* Marion Jones' story is a sad one indeed. Sad for her, for her parent, for her child, spouse, and for USA track and field. Many athletes should be worried however, that when they get found out, they may end up in the klink too. And that is as it should be.
* NFL games are winding down. Yesterday's obsession with Tyrell Owens by FOX was nausiating. You'd think that he was the only one on the field. Since NY decided to double team him, one would think that the cameras should go to the players that had the potential do DO something! Thank goodness that he won't be on the field at the Super Bowl.
* And when will The Globe and Mail stop all this reporting on the Toronto Maple Leafs? The paper is obsessed with them, and few of the rest of us are! Enough! And, the CBC, even the Ontario-wide morning program gave half an hour to the Leafs. Booooring.
* If you missed The Victor Davis Story on CBC last night, you missed a good feature on one of Canada's best athletes. His death in 1989 was awful; there was so much more he could have done. And the media's focus on the chair incident at the Commonwealth Games was just plain unfair.
I had wondered if the identities of the organ recipients had been known, so I was pleased to see that the heart recipient had lived 16 years more after he received Victor's heart. What a fine tribute to Victor. His liver was also donated.
This underlines the importance of signing your donor card, and making yuor wishes known to your family. Organ donation, at any age, is a generous gift to others who need transplants. Tell your family that you wish your organs to be donated. Your permission is necessary.
* Progress is being made on the dreaded LVEC in downtown Kingston. It is expected that the name of the facility will be known after council approves the deal on January 22, 2008. Guessing is rampant! Top of the list is Empire Life, whose head office is in Kingston, and that has a reputation for support of local initiatives. One can hardly imagine that a national business would attach its name to a facility that has engendered such wrath and which has so little support. But Empire Life might have the potential to bring respectability to the rink. It would be a great move for Empire Life.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
MARION JONES: THE JUDGE SENDS A MESSAGE
from CBC.ca, Friday January 11, 2008 at 12.31pm
Former Olympian Marion Jones gets 6-month jail sentence
Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a cheque-fraud scam, despite her plea that she not be separated from her two young children "even for a short period of time."
"I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be," said Jones, who cried on her husband's shoulder after she was sentenced in White Plains, N.Y.
Marion Jones has returned three gold and two bronze medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.(Darron Cummings/Associated Press)
The disgraced former Olympic champion was ordered to surrender March 11 to begin her term.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas said he gave her the maximum under her plea deal to send a message to athletes who have abused drugs and overlooked the values of "hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship."
"Athletes in society have an elevated status, they entertain, they inspire, and perhaps, most important, they serve as role models," Karas said.
The 31-year-old Jones also was given two years' probation and supervised release, during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service.
The judge said this would take advantage of Jones' "eloquence, strength and her ability to work with kids."
It was her children that worried Jones most as she beseeched the judge for a lighter sentence, talking at length about her two boys, including the infant son she's still nursing.
"My passion in life has always been my family," Jones said. "I know the day is quickly approaching when my boys ask me about these current events. I intend to be honest and forthright … and guide them into not making the same mistakes."
Jones' coach to be sentenced in cheque fraud scheme
The sentence completes a stunning fall for the woman who was once the most celebrated female athlete in the world. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
After long denying she ever had used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted last October she lied to federal investigators in November 2003, acknowledging she took the designer steroid "the clear" from September 2000 to July 2001. "The clear" has been linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports.
She also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery, the father of her older son Monty, in a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged cheques.
Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam. They include Jones' former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, who was to be sentenced later Friday.
Tearful confession
After her guilty pleas last October, Jones made an apologetic and teary-eyed statement outside court, saying, "It's with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.
"I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me," she added. "I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. … I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
Jones returned her Olympic medals — golds in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 1,600-metre relay and bronzes in the long jump and 400-metre relay — even before the International Olympic Committee ordered her to do so and wiped her results from the books.
Jones was among the many athletes who testified in 2003 before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
On the day she pleaded guilty, prosecutors said a 2003 search warrant at BALCO uncovered ledgers, purchases, doping calendars, and various blood-test results connected to Jones and former coach Trevor Graham.
She took EPO, human growth hormone and THG using drops and injections, according to the court documents that show use in 2000 and 2001.
Former Olympian Marion Jones gets 6-month jail sentence
Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a cheque-fraud scam, despite her plea that she not be separated from her two young children "even for a short period of time."
"I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be," said Jones, who cried on her husband's shoulder after she was sentenced in White Plains, N.Y.
Marion Jones has returned three gold and two bronze medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.(Darron Cummings/Associated Press)
The disgraced former Olympic champion was ordered to surrender March 11 to begin her term.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas said he gave her the maximum under her plea deal to send a message to athletes who have abused drugs and overlooked the values of "hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship."
"Athletes in society have an elevated status, they entertain, they inspire, and perhaps, most important, they serve as role models," Karas said.
The 31-year-old Jones also was given two years' probation and supervised release, during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service.
The judge said this would take advantage of Jones' "eloquence, strength and her ability to work with kids."
It was her children that worried Jones most as she beseeched the judge for a lighter sentence, talking at length about her two boys, including the infant son she's still nursing.
"My passion in life has always been my family," Jones said. "I know the day is quickly approaching when my boys ask me about these current events. I intend to be honest and forthright … and guide them into not making the same mistakes."
Jones' coach to be sentenced in cheque fraud scheme
The sentence completes a stunning fall for the woman who was once the most celebrated female athlete in the world. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
After long denying she ever had used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted last October she lied to federal investigators in November 2003, acknowledging she took the designer steroid "the clear" from September 2000 to July 2001. "The clear" has been linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports.
She also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery, the father of her older son Monty, in a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged cheques.
Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam. They include Jones' former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, who was to be sentenced later Friday.
Tearful confession
After her guilty pleas last October, Jones made an apologetic and teary-eyed statement outside court, saying, "It's with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.
"I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me," she added. "I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. … I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
Jones returned her Olympic medals — golds in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 1,600-metre relay and bronzes in the long jump and 400-metre relay — even before the International Olympic Committee ordered her to do so and wiped her results from the books.
Jones was among the many athletes who testified in 2003 before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
On the day she pleaded guilty, prosecutors said a 2003 search warrant at BALCO uncovered ledgers, purchases, doping calendars, and various blood-test results connected to Jones and former coach Trevor Graham.
She took EPO, human growth hormone and THG using drops and injections, according to the court documents that show use in 2000 and 2001.
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