Lessons in Moving On, with Marion Jones

Hello Sunshine, Hey Bessies.

Today on the bright Side were joined by the former fastest woman in the world, Olympic champion and coach, Marion Jones. At the height of her career, she was caught up in a performance enhancing drug scandal that ended up with her serving time in jail. Well, now she's back and she is sharing the lessons she's learned from failure and also how she's rebuilding her life.

It's Tuesday, February fourth. I'm Simone Boyce.

I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine.

Okay, Danielle, I am just sitting here thinking about baby Simone and how her mind would be blown to know that Marian Jones is coming on her show today. I mean, I have such vivid memories watching her as a kid. She was the breakout star of the two thousand Olympics in Sydney.

She was such a powerhouse and at her Olympic debut in two thousand, she earned five medals. At the time, she was known as the fastest woman on the planet and she really was on top of the world. But her story took an interesting turn A few years later. Marian became the subject of an FBI investigation into performance enhancing drugs, and ultimately Marian admitted that during the investigation she lied to federal investigators about never having taken performance

I think it takes so much courage to go through something like that so publicly, especially at such a young age, and then come back around and be willing to talk about it, definitely, And what's clear throughout all of it is that she is someone who has had to take ownership over those mistakes and learn how to move forward and forgive herself and listen, we have all all been there in some way before.

She's been out of the spotlight for some time, and she's making her rounds in interviews opening up, So let's bring her in and hear Marion's story in her own words.

Welcome to the right Side, Marion. Yay, Thank you Simone, Thank you Danielle for having.

Me welcome, Welcome, So explain this to me. Fastest woman on the planet. That's quite a title at one.

Point, you know, I, I mean, I never really subscribed to that title, Danielle, because I'm always I always have the belief that there's somebody who has like hasn't been discovered in like the remote region of South America, who lives in the Amazon jungle or somewhere in Africa, and they just never had opportunity, and they.

Most likely were the fastest in the world.

But in regards to like my season to shine, I was definitely one of the fastest.

So it was a fun time. But it really does seem like a whole other life ago. You know, our job.

In our job, we get to interview people who have really interesting titles often and I hear things like.

Richest person in North America or.

Highest IQ in Greenland. It's rare that I get something that's like in the plan on the planet, like fastest women on the planet is a wild title. But you've recently stepped back into the public eye to tell your story after what feels like a long time away. What is this phase about What in your life makes it feel like this is the right time to start talking.

As you all know, being constantly being in the spotlight can become very heavy, especially if you find that that spotlight can become a distraction to family and to friends and really to your life journey and growth.

And I applaud anybody.

Who you know has made the decision to be in the spotlight and then made the decision to step away. It's a very courageous move, you're saying. More and more, Actually athletes do that.

Now.

You saw Simone Biles do that.

And not to say that it was for my positive mental health journey, but in essence it is. I made the decision to raise a family, and I wanted the focus to be on them and not me having to juggle, you know, answering questions or being part of a media system that can be intrusive and obtrusive and all that. And so it was about a decade I just made the decision that I wanted to be mom.

I wanted to.

Create my own space, not based off of something that I had done or not done, but really see what I can do in my community.

But last year, you.

Know, I but my kids are older too, you know, out of the house now, like just have my fifteen year old daughter here, and I was just in a space where I felt that people needed to hear a story of I could come back story Like, there's so much negativity in the media and so many things that when you listen or see like this brings you down. And I just generally felt that my story could could

But when you get older.

And you realize that, like, your true test of character is the impact that you make.

On people's day to day lives.

When you get old enough and you're like, man, like I helped somebody move from one dark space like out of that and like that is so fulfilling, And that is what I thought that my story could do and it has so that that is an in a nutshell, that's kind of why I decided to, you know, share my story more.

I feel like we are getting closer to the heart of your story, Marion, but I do think we have to take a moment to properly set up the stakes. So take us back to the year two thousand, Marion. You were on top of the world, five Olympic medals, Nike Deals, Wheaties boxes, and the cover of Vogue. I mean, this is like, this has got to be the stuff you dream of as an aspiring athlete. What was the moment when you realized you made it as a professional athlete.

When I made my first Olympic team at the age of fifteen years old, that's probably the first time that I knew like, okay, like I got some talent going on, you know, genetically, I've been blessed and gifted, but I have pretty unique work ethic.

What makes it unique.

I'm originally from the Los Angeles area and at nine, the nineteen eighty four Olympics came to LA and that was my first exposure.

To the Olympic experience, and I knew that summer.

I wrote on my chalkboard all that that I was going to be an Olympic champion, and from the age of nine, that.

Was my world That was my that was my goal, that was my priority.

My mom says, you know, the only way that you can compete in sports is if you get good grades.

Check, go to.

Practice, be diligent, check check check, work harder than anybody else.

Check.

And that narrative kind of just continued with me. Right, like, I never was distracted with you know, social pressures or any of that. You know, at that point, I knew that I wanted to be a star.

Right.

You couple the pursuit of stardom with an incredible work ethic. For example, I remember when I would train at the highest of heights, Simone. I would when I would travel to my training site, I would flip down my rearview mirror, my mirror in my vehicle, and I would ask myself prior to every session, will anybody train harder than you.

Today in the world, Marion? And I would close it.

I would go work out to three four hours, come back, flip it down, and just me, I'd ask myself, Okay, honestly, one on one, is there anybody you think in the world that trained harder or better or smarter than you? And I could say probably in a decade span, there might have been a I got handful, maybe less than.

Five times that I said to myself, you know what.

I probably would have been beaten today for whatever reason.

Wait, this is such a fascinating look into your inner dialogue, your inner monologue.

Into my crazy.

Hey, if I think it takes a little bit crazy, you know, if you're trying to go somewhere, you need to have a little bit of crazy.

Oh, no doubt.

I actually wanted to go back to something that you said earlier. You said that the spotlight felt heavy, like you really looking back and acknowledge that what was the heaviest part of being the fastest woman on the planet at that time, of enjoying the limelight, Well.

The heaviest part is I mean, this is all in retrospects, right, right, And I'm almost fifty This year, I will be fifty years old, and that's.

Crazy even to say that.

But the idea that in that season of my life, I surrounded myself with people who were what I call yes people and entertainers and celebrities, and the lights can understand when you achieve a certain level of success, like everybody wants to be your friend.

Right, for whatever reason, you can take the.

Care of them, right, It's it's just a thing that people gravitate towards. And because of my age at that time, I was young. I was in my early twenties. You like the idea of somebody saying, ah, Danielle Simon, y'all are like, y'all are.

Awesome, y'all are rocking it.

You're achieving success like this, that and the other, and you start to only want that around you, people who are going to say yes to whatever you want, and you start distancing yourself from the people in your life that will give it to you straight sometimes even when you're a success.

And so for me, that was.

The hardest part getting caught in what I call that wave of stardom, meaning it took me out in the ocean and I was surrounded the ocean for me were yes people.

And I made the decision, like I'm.

Not blaming anybody else, right, I guess if there's anything it was naivety, right, Like I was just young and got caught and thought for a while that I only wanted to be around people who are going to tell me how great I was. And at the shore were the people my family, right, my childhood friends, the people who I should have stayed close to but would have said, you know what, Mariyan like, hmm, probably look twice at that relationship or that business decision or this, that and

Yeah, we've got to take a short break, but don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with Marion Jones. And we're back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. I think everyone who's you know, watched you perform, who's followed your career, they know that you have gained and won, but not everyone knows how much you lost. So in two thousand and three, you were interviewed by federal agents.

What happened next?

Well, in two thousand and three, to take people back to that time, especially people that are younger and don't remember or know what happened, there was a lot of talk investigations about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs and who was giving that to them, who was supplying that to them, and the.

Whole cover up.

And when I was invited to speak to federal investigators in three I accepted that invitation based off of the knowledge that, hey, I'm here to answer whatever questions you

And I said no. And prior to the meeting.

And most many people don't know, Simon and Daniel is prior to the meeting, I signed what's.

Called a clean for a Day letter.

It's a very popular letter in that prior to meeting with federal investigators, if you sign this in essence says that no matter what you share with them, if you tell the truth to them, they won't pursue you in any prosecution. Right, So, and it's like protecting you. And because I had nothing to hide. I signed the letter with my attorneys giving me information, making sure I have all of the information.

Cool sign the letters.

So we go into the interview and I'm being asked questions about if I knew this, if I knew about this supplement, and I'm like, no, I don't you know. I have a relationship with a certain company and they supply my supplements, and I've been tested probably the most tested athlete in the world in terms of if I'm taking performance enhancing drugs, and never ever did anything come up as positive. And finally they took something out of

Immediately when they did that, I recognized it.

I recognized that it had been something that I had been given for a good amount of time prior to the Games and was told that it was something else. And in the span of forty five seconds, I realized that what I had been reading about in the news right was this particular supplement or performance enhancing drug and I had taken it, had been given it and taken

In that I felt that.

If I was told them the truth, everything that I had worked for, everything that I dreamed of, all the successes that I had would be gone. So I made the decision in that split moment to lie to them and tell them, hey, don't know what it is, never seen it, never taken it. Fast forward, however, many years the weights of that lie, although like they never pursued me or anything, the weight of that lie became heavy.

And at that point I had kids.

I had my two boys by that point, and I'm, you know, trying to do the right thing as a parent, tell them like, hey, you know, son, once you make a poor decision, what are you supposed to do? And

Were you shocked by your sentence? Ah?

Like understatement of the century right like there I was. Certainly this was the president and the judge even in sharing the sentence with us and with me, saying, hey, you will be the example. You will be the example. Even going into that particular court day, it was highly recommended from the court that I'd be sentenced to probation and you know, community service and doing things with young athletes about you know, good choices and all those type of things.

So we walked in there.

Really really thinking that that's what's going to be my sentence, knowing that the other sentence was out there. It's always out there, but that would not be a reality and two and a half three hours later into the sentencing, I had to look to my lefts and ask my attorneys like, wait, hold on, is this what I think it is?

And it was.

And there's been a lot of time for me to sit and say like like.

Why why why me? Woe is me? Woe is me? That really hasn't gotten me anywhere. There was a moment's.

There when I was in prison that I allowed myself to go to that dark place like man.

Man, you you've lost it all? Like where do you go from here?

And there were really a few moments where I was I sat there saying like this is a mess.

I don't know what else I can do. But then I snapped out of it and people ask well, like how do you do that? Like that is the key, Like that is what I want to share with people.

And the way that I did that is that you know what, it was one poor choice. It was one poor choice and it does not define who I am, Like I have so much respect for my incredible mother who raised my brother and I as a single parent.

She came to this.

Country at a very young age to create a better life for herself and her family, and I says I Am not going to step out of this facility thinking that I'm not worthy of anything good. And how do I do that? I fight, I reframe, I make a plan. What's my next steps? What are my strengths? And there are a lot more than just being the fastest woman in the world, thankfully, and I have ways to connect with people.

I have gifts that had nothing to do with sport. How do I start to tap into all of those? And that's what I started to do step by step.

Marion.

I know that Simon and I are both so curious about the now, but I do want to go back for a moment to when you were sentenced, because the public was really shocked and they were kind of aggressive about you using these drugs. But the athletic world is different than the public sphere. How normalized were these in the athlete world.

The answer to that is, like I would know, my bubble was small during that time. There was a lot of tainting of supplements, so most professional athletes hired companies to create our supplements.

Right.

I can remember that in the news, certain athletes going to the gncs of the world and getting their supplements and they're being tainted with things that potentially could be performance enhancing. Well, when you are an elite professional athlete and you're getting paid a lot of money, you can't afford that to happen.

So you hire a company.

You hire companies to make sure that what you are taking, which is natural, you are asking a lot of your body. You need supplements, you need things to make sure that you can recover.

It's just the way that it is. And you bring in outside people to fulfill all those roles.

You have a coach to make sure that you're programming and you're working out in a certain way. You have a psychologist to make sure that your mindset is prepared for What about.

You have all these people whom you.

Hire, who are you're in your corner, and whom you rely on to make certain decisions for you. Even more so when you're nineteen and twenty and twenty one years old and you're just out of college. I ask people a lot of times who are very who were very aggressive, and they're coming at me and why do you do this and why.

Do you do that? And I say, just pause a second, what were you doing at eighteen years old?

At nineteen years old, were you are on the cover of Vogue was every every time you stepped out of the house doing this, Like, were the cameras on you? Right?

And if they were, what kind of dirt before social media?

Right?

What kind of dirt would you be comfortable with the world knowing? Like right now, right? And a lot of people will say, oh, all right, right.

Right, it's time for another short break. We'll be right back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. And we're back with Marion Jones. Maryan, how do you respond to skepticism around your claim that you didn't know you were taking performance enhancing drugs?

Yeah, well, for a while there, I claimed, well, hey, I mean it's your word versus mine. And my claim is that I was the most tested athlete in the world. And if you followed the trajectory of my career from like eleven years old old running you know, age group

Like this is where I'm at now.

I don't have any problem sharing and giving context, like we've done with what happened.

You forgot prison time, you did the day in that as they say, I did.

The time plus right, like the forty nine days in solitary.

I mean, come on, now, at some point, I've moved on.

And that is why you see a certain level of success where I'm at now, you don't have to keep shedding tears.

I've been there. I did that. Poor decisions were made, consequences were had.

Now how can I help people like not have to go through certain things that I did?

Like that is where I'm at.

I think in reflecting on that chapter of your life when you faced this immense public scrutiny, you were twenty five in the year two thousand, right, Yeah, you were incredibly young. What did you learn about yourself and the pressures that we all face to present this certain version of ourselves to the world. What can you say in hindsight about that.

That the earlier on that you are comfortable and able to step into your own authenticity, like the health you will become and the healthier meaning you will be able to make better decisions business career decisions, relationship decisions.

But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of pressure on young athletes.

There's a lot of pressure on how much money you can make for yourself and for other people. You know, an athlete has such a short window of fame, such a short window in essence to make what money you can retire off of, which is a span really, if I'm being generous, five years, So the pressure is even more intense, more intense, And I suppose, you know, if what lesson has been learned from that whole situation is

Ah.

I mean it might inspire some young athletes, but on the grand scheme of things, it's not going to really make some young mother in Bolivia's life like that much better and stronger. What is it that you can use your name, your likeness, your image, your words to really change the trajectory of this world.

You have such a short window. Take advantage of it.

Yeah, And I think that's universal, regardless of what industry you're in. We all like to think that things last forever, but you have to be able to recognize the moment you're in and make the most of it.

I really see that.

So, having gone through all of this, I feel like you are one of the best people to ask about regret. I'm curious what your philosophy is on regret and whether it's evolved in light of your journey.

It certainly has evolved.

It evolves because of maturity and growth and what you learn about the world and like myself, and it's a sticky road when you start talking about regrets because if I could go back and make certain changes in decisions that I made. Sure, do I regret making a quick decision that would affect my family and parts of my future. Sure, But honestly, y'all, I find so much joy satisfaction knowing

Like, can you give me more more than You're good?

But really, I mean, y'all know what I'm saying, Like like I'm good.

In terms of regret, there's really not right.

I think once you have owned up to something and you've done everything imaginable to try and rectify the situation, make it better, you gotta be done. You got to move on, right, And I have raid, and it's not it's not for me to help people also move on.

If that makes any sense, Like I moved on.

If people are unwilling to move on about a certain topic, like like sorry, but I'm.

Good, I think that's fair.

When I was younger, I used to think, like live no regrets, but I think there's like a gray area there, and I'm starting to rethink my relationship with regret and my philosophy with regret. I listened to this podcast that Oprah hosted with an author who wrote a book about regret, and I just thought it was really interesting to think about the ways in which regrets can shape us and can move us forward. You know, I think there's room

Yeah. I am simonar And it takes time, right, and it takes maturity, and it takes lifeing as they say, Yeah.

Your life has been a story of these incredible highs and challenging lows, and I think through it all, you've really had to rebuild some of that trust with yourself, with loved ones, with the public. For anybody who is struggling to come back from their own set back, what is your advice to them or to us?

The first piece of advice would be to give yourself some type of grace, right. I think life has a way of knocking you down, So that's the first thing.

Is you building yourself up. And so from there then you start moving forward.

I like to say I said it already, like you start reframing, not just like in my sense like what the media said about you or what media said about me, or or what type of person I was or athlete or whatever, but this is based off of what I know. I am great at, what I am good at, what I feel good about. And that's when you start building and building and building into what you've created is something that is very unique to you, not based off of anybody like patting.

You on the back or needing or want anything from you.

This is you, right and you can begin to really really flourish beautiful.

Yeah, I think that's a perfect place to end. Fam yayah, Mary, and thank.

You so much for talking with us on the bright Side.

You're welcome, Simone, Danielle. I wish you all all the best.

Well too, Thank you so much. Marion Jones is a five time Olympic medalist and performance coach for entrepreneurs and young professionals.

That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, It's Wellness Wednesday. Substance abuse expert doctor Rachel Saiko Adams joins us to unpack the Surgeon General's advisory about the link between alcohol consumption and cancer. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh, and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at danielle Robe.

Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.