Will fallen sprinter and federal ex-con Marion Jones get a second chance in the WNBA? (With video)

       Photo: Paris Saint Denis Golden League 2006.
100m Women: 10'86 by Thomas Faivre-Duboz Flickr.com
 

Disgraced former champion sprinter Marion Jones is hoping for a second chance after serving a six-month sentence for lying to federal investigators about steroid use and her involvement in a check-fraud case. Said to be honing her physical skills in San Antonio, perhaps in an attempt to join the WNBA, the now 34-year-old former track star is resolved to make the best of a difficult situation.

Stripped of the three gold medals and two bronze she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and forced into retirement compliments of a two-year ban by the International Association of Athletics Federations, Jones waxes philosophical on making poor decisions in the past: "It would give me an opportunity to share my message to young people on a bigger platform, it would give me an opportunity to get a second chance." She was released from federal prison in September 2008.

Dan Hughes, San Antonio Silver Stars head coach admitted that Marion has been training with his assistants, and was quoted as saying he has not yet been told whether Jones has the capability to play in the WNBA. He did, however, indicate that he admires her for trying, saying: "I deal with people where they are right now. If she's interested in playing, great for her. The past is the past."

In October of 2007, Jones admitted lying to investigators regarding whether or not she had taken the banned anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) before the Olympic games. Ultimately, after an investigation, she entered a guilty plea to two charges of perjury and conceded to investigators that she had taken the so-called "designer" steroid between September 2000 and July 2001. (See video below)

Jones also entered a guilty plea for lying to federal investigators in 2003 about a separate incident involving check fraud with her former boyfriend, sprinter Tim Montgomery, with whom she had a child.

Sentenced by a federal judge in January 2008, Marion went to a federal prison in Texas in March of last year.

For her part, Marion adds, “It's important for people to know that it's possible to make a mistake in your life, but it's what you do after the mistake that people are going to remember you by. Are you going to make whatever negatives that happened in your life a positive? Are you going to disappear? That has certainly never been in my horizon. How can I use my experience, my story, to help people and in the process hop on this journey of trying to make a team?"

Marion avers: "I know that anytime I'm involved there is going to criticism, skepticism and naysayers. But I know I'm on the right path now. This is just another little bit of the challenge."

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Marion Jones and former boyfriend-turned-check-fraud-partner Tim Montgomery