'Grace' Jones is coming to London

13 April 2012

I voted for Mrs Thatcher once. Tell no one of this. I know it happened, but I cannot for the life of me imagine how. Likewise, I know that a couple of years ago I thought Marion Jones was plain. This makes voting for Mrs Thatcher seem the act of a rational mind.

Marion Jones is beautiful, even more so face-to-face than she is on camera.

Clad in an elegant charcoal pinstripe trouser suit, there is not the faintest hint of the powerful build beneath. She carries her 5ft 10in frame with unselfconscious grace, and the effect is enhanced by her good-humoured style of speech.

Is this a fan letter? Probably. There aren't many stars like Jones. She has a beguiling way of talking to you as an equal, which is more unusual than you might think. She is bright and funny, frequently self-deprecating, never looking at you as if she suspects you are out to get her.

But then, no one is out to get Jones. That is quite something given her husband's current career difficulties. The much-vaunted Drive For Five gold medals may not have borne full fruit at the Sydney Olympics, although Jones declares herself satisfied with three gold and two bronze. But 2000 also brought four failed drug tests for her husband, the reigning world champion shot-putter CJ Hunter. It has indeed been a year to remember.

"Looking back on my season I'm very proud of what I accomplished," says Jones. "Of course I would have loved to win the five golds but the Olympics were everything I dreamed of. It was incredible to have so much success at my first Games.

"So many images stand out, especially Cathy (Freeman) lighting the flame when I was right up in front with my video camera. I loved the men's javelin. It was mind-blowing to see Jan Zelezny win gold in his fourth Olympics. I loved it when Merlene Ottey made a final in her fifth Games.

"But without a doubt, Cathy's victory impressed me most. I know I had a lot of pressure, but I think Cathy had a bit more. When she put all that aside and won, it was awesome.

"Since the season ended, the main aim has been just to resume some form of normality at home in North Carolina. It feels like everyone in America wants to tell me how proud they are. It's been fantastic, but hard trying to live a normal life again.''

Harder still, given that her husband has not been party to the laurels.

"The case is going very well," she insists. "We've done a lot of research, although it's not my place to give out the details at this time.

"In general, we feel very positive that things will turn out very good and CJ will clear his name very soon. I'll just leave it at that."

To date, Jones has remained untainted by her husband's troubles. Everyone wants to believe the best of her. It helps that her career has never featured any jarring improvements in her personal bests - not for nothing did the American sports bible Sports Illustrated describe her as the greatest sprint talent of all time. She was IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year this year, and she is nominated as Female Track Athlete of the Year at next month's World Sports Awards in London.

"Anytime you attach the word 'world' to something, it becomes a whole lot more important," she says. "I'm excited to be coming to London. It's a city I Iike very much."

Demands on her time are many these days but they must be fitted in around her training, which recommenced early last month. "My month off went real fast. It's been really difficult getting back in the four-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week routine. I certainly don't always enjoy it. But after a good day's workout I feel better about myself. You can get addicted to training that way.

"Next season I'm looking forward to going to Canada for the World Championships, although if you're looking for me to announce that I'm going for five in Edmonton, then I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you. This is a time to regroup and set new goals.

"I want to be a world record holder. I want to be an Olympic long jump champion. I want to be part of an Olympic champion 4 x 100m relay team. I want to retain my titles as world and Olympic 100m champion. I look forward to being 200m world champion, which has eluded me so far.

"After 2004, I will decide if I want to go through another four years of all this. I only turned 25 in October so I'm still relatively young, and I've only been in the sport five years. I have other things that drive me in my life. I have a passion for basketball, I'm very interested in a career in broadcasting and, down the line, I want to settle down with a family. So track and field is not the only thing I live for."

Poignantly, visitors to the homepage of marionjones.com are confronted with a smiling vision of Jones holding her quintet of Olympic medals. By an accident of technology, all five appear to be gold. Recently, I heard her asked if she had been "foolish" to attempt the unprecedented quintuple of 100m, 200m, long jump and both relays.

"Foolish?" she repeated, with an edge to her voice. "Definitely the wrong choice of word. I have no regrets. It's not like I totally bombed. I got real close but it didn't happen. Everybody's an expert. I've heard so much criticism of my long jump technique, yet I'm the Olympic bronze medallist. There isn't too much to be disappointed about there. But I set my standards higher than that."

All too effectively, it seems. Jones's five Olympic medals were not enough to see her named BBC Overseas Personality of the Year in its annual Sports Review. The honour went to Tiger Woods. Worse, in the eyes of Sports Illustrated she was not even Female Sports Star of the Year. Venus Williams took that gong. Jones merely smiles at the injustice of it.

"As long as I can know I did the best I could, I feel fine," she declares. "If it's not good enough to others, well, I'm not here to please them. I'm here to please myself. I was the best I could be this year. And I will be better still."

The World Sports Awards take place on 16 January at the Royal Albert Hall. To vote log on to www.world-sports-awards.tv For tickets telephone: 020 7589 8212.

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