The Downfall of Marion Jones

I remember reading Sports Illustrated for kids when I was around 12 years old and seeing an article about this young girl named Marion Jones. She was known as the fastest female in high school track and field and she used to beat the high school boys on a regular basis in foot races. She went on to star in track and basketball at North Carolina where she was part of a national championship basketball team one year. Soon after Marion was the hottest female athelete in the Athens Olympics where she won five medals. She had endorsements with Nike, Wheaties and was known worldwide.

Then there became grumblings about all of these professional athletes taking performance enhancing drugs. She steadfastly denied ever taking drugs for a long time. However this past year she finally came forward and admitted to taking drugs to help her performance. This is a sad sad story. Of a great female athlete who known has embarassed herself, her sport and her family and friends. Its sad to think that someone soo talented would take performance enhancers for an edge over the competition. This is a world class athlete. You're telling me that she couldn't have trained harder and tried to become the best in her sport the right way.

Now she is broke, been stripped of her olympic medals and will have to live with what could have been for the rest of her life. People hit crossroads in their life when they can take a different path. The lesson to learn here is that whatever you do, do it the right way. Because in the end as long as you tried your hardest and put your best foot forward you should consider yourself a winner. If you cheat and win you know deep down inside that it doesn't mean as much as it would have if you did it the right way.