What Is Marion Jones' Net Worth?
Marion Jones is an American Olympic gold medalist and former professional track and field athlete and basketball player who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Marion Jones won five medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (three gold, two bronze). In 2007 she confessed to having taken performance-enhancing drugs during the Olympics and that she lied about the use to a grand jury as part of the BALCO investigation. Jones was forced to forfeit her Olympic medals.
In 2010, she was signed to the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA after being drafted during the 2003 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury. Jones appeared in 47 games with the Shock, averaging 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds per game, and was released the following year.
In 2006, Marion was reported to be in dire financial straits, and her home in North Carolina near NBA star Michael Jordan's was foreclosed on. That same year, Jones was linked to a check fraud scheme and pled guilty to lying to the Department of Homeland Security. She was sentenced to six months in jail in 2008; the sentence was connected to both the use of steroids and the check fraud scheme. She remained at the Federal Medical Center in Texas from March 11th until September 5th.
Marion has published the books "Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane" (2004) and "On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed" (2010), and she appeared in the 2003 documentary "Top Speed."
Early Life
Marion Jones was born Marion Lois Jones on October 12, 1975, in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of George and Marion Jones, and she holds dual citizenship between the U.S. and Belize (her mother's home country). When Jones was very young, her parents split up, and her mother married Ira Toler, a retired postal worker, three years later. Toler was a stay-at-home dad to Marion as well as her older half-brother, Albert. Sadly, Albert unexpectedly died in 1987, and Marion dealt with her grief through sports, running and playing basketball. By the time she was 15, Jones regularly dominated California high school sports in both basketball and track. Marion graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1997.
Early Career
As a high school student, Jones won the 100 m sprint at the CIF California State Meet four consecutive years, twice with Rio Mesa High School and twice with Thousand Oaks High School. She was accused of doping during her high school career, but attorney Johnnie Cochran successfully defended her. Three years in a row, Marion was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in the track and field category. In 1991 and 1992, "Track and Field News" named her High School Athlete of the Year.
Jones declined an invitation to take part in the 1992 Olympic trials, then she accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Her team won the NCAA championship when she was a freshman. In 1996, she "red shirted" the basketball season to focus on track, and she had to give up her spot on the Olympic team due to an injury.
Professional Career
In 1997, Jones won the 100 m sprint at the World Championships and finished in tenth place in the long jump. At the 2000 Olympic Games, she won gold medals in the 100-meter sprint, 200-meter sprint, and 4 × 400 m relay and bronze medals in the 4 × 100 m relay and the long jump. Marion was stripped of her Olympic medals after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs in 2007. Her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, testified that he witnessed Jones injecting drugs into her stomach at Sydney's Olympic Village.
Marion won gold medals in the 4×100 m relay and the 200 m at the 2001 World Championships, and at the 2004 Olympic Games, she finished in fifth place in the long jump event and her 4×100 m relay team came in last. In 2006, "The Washington Post" reported that Jones' urine had tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug Erythropoietin at the USA Track and Field Championships. Marion later withdrew from Switzerland's Weltklasse Golden League meet for "personal reasons" and denied that she had been using performance-enhancing drugs. The following year, Jones held a press conference in which she admitted to steroid use, stating:
"And so it is with a great amount of shame, that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust… and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let them down. I have let my country down. And I have let myself down."
Though she was suspended from track and field for just two years, Marion announced that she was retiring from the sport, and the United States Anti-Doping Agency stated that its sanction included "disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes." From 2010 to 2011, Jones played for the WNBA team the Tulsa Shock.
Mike Powell /Allsport
Personal Life
While attending the University of North Carolina, Marion began a relationship with shot putter C.J. Hunter, one of the school's track coaches. Hunter resigned in order to avoid violating rules that prohibited coaches from dating athletes. Marion and C.J. married on October 3, 1998, and they trained for the 2000 Summer Olympics together. Jones announced her intention to win the gold in all five of her events, but Hunter withdrew from the shotput competition due to a knee injury. However, C.J. was allowed to attend the Olympics with Marion using his coaching credentials. After Marion won her first event in Sydney, the International Olympic Committee announced that C.J. had failed several pre-Olympic drug tests, testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. Hunter was subsequently suspended from any involvement in the games and had to give up his on-field coaching credentials. In her 2004 autobiography "Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane," Jones said that Hunter's positive drug test results harmed her image as well as their marriage. Marion and C.J. divorced in 2002.
In June 2003, Jones and her then-boyfriend, sprinter Tim Montgomery, welcomed son Tim Jr. Montgomery won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics, but the United States Anti-Doping Agency later charged him with taking banned performance-enhancing drugs. He was banned from track and field for two years and stripped of all medals and records that he earned after March 31, 2001. In July 2006, Jones and Montgomery were both charged in a check-counterfeiting scheme. Marion pleaded guilty in October 2007 on charges of making false statements to Jeff Novitzky, an investigative special agent for the IRS who had been leading the BALCO investigation. She also pleaded guilty to making false statements to Special Agent Erik Rosenblatt of the New York U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding her knowledge of the check-cashing scheme. In January 2008, Jones was sentenced to six months in jail. She served her time at Fort Worth's Federal Medical Center, Carswell prison from March 11th to September 5th. Marion married Obadele Thompson, a Barbadian sprinter, on February 24, 2007, and they have two children together, Ahmir (born June 2007) and Eva-Marie (born June 2009). Obadele won a bronze medal in the 100 m at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Awards
Jones has won seven ESPY Awards: Best Track and Field Athlete – Female (1998 and 2000), Best Female Track Athlete (1999, 2001, and 2002), Best Athlete – Female (2001), and U.S. Olympics Athlete of the year – Female (2001). In 2001, she was named Sportswoman of the Year at the BET Awards.
Real Estate
In 2012, Marion and Obadele sold their 2,173 square foot Texas home and purchased a 3,156 square foot home nearby for $212,000. That home includes four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.
