Feeling Betrayed by Marion Jones
By Sean Gregory

  You wanted  to believe her. She made you believe. She was good. Marion Jones, TIME cover girl, winner of  five medals—three gold—at  the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and now an admitted  steroid user,  sat in a sweltering press  tent at  the 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials in Sacramento, and put on an Oscar-worthy show.
  All week  during  those  trials,   she  had  refused  to acknowledge the press, and thus her fans, that same adoring public that made her an Olympic icon. The BALCO inves-tigation had uncovered  evidence  that  Jones  had  used performance-enhancing drugs, and she refused to take the heat. Finally, after she pulled out of  the 200-meter semi-finals, citing  fatigue, Queen Marion was holding court  in the  tent. Reporters dropped  their coverage of  the  races, of those  less  famous athletes whose Olympic dreams were hanging  in the balance, and sprinted  to Jones  like  lap dogs. She smiled, charmed, even casually addressed a  few of  those reporters by  their name. She showed no signs  that her steroid denials, which we now know were fat-out lies, were causing any  stress. She  reminded us  that  she never failed a drug test. “The athletes who have not tested positive have been dragged through the mud,” she said.
  I was new  to  the  track beat  that summer, and quickly fell  in  love with  the sport—the  relay strategies,  the  tactics of the 100-meter dash versus the distance races, the oddball field  sports—pole vault! Hammer-throw!  I got  to know Justin Gatlin at those trials, and smiled in disbelief when he won the 100-meter sprint in Athens. Just 22 years old, char-ismatic, and most  importantly, clean. Or so  I  thought. Two years  later, Gatlin was busted for doping, and he  is now serving an eight-year ban. And Friday Jones pled guilty to  lying  to  federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.
  Leading up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, U.S.A. Track and Field will pump up  the next generation of stars, and  tell us how  they’ll put all  this sorry history behind us. The world’s  two  top sprinters, Tyson Gay of  the United States and Asafa Powell, the 100-meter world record holder from  Jamaica, have a nice  little  rivalry, and you’ll hear about  it  in  the months before  the  ’08 games. But  it’s hard for me  to get  too excited about  it. Sure, Gay and Powell never  failed drug  tests, and no one has accused  them of using steroids. But Marion Jones passed all those tests when she was using back  in 2000, which makes  testing  seem like a joke. In today’s track world, as far as I’m concerned, you’re practically guilty until proven  innocent, and  really, how can you prove you’re innocent?
  I guess you could give Jones a smidgen of credit  for finally coming clean. As has proven,  those who apologize for using  steroids will eventually be  forgiven. But given all her  lies of  the past,  it’s not as  if we have any  reason  to believe her.

被昔日奥运女飞人玛丽安 • 琼斯蒙骗
西恩 •乔治里

    你想相信她，她也让你信服，她很。玛丽安 •琼斯，《时代》杂志的封面女郎，曾在 2000 年悉尼奥运会上摘得五枚奖牌，其中包括三枚，现在却承认服用了类固醇。2004 年在美国萨克拉曼多奥林匹克田径预赛期间，她在闷热的新闻帐内上演了堪与奥斯卡获奖影片媲美的一幕。

    在举行预赛的整个星期之内，她一直拒绝向媒体、她的追随者以及同样崇拜她并将其视为奥运偶像的公众承认。巴尔科的调查证据发现玛丽安 • 琼斯曾使用兴奋剂，并拒绝测体温。最终当她跑完二百米半决赛后，利用中间休息时间，玛丽安女王在帐内召集了新闻发布会。尽管那些不大的运动员们正为其奥运之梦欲决胜负，记者们却放弃报道他们的赛事，像哈巴狗那样冲向玛丽安。她微笑着，风姿绰约，甚至随意对一些记者直呼其名。对于否认服用类固醇这一现在众人皆知的弥天大谎，似乎并没有给她造成任何压力。她提醒我们，她在药检时总能过关。她说： “这让没有检测出呈阳性的运动员们丢尽了脸。 ”

    在那个夏季的竞赛报道时，我还是个新手，但很快就迷上了体育运动——接力策略、百米短跑及长跑技巧、独特的田径运动——撑杆跳！掷链球！在这些比赛中，我开始结识了贾斯汀 • 加特林。他在雅典赢得百米冲刺时，我微笑着，感到难以置信。他那时正好二十二岁，颇具魅力，更重要的是，他清白正直。我当时这样想。两年后，他因服用药物而名誉扫地，被禁赛八年。星期五，琼斯就其服用兴奋剂说谎一事向联邦机构伏法认罪。

    为了迎接 2008 年北京奥运会，美国田径界将会推出新一代体育新星，并将这段令人遗憾的历史抛之脑后。对于世界的两名短跑运动员——美国的泰森 • 盖伊和来自牙买加的 100 米世界纪录保持者阿瑟法 • 鲍威尔来说，几乎无人是他们的对手。这些在 2008 年运动会前的几个月内，你就会有所耳闻。但我却很难对此产生兴奋之情。的确，盖伊和鲍威尔总能通过药检，没有人指责他们服用过类固醇。但是玛丽安 • 琼斯自 2000 年使用药物开始，也通过了所有的药检，这使得药检似乎成了一个玩笑。据我所知，在当今的体育界，即使证明清白了也可能有罪。的确，你怎么证明自己的清白呢？

    我想琼斯最终的坦白可能赢得你的些许赞扬。事实证明，那些因使用类固醇而道歉的人最终都会得到谅解。但是，鉴于她过去所有的谎言，我们好像没有任何理由相信她。
——选自《我爱读英文》