In Barcelona, Carl Lewis was the good guy and Ben Johnson was the villain, and Johnson's bust for steroids only re-affirmed the public images and served to validate public sentiment against him. However, in 2004, the second most notorious steroid sandal implicated a popular and loved, as well as successful Olympic athlete, an All -American good girl, whose allegations of steroid use provided a scandal on par with, and far more undesirable than, the Johnson controversy.

However many were glad to see Johnson busted, nobody was happy to find out that 1996 five-time medal winner Marion Jones had been implicated as a steroid user and was facing a possible ban:

“A continuing drug scandal is threatening to hurt U.S. dreams of winning at least 100 medals at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. With only weeks to go before the Games begin, one star US runner is fighting back. Marion Jones, who won three gold and two bronze medals in the 2000 Olympics in Australia, has threatened to sue the agency investigating illegal steroid use. Athletes under investigation for steroid use could be banned from participating in the Summer Games. The Games begin on August 13 in Athens, Greece.''

"Despite all of its leaks and rumor-mongering, USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) has yet to produce a single shred of credible evidence against me," said Jones. "I should have been cleared long ago."

Jones made her statement against the USADA at a press conference in San Francisco yesterday. She called the agency, which was created in 2000 to fight steroid use, a "kangaroo court." The USADA drug tests Olympic athletes for steroid use (Freeman, 2004, http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2260).”

Jones commenced to wage a prodigious legal and press battle against the allegations and investigation that implicated her as a steroid user. At one time, her defensive stance would have been taken into consideration and respected by the court of public opinion. However, previous revelations of steroid use in the Olympic Games had hardened public perceptions, and the cynicism with which athletes were being viewed did not spare Jones. This is because she had painfully close links to other individuals banned for steroid use, and while no one wanted her to fail, no one likes cheaters either, and Jones’ steroid connections were a little too close for comfort.

Sprinter Tim Montgomery, Jones’ boyfriend at the time, was under investigation (and later was to test positive and be banned from Olympic competition). Furthermore, her ex-husband CJ Hunter, a former shot-putter who was to implicate her in steroid use under questioning, had already been banned, and Jones’ teammate on the US sprint team, Kelli White, also received a steroid ban. This inevitably gave rise to further suspicion about widespread use behind the scenes, and guilt by association was becoming the standard for public perceptions of steroid use by Olympic athletes.

Jones ultimately did compete in the Olympic Games of 2004, but was perceived with distrust and her lackluster performance (fifth in the long jump, part of baton-dropping women’s 4 x100 meter relay team) and lack of medals was viewed cynically by many as the “real” Marion Jones, “clean” and therefore out of contention for the medals.

At this point, it is important to distinguish the difference between testing positive and being the subject of suspicion. In 2004, Jones was initially implicated because she was named as a target of a federal investigationthat stemmed from the BALCO steroid laboratory probe. She was subsequently further implicated when her ex-husband Hunter under questioning alleged that she used steroids. She was even further implicated by BALCO head Victor Conte on a national news show (20/20) when after making a deal with the federal government, he claimed she used steroids.

Allegations flew, but Jones had not actually tested positive for steroid use. She was only implicated, but by more than enough people to justify the suspicions of a doubting public. In an even more ironic twist, after all the vehement denials, she ended up testing positive last year on an “A” sample, but that test was amazingly contradicted by her “B” sample. What became clear was that a new era had arrived where the integrity of Olympic competition had become corrupted not only by positive steroid tests, but guilt by association.

Up Next: Numerous bans of lesser known Olympic athletes verify the uncomfortable truths of a widespread and ongoing steroid invasion.