In the 30 for 30 documentary on Marion Jones, speaker John Singleton discovers her background and analyzes which decisions she made, how they affected her, and how others handled them. Track olympian and all star Marion Jones was sent to prison for her use of steroids, and also lying about it. She later decided to admit her dishonesty and charges were pressed. Jones was forced to forfeit her 3 gold and 2 bronze medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. At this time, she was considered to be the fastest woman in the world. Bad influences on Marion, such as her former boyfriends, led her to make these rash decisions that unfortunately changed her life. The documentary uses clips from Jones's career and interviews on her to inform the audience of all the facts in this situation and how she felt during it. Marion received 6 months in minimal security prison, and was later given 50 days in solitary confinement after being involved in a fight with her roommate, in which Jones was only defending herself in. Despite this, Marion Jones bounced back. She had a third child, and began to heavily train in the sport of basketball. Jones played in college at North Carolina University, but pursued track. Marion decided that her track career was over thus she then pursued basketball and was later drafted by the WNBA team of the Tulsa Shock. Jones also uses her mistake as a learning experience, and teaches kids about the negative impact this choice can make.
In my opinion, Marion Jones did not deserve jail time. The logical appeal is that many athletes have used steroids and been suspended for several games or for a season, but never given jail time. It can be argued that Jones was only arrested due to her extreme talent or fame, but also the fact that she is an African American. The majority of inmates are African American, so the authorities could have considered her "more guilty" than any other white athlete who has done the same thing only due to her skin color. Considering this, it is completely unfair to Marion who has committed 20 years of her life to track with this God given talent. All the hard work Jones has put into it was basically thrown away. Granted, she made a mistake. However, arresting an athlete for steroid use (honest about it at first or not) is unheard of. I agree with the punishment of forfeiting the medals, but instead of arresting her I believe authorities should have just suspended her from competing in track for a period of time. Despite the unjust discipline, Jones proved she is a fighter and refuses to give up on anything with her comeback to professional sports. Marion Jones is truly an inspiration to any athlete around the world.
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