Marion Lois Jones, also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is a former American track-and-field champion and professional basketball player, born on October 12, 1975. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she won three gold and two bronze medals, but they were later revoked after she admitted to using steroids.
Jones was notably linked to the BALCO scandal, which involved over 20 top athletes, including her ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, and Tim Montgomery, the father of her first child and a 100-meter sprinter. She also played as a point guard for the Tulsa Shock in the WNBA from 2010 to 2011.
Marion Jones Husbands and Kids
While attending UNC, Marion Jones began dating track coach and shot putter C.J. Hunter. To adhere to university rules prohibiting coach-athlete relationships, Hunter voluntarily resigned from his position. The couple married on October 3, 1998, and both prepared for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Ahead of the Olympics, Jones aimed to win gold in all five of her events. However, her husband C.J. Hunter withdrew from the shot put competition due to a knee injury but retained his coaching credentials to support Jones.
After Jones won her first gold medal, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revealed that Hunter had failed four pre-Olympic drug tests, testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. Consequently, Hunter was suspended and had to surrender his coaching credentials.
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At a tearful press conference, Hunter denied using performance-enhancing drugs. In her autobiography, Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane, Jones reflected on how Hunter’s positive drug tests affected their marriage and her image as a clean athlete. The couple divorced in 2002.
On June 28, 2003, Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Montgomery Jr., with her then-boyfriend, sprinter Tim Montgomery. Jones missed the 2003 World Championships due to her pregnancy but spent the following year preparing for the 2004 Olympics.
Montgomery did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic team and was later charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for using banned substances as part of the BALCO scandal.
Despite fighting the charges, Montgomery received a two-year ban from track-and-field competition and was stripped of all results, records, and medals from March 31, 2001, onward. He subsequently retired. The investigation into Montgomery’s doping raised further doubts about Jones’s claims of never using steroids, especially with her former trainer Trevor Graham implicated in the BALCO case.
On February 24, 2007, Jones married Barbadian sprinter and 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Obadele Thompson. Their first child together, a son named Ahmir, was born in June 2007, followed by a daughter, Eva-Marie, on June 28, 2009.
In 2010, Jones published a book titled On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed, with Simon & Schuster.
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Is Marion Jones Gay?
In an interview with SELF, the runner discusses her journey of coming out as woman gay, her path to self-forgiveness, and her hopes for the next generation of female athletes. She said, “It’s so interesting that people are kind of coining it like that. I get it.”
