Marion Jones Challenges Belize to Build Champions

Marion Jones once carried Belize’s flag onto one of the biggest sporting stages in the world. Twenty-six years later, she is back home with a message that reaches far beyond that unforgettable Olympic moment. The former track and fielder says Belize has the talent to produce world champions, but talent alone will not get athletes to the podium. Tonight, Jones is challenging the country to invest in the training, facilities and support needed to turn raw potential into international success. Shane Williams has the story.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Track and field athlete Marion Jones had just conquered the one-hundred meters on the world’s biggest sporting stage. Then, during her victory lap in Sydney, she reached for the Belizean flag and carried it alongside the Stars and Stripes, giving Belizeans a proud Olympic moment they would never forget.

 

Marion Jones, Former Olympian

“In Sydney, when I crossed the finish line and amongst the thousands of fans my attention, out of all of the thousands of people, fell right on my mother.  So I approached my mother in the Olympic Stadium in Sydney and embraced her and someone at some point had given me a US flag and my uncle was also there who had the Belizean flag. And I instinctively grabbed it. Didn’t think about it. It wasn’t a – it wasn’t a planned event because they are both my home.”

 

Jones is the daughter of a Belizean/American mother, and she has always embraced that connection. When Jones arrived in Belize two years later, the country welcomed her home like one of its own. She visited schools, met young athletes, and even put some of her own money into improving sporting facilities.

 

Marion Jones

“Belize has been my home. It’s been in my house. My mom, we s- my mom speaks Creole. We eat Belizean food. I understand culture. And so it was instinctive. And so after the games, after the success there, and I was  I was invited back here and I realized that Belize saw me as one of their own and celebrated me as one of their own and that was the first moment that I really understood that.”

 

When Jones returned to Belize in 2006, the visit was deeply personal. She brought her son to the country for the first time. But just one year later, her life took a dramatic turn. Jones admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and lying to federal investigators. She lost her Olympic medals, served six months in federal prison and watched her celebrated track career come to an abrupt end.

 

Marion Jones

“One of the hardest parts of all of that was the disappointment that I know that it led to, not only personally but my family, but the country of Belize. And it hurt. It hurt to see the people who had celebrated me and loved me disappointed and hurt. And so I had to come to terms with that. Why has it been so long since I’ve come back?” I needed to make sure that I made amends with myself, with my family, with the decisions that I made and now using all of those lessons for good. How can I contribute? How can I contribute to a country who has given me so much? How can I contribute to a country that has so much talent?”

 

Jones’ career eventually took her from track to the WNBA. Today, she is in a different place and a different race. Jones is now a motivational speaker and consultant and she’s back in Belize for the country’s first National Sports Summit.

 

Marion Jones

“I am here to open the dialogue to continue the conversation on developing a pathway to success for our athletes because the talent is here. And people have been, for decades, putting in work behind the scenes to try and develop that talent but there is no national strategy when it comes to sport, when it comes to funding, when it comes to coaching certifications and empowering our coaches with the tools on how to build world-class athletes.”

 

Jones is not here to retell the highs and lows of her own journey. She has returned with a bigger purpose: to help create a pathway that can take Belizean athletes from raw talent to the world stage.

 

Marion Jones

“You don’t have to look far when it comes to success in sport: Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Lucia, right? How are these countries, in similar size, able to continually over the decades produce world champions? Because they have a separate strategy when it comes to sport. Right? And finally, everyone sitting down, right? Everyone, government, federation, national sports council, the Belize Oly – they all have to have a collaborative spirit to finally say, “What we’ve been doing has not been working,” right? “Let’s put things aside. Let’s figure it out.” Let’s not just put some document that’s gonna be signed over the next few months, “These are our plans,” and then just put it on a shelf, ’cause that’s what’s happened.”

 

A new generation of Belizean athletes knows Marion Jones mainly as the name on a stadium. They did not witness the unforgettable moment she carried Belize’s flag on the Olympic stage twenty-six years ago. But through her work to strengthen the country’s sporting system, Jones now hopes to help these young athletes create Olympic moments of their own. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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