A disgraced Marion Jones visited Oprah Winfrey today, as reported by the AP.
Marion Jones said Wednesday seeing the pain her family and friends endured after she admitted using performance-enhancing drugs outweighed the impact of returning her Olympic medals.
The former Olympic track gold medalist appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," her first television interview since being sentenced last week to six months in prison for lying to investigators about steroid use and a check-fraud scam.
"I want people to understand that, you know, everybody makes mistakes. ... I truly think that a person's character is determined by their admission of their mistakes and then beyond that, what do I do about it?" Jones said via satellite from Austin, Texas, where she lives. "How can I change the lives of people? How can I use my story to change the life of a young person?"
Admission of mistakes? Doping up for years to win Olympic medals constitutes a 'mistake'. As Bill Clinton says "Give me a break".
By all accounts Marion Jones is an amiable person, engaging and friendly in public and private. However, she defrauded millions of fans, cheated her competitors, then lied about it for 8 years, even suing those who said she doped. That is hardly a 'mistake'. That is a conspiracy.
Apparently now the mode of behavior for criminal activity is to 'help kids'. We would alter this somewhat to: 'Help yourself'. Help yourself stay on the right path, by not cheating.
As for kids, they don't need any more advice. They need role models who will not conspire to cheat fans, competitors, and leagues (or Olympics). If an athlete is a convicted felon, that is likely past the 'helping' stage. The horse fled that barn a long time ago.
She's the one who needs to learn from this "mistake". The rest of us didn't need to be told not to do that. We already knew. Thanks for the big life lesson, though.
Posted by: Jen | 01/25/2008 at 12:43