AUSTIN, Texas — Marion Jones wishes she could go back and change “certain things in my past,” though she also is “really proud” of the person she has become.
Jones said in an interview with The Associated Press, and in her book coming out today, that she’s sorry she lied to federal investigators about steroid use, one reason she served six months in prison in 2008.
Said Jones: “I really wish I wouldn’t have lied. That’s my regret.” The disgraced U.S. Olympian’s book, “On the Right Track,” contains a harrowing depiction of Jones’ prison stay, particularly 1 1/2 months in solitary confinement.
Women’s ski jumping in holding pattern
ACAPULCO, Mexico — After losing their battle to get women ski jumping into the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the athletes will have to hold on for a few more months to learn if they’ll be competing in the 2014 Games in Sochi.
The International Olympic Committee said it looks “favorably” on women’s ski jumping and six other proposed events but put off a final decision until after their world championships in 2011. The executive board gave IOC president Jacques Rogge the mandate to make the final ruling himself.
Also facing further review are slopestyle events in snowboard and alpine freestyle, ski halfpipe, mixed relay in biathlon and team events in figure skating and luge.
• The IOC agreed to build a multisports development center in Haiti. The Haiti center is the second in the IOC’s “Sports For Hope Program,” following a $10 million facility in Zambia that opened in May.
• A group funded by the NFL and the USOC awarded $1.3 million in new grants for anti-doping research that includes a project to determine how the increasingly popular therapy known as “blood spinning” might help athletes.
• USA Swimming will open its own investigation into the death of open-water swimmer Fran Crippen at a World Cup event in the United Arab Emirates.
• English rower Andy Holmes, who won Olympic gold in 1984 and 1988, died after a short, sudden illness in London. He was 51.
Footnotes.
David Beckham plans to play out the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2011 while continuing to hope he will play for England again.
• New Mexico basketball forward Drew Gordon, who won’t be eligible to suit up until Dec. 17 because he transferred from UCLA in December, underwent successful surgery to repair torn meniscus in his right knee. He will be out four to five weeks.
• Seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet of France rallied from a set and a break down to beat Julian Reister of Germany 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of Open Sud de France in Montpellier. Frederico Gil of Portugal also advanced, beating Edouard-Roger Vasselin of France 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
• Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-0, 6-3 in the first round of the Bank Austria Trophy in Vienna. Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic also reached the second round, ousting Pere Riba of Spain 6-0, 6-2.
The Associated Press
