Marion Jones, now merely a face in the Olympic crowd

Marion Jones received the best news of a long agonizing year on Wednesday when she was named to the women’s 400-meter relay team. She w...

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Marion Jones received the best news of a long agonizing year on Wednesday when she was named to the women’s 400-meter relay team. She will join Angela Williams, Lauryn Williams and LaTasha Colander on a team that nearly tied the world record in Munich, Germany, earlier this month.

Her agent Charley Wells called her performance in that race a ‘‘coming-out party’’, a return to form that made Jones the queen of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

But as I watched Jones qualify on Wednesday for the long jump the 2000 Games seemed decades away. A new wave of sprinters from the US — Justin Gatlin, Allyson Felix, for starters — have made Jones’ absence barely noticeable.

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With no fuss and little fanfare, Jones took two long jumps. She fouled on her first attempt, which was strong (she wanted to send a message), and qualified on the second.

Later, she tried to express the difference between Athens, where she is an accoutrement, and Sydney, where she was the star. ‘‘Things are a lot different than they were four years ago’’, Jones said.

I really did not have an appreciation of how the BALCO scandal and the doping investigation had affected Jones Inc. until Wednesday afternoon, when I bumped into Wells. We walked to the stadium together, and Wells explained how damaging this year has been to Jones. After the U.S. track and field trials, Jones was supposed to run in two major tuneup races — in London and Zurich. The promoters called Wells and told him Jones was no longer welcome. Jones had never missed the race in Zurich before last year, when she had her son, and had been running the London meet since 1997.

Four years ago Jones made a bold prediction that she would win five gold medals, in the 100 and 200 meters, the 400 and 1,600 relays and the long jump. She came away with three — the 100, 200 and the 1,600 relay.

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Jones had a baby in 2003, and the drug scandal has rendered her just another face in the crowd. Jones was introduced with no fanfare and no fuss, she was just another long jumper trying to qualify. About an hour after Jones ended her interviews with reporters, Felix, the 18-year-old phenom, was all charm, grace and enthusiasm. She is part of what the news media have been heralding as the new face of track and field. All I can tell the new faces is, look at how your sport treats the old faces to get an idea of what’s in store for you. Jones was the poster girl for track and field in the United States, and now she’s running for her life and her sport has not uttered a word in her defence.

(The New York Times)