Marion Jones, 28, hoped she would be out of the Olympic Stadium in time to get back to her room for the telecast of the 200-meter final. That was one of the races she had won at the last Olympics, a race in which the young woman often called “the Next Marion Jones” was running.
To do that, Jones needed to have her first long jump Wednesday surpass the distance–21 feet 10 inches–that would automatically qualify her for Friday’s final.
It took Jones two attempts, a foul followed by a jump of 21-11 3/4, to get where she wanted. So it was unclear where she watched the Next Marion Jones live up to the billing.
Allyson Felix, at 18 the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic track team, won the silver medal in the 200 meters with a world junior record time of 22.18 seconds. Veronica Campbell of Jamaica took gold in 22.05.
“I don’t know how many times I have been called the `Next Marion Jones,”‘ Felix said. “I take it as a compliment. I think it is a strong positive for me.”
Felix is part of the new generation of U.S. track and field medalists at these Olympics. Three are 20 or younger, and a fourth is 22.
“They have passed the torch,” said Pat Connolly, Felix’s coach. “The question remains whether they will pass the baton.”
Connolly was referring to the 400-meter relay, for which the first of two rounds is Thursday.
The relay team that has been practicing together includes Angela Williams, Jones, Lauryn Williams and LaTasha Colander. Connolly thinks Felix deserves strong consideration for a spot.
“I wouldn’t turn it away,” Felix said.
Jones said the decision had been made, but the coaches had asked it not be revealed until Thursday. Connolly said Felix had not heard anything from the coaches about the relay.
“See you tomorrow … maybe,” Jones said.
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Questions have been raised about the risk of putting Jones on the relay since she is under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency because of her links to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative doping scandal.
Were Jones later to be charged and found guilty of a doping violation, the whole relay team would lose any medal it won at these Olympics.
“I think that’s just a lot of talk,” Connolly said. “I don’t think anything can happen. I think Marion can run fast, and she has experience.”
Connolly is miffed that people wonder about Felix’s relay experience, since she ran in four relay meets this spring and on the U.S. Olympic “B” relay at a meet in Munich last month.
“She was running the second leg against Marion, and she gained on Marion,” Connolly said.
Jones, ironically, will be better rested than Felix. After competing in three individual events and two relays at the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in both sprints and a bronze in the long jump, Jones qualified for the 2004 U.S. team only in the long jump.
At the U.S. Olympic trials, Jones was fifth in the 100 and withdrew from the 200 after a mediocre performance in the first round.
“It has been difficult to just train, to go out every day at the American College of Greece with no other athletes, knowing rounds are going on in the 100 and 200 while I’m out there training long jump,” Jones said. “It has helped me focus, but it’s a different kind of focus than I have had before.”
At the Sydney Games, Jones had run four 100 races and the first two rounds of the 200 before starting the long jump. She said her excitement about finally getting to compete in the Athens Olympics might have led to her foul on Thursday’s first jump.
“I was a little pumped up, maybe too much,” she said, smiling broadly throughout a succession of interviews after the qualifying.
Jones’ jump was only the seventh best of the 39 women in the qualifying. Russia’s Tatiana Lebedeva was the leader at 22-9 3/4. Jones’ season best, 23-4, ranks fourth in the world, and everyone starts fresh in the final.
“It’s a little bit about a gold,” Jones said of the final. “It’s a lot more about coming out here and doing my best in the midst of a hell of a year … in the midst of mass chaos.”
The federal investigation of BALCO has produced evidence, according to published reports, that could prove she has used banned performance-enhancing drugs.
Some of the evidence reportedly came from her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter. Her current companion, Tim Montgomery, father of her son, has been charged with doping by the USADA.
“Things are a lot different from the way they were four years ago,” Jones said. “I’m in a different space now.”
Things have changed even more quickly for Felix, the high school sensation turned silver medalist in one year.
“If you had told me last year all this would happen, I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said.
Felix made the world championship team before graduating from high school but was overmatched at the big meet. By then, she had decided not to run in college but to be a student at the University of Southern California and train with Connolly.
“I have matured a lot,” Felix said. “I am so much stronger in the middle of the race. I knew it would take time. I just have to be patient.”
At 18, waiting at all for reward is being patient.
Connolly insisted she run the final that way, that she not rush out of the starting blocks before beginning to push coming out of the turn. Felix simply could not cut into Campbell’s lead in the stretch.
“She did exactly what I wanted,” Connolly said. “Maybe I should have told her to start a little faster.”
Felix needn’t hurry. After all, she’s got next.