Jones admits to steroid use - report

MARION JONES admitted to doping before the 2000 Olympics in a recent letter to close family and friends, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Jones, a triple gold medallist in Sydney, said she took 'the clear' for two years, beginning in 1999, and that she got it from former coach Trevor Graham, the newspaper reported. Graham told her it was flaxseed oil.

'The clear' is a performance-enhancing drug linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), the lab at the centre of a U.S. government doping investigation. Until now, Jones had steadfastly denied she ever took any kind of performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones also said she will plead guilty today in New York to two counts of lying to government agents about her doping and an unrelated financial matter, The Post reported.

"I want to apologise for all of this," the newspaper reported, quoting a person who received a copy of Jones' letter and read it to the paper. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

The admission could cost Jones the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics. Though she fell short of her goal of winning five gold medals, she came away with three and two bronzes and was one of the games' biggest stars.

Career tarnished

But her career has been tarnished by doping allegations since then. Victor Conte, head of BALCO, repeatedly has accused Jones of doping.

Jones was one of several athletes to testify in 2003 before a grand jury in San Francisco that is investigating, BALCO. Former boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, was given a two-year ban for doping in late 2005.

In December 2004, the Inter-national Olympic Committee opened an investigation into doping allegations against Jones.

Positive test

Last year, a Jones urine sample tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO. Jones immediately quit a European athletics tour and returned to the U.S she was cleared when a backup sample tested negative, she missed at least five major international meets, forfeiting an estimated US$300,000 in appearance and performance fees.

In her letter, Jones said she had used performance-enhancing drugs until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when government agents questioned her in 2003, panicking when they presented her with a sample of 'the clear', which she recognised as the substance Graham had given her.