Marion Jones

I had a hard time picking a hero because I’ve never really thought of anyone as a hero. I never had icons, and I’m not into who my favorite band is, or who my favorite actor/ actress is. But I did have ideas on what my hero should be. I thought that my hero should be someone I would like to grow up to be: intelligent, self assured, confident, not afraid to go for their desires, and reaching their goals in life. I went from looking at President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to Mia Hamm, and I finally settled down to Marion Jones.

Marion Jones saw her first Olympic games on T.V. at age nine and when she saw the athletes cross the finish line with a gleam in their eye, she wanted to experience it as well. She was a tomboy back then and she would hang out with her older brother and his friends. She had to be fast to keep up with them and that competitiveness stuck with her.

During her freshmen and sophomore years, she won state championships in the 100 and 200. In her senior year, she received a state title in the long jump. She also played basketball as a forward. She was great at it and played in college at UNC to fulfill her dreams of basketball, so she quit track for a while. She came back to track in 1997; she won the 100 at the world championships and ran on the U.S. team that won the 4*100 relay with an American record of 41.47. The next year she was the Track and Fields News athlete of the year, winning 35/36 events. She had placed 2nd at the long jump as one of her events. She finished the year ranking number 1 in the world in the 100, 200, and long jump; she was one of 3 people who ranked number 1 in 3 events. The year afterward she won the 100 and took bronze in the long jump, but she injured her back when she ran her 200 and did not compete the rest of the year.

Her junior year in high school, she competed at the Olympic trials in New Orleans and finished 4th in the 200 with a time of 22.58 seconds, a national junior record, but it left her a hundredth of a second out of the third and a spot on the team. She also placed fifth in the 100yd dash. They asked her to go to the Barcelona Games as a member of the 4*100 relay team, but she declined. She didn’t quit just because she didn’t place at least 3rd; she kept going to be better.

Before the Sydney Olympics, she set a goal for herself to receive a gold medal for all 5 of her events. When the news got out to the media, they criticized her by calling her egotistic and selfish and many people thought so as well. She wasn’t thinking about winning those medals to show it off, or to brag. She wanted to set goals for herself and if she did get 5 gold medals, then she would know how her hard work finally paid off. We all know that it’s harder to concentrate when many people watch and wait for you to fail. But she didn’t let the people or the media get her down. She trained hard and got ready for her events.

When she arrived in Sydney, she was getting ready to do her last four events when she found out that her husband had tested positive for the steroid nandrolone and was kicked out of the Olympics. She was faced with a lot of stress, especially from the media, but she didn’t let her guard down. At the Sydney Olympics she took home 3 gold and 2 bronze medals, one medal for every single one of her events. Though she did not get 5 goals, she was still smiling with joy.

She didn’t achieve her goal, but she wasn’t stomping all over the place, or in rage. She smiled and felt good about how she did. She probably was a little disappointed that she didn’t reach her goal, but she tried with a positive attitude, and I respect that. She was faced with a lot of criticism, but she acted cavalier and tried her best. I think that’s a great quality to have, especially an athlete that many kids look up to because Olympians are the people young athletes try to act like. She was and is a great athlete and had the courage and boldness to say that she was going for the 5 gold medals. I think she has many qualities that I would like to have, I especially admire and want to follow her example of self-assuredness and be able to reach the goals that I set up in life. She’s just a really great athlete, and I admire her ability to run and play basketball.