Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones recalls her ill-fated decision to lie to US authorities about her doping in an interview with American talkshow diva Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast tomorrow.
The interview, to air on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," is Jones's first major interview since she was released from a US federal prison on September 5 after serving a six-month sentence for perjury.
According to details released in advance by the program, Jones discusses the moment she decided to lie to prosecutors about her use of the once-undetectable designer steroid THG, called "the clear" by clients of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO).
It was during the BALCO steroid distribution investigation that Jones ran afoul of federal agents.
"And so when they showed it to me and they said this is the substance, and I knew that I had taken that substance, I made the decision that I was going to lie and I was going, you know, try and cover it up," Jones told Winfrey.
Jones, who never failed a drug test, pleaded guilty in October 2007 to two charges of making false statements to federal investigators in 2003.
Having denied for years that she had ever taken steroids, a tearful Jones admitted she had started using THG in 1999 and continued using it into 2001.
As a result of the admission, Jones was stripped of her five medals, three of them gold, from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
"It wasn't as difficult to give back the medals because it's not about the hardware," the 33-year-old athlete told Winfrey. "It was about that memory. So that memory is what will be tarnished."
Jones also discusses her time in a minimum security prison in Texas, and what she told her two young children about her incarceration.
Jones's appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" guarantees her a wide forum. Winfrey is one of America's most influential women, and her Chicago-based syndicated television program is estimated to attract up to 10 million viewers daily.
