Hey, the folks in this episode, our conversation with the woman who once held the title of fastest woman in the world, Marion Jones. And with that, welcome to Amy and DJ and your Lasting image Robe. Do you hear the name Marion Jones? And what is the image that comes to me?
That big, beautiful smile, just that release of joy, like this is somebody who worked her butt off and she didn't.
It's just hearing your voice. You sound like you only have happy thoughts, right right. We know the story that ensued, But the same with me. The only image I have is that big smile of hers holding that gold medal up to that big smiling face. That is the image. I had to think for a little while to come up with the other image of her crying at a podium admitting that she had lied and took steroids.
Correct And also, in knowing that we were doing this interview, I learned things that I hadn't realized before that she had actually gone to prison, spent a lot of time behind bars, and completely then decided to take a step back from the spotlight. All together, these are all huge transformative moments that happened to her in her twenties, the greatest of successes and then the lowest of lows.
And it's tough she was, and it's remind her. I know that legacy is tainted, but she had accomplished so much in her career. And look, she's admitted the things she's done wrong, but there is some talent and some a lot and not just not some, a lot of talent and a lot of hard work behind what she did. She was a world champion shell forget she played basketball. It knows Romana and won a championship there, so she has a world class athlete. But that scandal kind of
tainted everything. But to talk to her now, it sounds like that was only the jumping off point to what is now going to be her greatest legacy. Was cool to hear her kind of talk about that.
Isn't it true?
Though? Because for anyone who has achieved something great but then had something taint their lives, so you don't want to be defined by your worst mistake. And if anything, any one of us who has lived enough life knows it's those mistakes. It's those moments of poor choices or failures, whatever you want to call them, that made you say I got to do something different. I got to make a change. I have to change the trajectory of my life. And that's exactly what she did in so many ways.
And her children are her legacy. How she's living her life is what she wants to become her greatest legacy.
Their children are her legacy. Folks. True story that we had to cut the interview short because she had to get a kid off to school. So it's kind of cool to see her forty nine years old now and just where she is in her life and looks like she is happy as all get out. So, folks, enjoy our conversation with the Marion Jones.
How are you doing? How are you feeling today?
And welcome?
Yes, thank you, thank you both. I'm excited to chat with you. I'm doing well. You know, it has been a whirlwinds year for me. I made certain certain specific choices to step away from the spotlight and the public eye for almost a decade right after everything went down, and it was all very purposeful, y'all. I have three
beautiful kids now they're nearly grown. But I made the choice that for my own mental health and for the lives of my kids, I wanted to pour into them, and I thought that a distraction would be the spotlight, and so it was purposeful. But in that I always knew that my reach, my public reach, my platform was
something unique and special. And even though right like there was success on the track and I was blessed with talent and speed, there is I don't want to speak in the third person in the past, but there is something unique about my ability to connect with people. Right There have been a lot of Olympians, there have been a lot of gold medalists, but very few have I think, had the ability to connect with the world like I did. And it's more than just me being able to run
from here to there very fast. And in that ten year Hiatus, I knew that I still had a stage and a platform to share, to share my experiences with the hopes of helping people who have been through hard times come back from then I was just waiting for that time. So in that ten years you didn't see me, but I was busy rebranding, creating my own narrative, refusing to allow the media the world to create my narrative. That that was my time to rebrand so that I
can still have a platform. And so this past year, I said, you know, my kids are older, two of them out of the house, they're in college, one about to be out of the house. Now's the time. They're good, they are healthy, Amy and TJ. They are thriving in their own world. Now it's time for me now to step back on the stage. And what do I have to give to the public. What in essence, why am
I currently relevant? And it's it's it makes me smile that there is an audience, that there are people like you TJ and you Amy who remember me and remember that there is there's something more like what is she
doing right? And I don't think that happens with every former athlete, And so I'm excited to be able to share my experiences with people, mainly but but really giving people this sense of hope, which I think we really really need in this day and time, that once you make a choice good bad in between, and maybe there's a setback of some sort, that your world doesn't have to end, that you don't have to crawl under a rock, that you can still rebrand and rename and get yourself
back out there in a positive light with the hopes that you can help people live a better life.
Well, Mary, you said, you said you have this ability, and maybe some of it is natural disability to connect with people, certainly through your story, through your talent, and
through the huge platform that you had. But do you find yourself these days when you're trying to connect with people, do you find we're so you're trying to tell them, appreciate to them to not make some of the same mistakes you made, or do you find yourself teaching more lessons about this is what you do when you make those mistakes that are now necessary and we're even necessary for you to be sitting here in the headspace that you're.
Tj a little bit of both. I share with people that I am unique in that a former goal medalist and former fastest woman in the world. Not a lot of people can relate to that. But I think our common bond is that everybody on this planet can or will experience some type of setback or some type of failure, or some type of something that knocks you off of
your feet. It can. I mean, it might not be on the grand scale potentially that mine was or that y'all's were or whatever, but people can relate to a park happy everybody right and so that is how we are unique. And I think that is what makes potentially me a little more relatable. When you say, oh, I can't relate or she man, she ran this, or she had a gold medal, or she was on the cover of Vogue or this, people can't relate to that. But when you say, you know what, have you ever been
knocked down? Have you ever been a product of divorce? Have you ever been bankrupt? Have you ever told a lie? And you're like, shit, how do I make this right? Most people can understand that. And so that's what I share that it doesn't have to knock you down. You deal with it, obviously, you deal with the consequences. Mine were severe. Y'all's were severe, right, Like, we all deal with it. But to me, it makes our testimony like and are the fact that And let me give you
a quick example. You know, I have kids, they have done sports, and I found that even with my own kids, when they were growing up and they had coaches, they would listen to their coaches, who maybe had a junior high athletic experience over their mamas. Right, that's about right. Kids are the same When you say, hey, like my coach or my mentor or the person who's teaching me something has really been through it. Like, doesn't that give you like a little more mph to want to listen
to say? You know what, like if she or he or they have been through what they've been through and they're showing me how they can rebrand and rename and put themselves out there whereby you know, the TJ's and Amys and Robins and whomever in the world still want to hear their voice and their experiences. Maybe I should, Maybe I should take note right that you don't have to just give up when life knocks you down.
And how often do you talk to people and you get introduced, right, if it's an interview like this, where how long does it take right talking to you before anything related to a scandal gets brought up?
Right?
It's because, let me say you, like this from our experience, it took a while to where we're like, oh wow, okay, we're actually just normal people who are in reallytionationship instead of scandalous this or the form or that. Right, does it take a while? Is it starting to happen?
Do you?
Like, I know it's always going to be a part of your story, but does it move way down in terms of who Marion Jones is.
I'm not at that place yet, TJ. When I'm introduced, I am generally introduced as former Olympian gold medalists who had being stripped because of poor choices that she made whatever, right. What what I do find there's an area of growth in my story is that after I am introduced and after five minutes into our conversation right where it's addressed, I don't run away from it. We talk about it more choices, I lie, right, and I let down a nation in a world. I get it at the age
of twenty something years old. Right, five minutes, maybe a few more, and then I'm able rights put out there. Right, I have attacked it. I have addressed it. And so the rest of the interview or whatever it.
Is, we talk about what I want to talk about, really right, which is how to help people live a better life, how to help people get it have a comeback which everybody can experience.
And I find that that is what is changing.
Right.
Sure, the introduction might likely stay similar for however long, but the ninety five percent of the content of our interaction has nothing to do with that, and it's going to get less and less and less and less, and I'm okay with that as long as I see forward movement.
Yeah, and you are doing that a triathlon? Why the triathlon? And I'm just curious because for those of us who don't know, because I get confused, what does that intel? Obviously there are three different sports, and I know it involves running, cycling, and swimming, I believe, But tell us what you're in for. You're doing this in how to correct, in may correct.
So it's always been on my bucket list, even when I competed. The athletes in that sport are built different, not just physically, but their mindsets is different. It is similar to how I function, how I think in my normal life right where you get obsessed with something right, get obsessed with your training, your nutrition, how you live.
And it's the only way that you could succeed in that sport by balancing all of those three things right, which I think right now TJ and Amy is perfect in my life because my constant challenge is how do I balance? As you get older? It's all about balancing, right. Like I teach my clients, it is a circle of life and the goal is for everything to be green. Which means good.
Right.
There might be some areas that are green, there are some areas that are orange, and there's a few that are red. The goal is for a balance and figuring that out. At almost the age of fifteen, I couldn't think of a more a better sport, a challenge to choose than a try because I have to learn how to balance all of them, which for me is a challenge, right, Like I'll tell you endurance side not my jam.
Right.
Do I run a few miles every day? Sure? Three macs? Right? Do I know how to bike? Yes, because I have kids and we used to go around the block. Do I know how to handle power and cadence when it comes to a bike a cycle? I do not. So there's my challenge. Let's talk swim for a second. Do I know how to swim? Do I know how not to drown? Yes? I have kids, You're right, like, hey, let me jump in the pool and play with them. But do I know how to Do I know a
swim stroke? Do I know how to breathe properly? Do I know how to keep my hips up and keep my court? I do not. So the challenge of an athlete former athlete in particular elite athlete to have to figure out this balance at this point in her life when now, TJ, I'm not paying to do triathlons, right, this is my choosing.
You have pay to enter the triathlon.
In addition balancing everything else in my life. Right, So, at the end of this try experience, and I don't know when the end will be. Most likely it's not going to be when I'm done with my first one, because I'm gonna get hooked, right, But the challenge for me is how do I create green in not just my try journey, but in all of the other relationships in my life, my business, my career, my everything like
that to me is success at this point. So that's kind of in a nutshell, Amy, That's why I'm doing it.
How many how many miles are in the triathlon?
Yeah, let's back up.
You said you only we run about three miles max, But how many you got them run in the travelin?
Well, I have chosen for my first try to be a sprint trye. So they're different, right, Like there is an iron Man iron woman distance. We are not there yet, friends, right, I am literally walking before I run. Okay, And so in the sprint try, I mean specifics. I think it's a little over three miles, right, so it's a much dial down version. But I know me right, I know
I'm gonna crush it. I know all this, and I'm gonna be challenged, which I already have been by my try coach, Like I am looking for X, Y, and Z after this, So the first one will be mild.
I like how you said the first one, so there are more to come. And I'm curious as you talk about how you're introduced and how you always have to at least address or explain your history.
How do you hope in this next.
Check of your life where you are looking at everything green and you're rewriting, or at least you're creating your next chapter, how do you want people to introduce you in ten years?
Yeah? Right, ten years? And know that's a good question. I know that ultimately, I would love for my name to be synonymous with people whom it struggled to navigate stardom right, but figured it out, figured it out and ultimately poured into the lives of people who around her like that. That would be a great legacy for me to have in ten years. I would hope people will just say, wow, right, a talent, right, and maybe they'll throw in a waste of talent. I don't think so,
because my talent has not just the physical. My ability to motivate and coach and train and provide inspiration to people is also a talent. Now you'll know everybody doesn't have that, right, and so being able to foster that, learn that create, cultivate that to me as a talent. And so in ten years, I would hope that the people who've the people's lives whom I have positively influenced, is however many more than what it was before I started.
Right or people initially heard my name and were like, ah, no, she's done. I don't want to hear from her, but I sort of get something out of her story. And if you've used it to I've used it to apply to my own life, even if it's just a few people's success. But I know it's going to be, however many much more than that.
You know as well, to think the whole world is watching you and Sydney, and we've talked about all the people you inspire hired by your brilliant talent obviously, but the thing that that might not even be your greatest impact. That you're putting something together in your life now you could have more of an impact on people's lives post all of that than you ever did when they saw you. But goldmells around you and TJ.
It's not even an if, right, Like it's not to me, it's not even an if, And it's it's what I share with the athletes that are achieving success right now. Right whereby we only have athletes entertainers, We really only have that big platform for a certain amount of time, right, how do you capitalize on it? Right? Like these these young athletes, they win a gold medal, right, they're on the cover, they're making millions right now, but their window
is so short. Now if they squander that away with silly stuff on social media or right like they are doing themselves such a disservice, why not in that window of fame which is limited, once again, they attach their brand to something bigger than sport, right, whatever that could be, whether it's about climate change or the homeless or whatever, like something that you are truly passionate about, passionate about, not just something that's going to you know, get a
quick audience. You will extend the life of your fame ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and hopefully truly impact people, because I know that me running from here to there impacted the lives of people. I'm sure in a positive way. But really, when you really look at the grand scope of the platform that you can really get if you truly are passionate about something bigger than sport man, that could be something special in your life. So I love you, know, and Mary, and I love you.
Just turned forty nine, and so many of our listeners are women, and I'm in my fifties already, and I love hearing, especially someone who has such an accomplished past.
And you were killing it in your twenties.
But now to be two decades older and to be wiser and as TJ said, slower but go ahead, the.
Impact could be greater.
And I'm just that that thought that we have a lot left in our tank to get in different ways. And it's a beautiful message to all of us out there that we still have value and we still have worth, and we have so much more to give.
Perfect well said Amy, And really the best is yet to come, and the best is yet to come, y'all. I believe that for y'all, for me, and Pete looked him knock down, and here you're like, you know what, No, it's not who I am. Like that, my biggest mistake, my biggest setback, does not define who I am.
I wish folks could see and we all fell in love with a smile twelve years ago in Sydney. But you still have that great smile and glow and energy and you look like there is not a weight on your shoulder in the least. You just look wonderful.
Marian.
Really, if you have to go run one hundred meter right now, what time could you put up?
Well, since we were briefly speak talking about knees earlier, let's first put that out in the universe. I have grade four arthritis in both of my nis. All right, I am, But I am an adrenaline junkie, which means that when I train and work out, I don't feel it right. I feel it the minute that I leave the gym or walking the stairs or getting out of my vehicle, which is a plus and a minus. When I was in the midst of my career, I go, I train hard, I go hard. I don't really feel
a pain injury. But if I was just stoop on the track right now, A former athlete is always an athlete. If you ask any football player, any boxer, any sprinter. If you tell me TJ that I can get six months dedicated to sprint training, I feel in my heart that I can be back out on the track, I don't care. And so if you were to get me on the track, you and I, TJ. Nice say you and I we were to line up, I would crush it. I would crush you because I won't in the midst
of it feeling now, will I tear every hamstring? Tea Achilles correct, I would we have to lift it away from the track, But I would fly. I would go fast. I don't know. I most likely I'm not going under eleven seconds, but I don't know.
Yeah, he win the race, but I win the recovery. Got it.
I would crush the race, but you would crush the recovery.
Yes, I love that positive attitude is taking board and fill it up our day too. Marion Jones, thank you so much for being with us on the podcast. Whish we could talk longer, but mom duties are calling. I know you got to get for your youngest to school. So thank you for us today.
Thank y'all, I was so pleasant. I wish all all the best in your training and in your world. And yeah, have a great day, y'all.
Thank you there, you have a good one. Hopefully we'll see you out on the road at some point. And folks, thank you as always for listening to us. You can catch us on our official Instagram page to Amy and TJ Podcast, But for now, I'm TJ and.
I'm Amy Roboch.
Have a great day.