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Gracious in defeat With Marion, what you see is what you get
Marion Jones was still able to find that winning smile, even after her first 100 meters final defeat in 43 races and almost four years. It was just the latest jolt for an American athlete who has found that being a triple Olympic champion doesn't mean everything she touches will turn to gold. There was her husband's drug scandal during the Sydney Games last year, then June's announcement of her divorce from the man in question, shot putter CJ Hunter. Plus, she was still winning races -- just not quite in the same dominant, cavernous way of recent years. Now her bid for a third successive 100-meter World Championship gold has ended in failure. But Jones was so magnanimous in defeat and so accepting of it, promising to move on and attack the 200 meters with even more gusto, that she can remain nothing but a champion in my eyes. We're living in a day of over-inflated egos and even greatly more over-inflated prize money. We're more likely to hear Andre Agassi's rude, monosyllabic nonsense in a Grand Slam press conference -- a la the French Open and Wimbledon -- than the kind of reaction Jones gave after her defeat by Ukraine's Zhanna Pintusevich-Block. And it wasn't as if she'd had time to cool off, gather her thoughts and turn on the convenient "media" switch so many athletes have nowadays. No, Jones had microphones thrust in her face straight away. But with a gracious grin and confident appreciation that she's seen worse days -- and that better days will come again -- Jones said: "I don't know if I expected to win every race the rest of my career. I know I wanted to win a couple more years, but today it didn't happen. "And yeah I'm disappointed and probably won't sleep for a couple of days because of it, but now it's time to regroup for the 200." That frank and yet somehow innocent admission that the defeat would cost her a sleepless night or two was pure Marion Jones. She's that genuine. What you see is what you get -- and what you get is an athlete, a person, who defies you to dislike her. I know there are folks out there who hate one person or team to dominate sporting events and would prefer the wealth to be spread around. That's noble. But even the people I know of this ilk never pull against Jones. For an athletics superstar, she simply has too many endearing qualities -- professionally and personally, on the track and off it. We, the media, can be right royal pains in the posterior. Indeed, we've never been more demanding. In turn, all the coverage means sport has probably never been any bigger. But for Jones, it meant there was nowhere to hide as news of her separation from Hunter became public knowledge.
What did she do? Remain a charming, consummate professional -- that's what. "As American athletes we try to get as much exposure as possible, " explained the 25-year-old Olympic 100 and 200 champion. "We say please write about us when we run a race, please put our meet on television. "Because I'm asking all that, I can't tell the media 'all right, when things are not going as they should don't cover it.' You can't do that." Coverage in good times and in bad -- and Jones treats both scenarios with great dignity. The union with Hunter, not an athletic match made in heaven after all, is over. The suggestion that the positive drug test on the American shot put giant, a story which broke during the last Olympics, was the main reason for the divorce is roundly dismissed by Jones. "What happened in Sydney in no way led to what has happened to C.J. and I. I want to make that clear," declared the five-time Sydney medallist. "I still support C.J. 100 percent in terms of his innocence from that situation and will remain a supporter of his. But there were other things off the track that we weren't seeing eye to eye and we made a mutual decision that this was best for both of us." Jones also said that with the support of family and friends, she's once more enjoying life -- enjoying herself. Again, honest and genuine to the last. Now Jones is hoping to bounce back from a deflating experience on the track. Gold in the 200 meters and sprint relay in Edmonton are her immediate aims. In fact her ambitions for her long-term future are as lofty as ever. "I've yet to break a world record, I've yet to win a 200 world title, I've yet to win a long jump competition anywhere in the world," said Jones with that familiar beaming smile. "I think ultimately I've only taken a couple of steps towards perhaps getting the title of one of the greatest ever -- and that's a goal of mine." With an attitude like Marion's, how can she possibly fail? Phil Jones is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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