western bureau

As a child growing up, my parents used to warn me and my siblings against revelling in the misfortune of other persons as, according to them, we simply did not know what misadventure might be awaiting us in our own personal lives.

While time has not devalued the childhood advice I got from my beloved parents, I can't help but being wayward at this time because I feel compelled to celebrate the downfall of disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones, who has finally been exposed for what she really is a fraud and a disgusting drug cheat.

Ever since the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal broke a few years ago and news began to spread about Ms. Jones' connection to laboratory's founder and chief 'medicine man' Victor Conte, I began suspecting that she could be running on more than raw talent and that her self-professed squeaky clean image might have been a facade.

My suspicions began turning to belief when Ms Jones' first husband CJ Hunter was found to be 'juiced up' and confessed that she too was on the stuff. My conviction subsequently got stronger when her babyfather and fellow sprinter Tim Montgomery was busted and then Conte confessed to seeing her using the stuff.

Now that Ms Jones' world has caved in, leaving her with no choice but to confess that she was indeed a super cheat, I feel absolutely no sympathy for her. In fact, like Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas, I believe she should be sent to jail for at least a year for lying about her drug cheating ways.

In regards to Ms Jones expressing a desire to give back her ill-gotten pile of gold medals, I am not particularly impressed about that since the athletes who will get those medals have already been robbed of the joy of standing in the middle of the podium and hearing their national anthem played before a worldwide audience.

gesture of good faith

What would really be nice of the U.S. track and field authority is if, as a gesture of good faith, they would do the decent thing and return the medals won by the late Florence 'Flo Jo' Griffiths-Joyner. I think there is enough good evidence to suggest that she went to her grave with a few medals that rightfully belong to our own Merlene Ottey. In fact, I strongly believe that a high percentage of the gold medals won by American athletes over the past 20 years were done with the assistance of drugs. I also believe that Ms. Jones is definitely not the only big name star, who might not be as super as we were made to believe by the results they have achieved.

What I find most distressing about these drug-driven Americans is the fact that, despite having the advantage of financing, arguably the best coaches and superior training facilities, they still see it necessary, as a result of selfishness and greed, to resort to cheating to blunt the aspirations of athletes from much poorer countries like Jamaica.

Within the past year, I have been seeing quite a few new super athletes bursting on to the American scene and I am hoping they are not walking in the footsteps of Ms. Jones and those like her. I would hate to see a fresh generation of American cheats coming to the fore and robbing our current crop of Jamaican stars of their glory. While I believe that Jamaican coach Trevor Graham, who is being implicated in the drug fiasco with Ms. Jones and her 'juiced up' American counterparts, is being set to become the top villain, I nonetheless believe that he, too, should be tossed into jail if he is found to be a part of the drug-cheating scheme.

NB. Feel free to send your feedback to adrianfrater@hotmail.com.