Marion Jones Runs to Oprah

Marion Jones

Leave it to Oprah to bag the exclusive. First, she gets Tom Cruise jumping up and down on her couch. Now, she’s got fallen track star Marion Jones on her couch – via satellite this time. In her first interview since sentencing, Jones opened up about the pain of her lies and cheating on her family. For her part, Oprah pressed Marion on lying. Maybe not as hard as she went on author James Frey, but she had a few questions . . .

"It's been a long journey," Marion said. "The weight and the baggage of many years of knowing that. I've been blessed with a super amount of talent but I could not go on any more with this baggage, lying to the world, lying to God.”

Marion Jones’ plan for a return to good graces has just begun. She faced the steroid story head on and “told all” about her mistakes. Her charisma makes it hard to continue disliking her. Oprah’s loyal followers are sympathetic to Marion and want to reach out.

Maybe USA Track & Field should hire Marion’s publicist to improve USA Track & Field’s image problem.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist