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:39pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for lying to federal investigators about her steroid use and misleading them about her knowledge of a multimillion dollar check fraud case involving her former boyfriend Tim Montgomery.

U.S.  |  Sports  |  Technology

Here are some facts about Jones:

* Jones was born Oct 12, 1975, in Los Angeles and grew up in Southern California.

* She won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x400 meters relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and took bronze in the long jump and 4x100 relay, becoming the first woman to win five track and field medals in a single Olympics.

* Jones was long been tied to BALCO, the San Francisco-based nutritional supplement company at the heart of a U.S. sports steroid scandal. BALCO founder Victor Conte, who served four months in prison on steroids charges, had long accused Jones of using performance enhancers.

In 2005, she sued Conte, whose clients also included baseball home-run king Barry Bonds, for defamation but settled out of court.

* Jones had never failed a drug test until 2006 when traces of the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) were found. She was cleared when a backup test proved negative.

* Pleaded guilty in federal court in New York in October to lying to investigators. Jones admitted for the first time using performance-enhancing drugs.

* The International Olympic Committee in December officially stripped Jones of her five Sydney medals after she admitted in October to using performance-enhancing drugs. The action came after the International Association of Athletics Federations in November erased all of Jones's results from Sept 1, 2000.

* Jones' first husband, shot-putter C.J. Hunter, was suspended from competition after testing positive for steroids four times in 2000.

* Tim Montgomery, Jones' ex-boyfriend and father of her oldest son, was stripped of the 100 meters record he set in 2002 after admitting using steroids and human growth hormone from BALCO. Montgomery pleaded guilty in New York last year to taking part in a bank fraud and money-laundering scheme.

* Jones is married to another former sprinter, Obadele Thompson of Barbados, and lives in Austin, Texas, with her two sons.

(Compiled by Karolos Grohmann and Gene Cherry, Editing by Alison Wildey and Justin Palmer)

(Editing by Justin Palmer)



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