Marion Jones

Marion Jones

Career Stats
Either Marion Jones can get it all back this year, or she can't. The burden of proof is on the North
Carolina junior, a sprint sensation as a high schooler who has found juggling two sports at the
collegiate level isn't as easy as it was in high school.

Back in 1989, Brian Fitzgerald, the coach at Rio Mesa High School, talked about his star sprinter
that year, Angela Burnham. She won prep Athlete of the Year honors and clocked 11.52 and 23.49 that season. And after Fitzgerald finished discussing Burnham, he said, "We have another kid coming up who's going to be even better." That's the sort of thing that most coaches will say; the nature of their profession is optimism. But Fitzgerald's prediction, if anything, turned out to be gross understatement.

The next year, 14-year-old Jones clocked 11.62 and 23.70. A year later she hit world-class at age 15, dashing 11.17 and 22.76. As a high school junior, she improved to 11.14 and 22.58, placing 5th in the Olympic Trials 100 and 4th in the 200. Her 200 mark broke the American Junior Record and missed making the team by just 0.07. She declined a spot as an alternate on the relay team.
"Looking at the big picture, I didn't want to rush things," she said.

By the time Jones left high school--she transferred to Thousand Oaks for her last two years--she
had added a mark of 52.91 in the 400, plus a 22-0.5 in her first season of long jumping. Her
basketball skills as a starting guard--22.8 points a game as a senior--were also very marketable to
college recruiters. To the winning school, North Carolina, Jones represented a short cut to a national title in track.

The basketball team scored first, though. In her freshman year, Jones joined the starting lineup after four games and scored 14.2 points a game. In the NCAA final, foul trouble kept her out of much of the action as the Tar Heels beat Louisiana Tech for the crown. On to track, where she had a decent first year in the collegiate arena, though she didn't perform as well as she had her last three years of high school.

Last year, optimism that Jones would be an inevitable superstar dropped even farther. She no longer seemed light on her feet. Some opined that she now ran "like a basketball player." She failed to qualify for the NCAA meet in the 100. Only her long jumping went well.

The Olympic glory that Jones missed in 1992 motivated her to a key decision last fall: no basketball in the 1995-96 season. She would concentrate everything on regaining her form in track. "Getting a chance to compete in the Olympics is a chance of a lifetime," she said at the time. "I want to give my best shot to making the U.S. track team and I never want to regret not giving it my best."

Slowing Jones' track training last fall was a broken bone in her foot that first had to heal. She earned the injury playing basketball on the U.S. team at the World University Games.

Now the pressure's on Jones to prove that she can indeed be a national force in track. She's made
the first step successfully; she can now walk past basketball practices without missing the roundball. "I'm starting to get adjusted," she says. "I'm getting into my track mode. It's really not that difficult
anymore."

She adds, "My goals are to stay healthy, enjoy myself, and compete as hard as I can. If all these
things stay in line, I'm looking for great performances in all my events. For the Olympic Trials, I'm
definitely looking at the long jump, and probably the 200. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm not
going to run the 100, but right now my focus is probably the long jump and then the 200."

A journalism/communications major at UNC, Jones confesses she's "excited" to show what she can do when she concentrates on the track. She says of last year, "I had a few weeks of training after basketball. I came out and did the ACC championships; I jumped well. But at nationals I really didn't have enough time to prepare. It wasn't the real Marion out there. I wasn't really enjoying myself, and I didn't feel like I was prepared.

"That's the main reason I'm excited about this year, because I know I'll be prepared. I'm feeling
good about everything."

Career Stats

Born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, Ca
5-10/1.78m 150/68kg
Rio Mesa HS (Oxnard, Ca) '91, Thousand Oaks HS (Ca) '93
North Carolina '97

PRs (outdoor):
100--11.14 '92
200--22.58 '92
400--52.91 '91
LJ--22-1.75/6.75 '94

PRs (indoor):
50--6.43 '91
55--6.89 '91
200--23.89 '91

Major Meets:
1991 8)USA 100
1991 4)USA 200
1991 1)USA Junior 100
1991 1)USA Junior 200
1992 5)Olympic Trials 100
1992 4)Olympic Trials 200
1992 1)USA Junior 100
1992 1)USA Junior 200
1992 5)World Junior 100
1992 7)World Junior 200
1994 4s)NCAA 100
1994 6)NCAA 200
1994 2)NCAA LJ
1995 4)NCAA LJ
1995 11)USA LJ

Major Relays:
1992 2)World Junior 4 x 100 [4]
1994 5)NCAA 4 x 100 [2]
1995 5)NCAA 4 x 100 [2]

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