American Olympic Champ Competes But Can Not Duplicate Past S

 

American track and field star Marion Jones will not duplicate¹ her 2000 Olympic five-medal performance when she competes at this month's Athens Games. Jones only qualified² to compete in the women's long jump in Greece and she could be added to the relay³ teams.

A lot has happened to Marion Jones since becoming the first female track and field athlete to win five medals at one Olympics.

She ended her marriage with American shot putter C.J. Hunter and is now in a relationship with American sprinter⁴ Tim Montgomery. Last year they had a baby boy together. Jones has also changed coaches since the 2000 Sydney games. Even though she has never tested positive for a banned substance, Jones has also been at the center of recent doping allegations against U.S. athletes.

Jones, who holds dual⁵ nationality with the country Belize, thinks there is a doping problem in sports and supports actions by the United States Anti-Doping Agency to punish athletes who are cheating.

Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery left coach Trevor Graham earlier this year and worked briefly⁶ with Charles Francis, the man who had coached banned Canadian runner Ben Johnson. They left Francis and in July 2003 began training with 1996 Olympic champion Donovan Bailey's former coach Dan Pfaff.

Jones said she left Graham because of differences between them and their lack of communication. The 28-year-old said the biggest change since Dan Pfaff started coaching her has been the training regimen, especially in the long jump. "It's amazing what I've learned in the past ten months and I've been jumping since I was in high school in 1992. I've learned more in the past ten months than I have all that time competing," she says.

The California-born runner was inspired to start track and field after watching the late Florence Griffith-Joyner compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . In high school, 1.80 meter tall Jones did not lose a race after her freshman⁷ year and she holds the 200-meter U.S. national high school record.

When she was only 17 years old, Jones won the 100 and 200-meter races at the 1992 U.S. Junior Track and Field Championships. She later finished fifth in the 100 and seventh in the 200 at the World Junior Championships. Jones finished fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100 meters at the 1992 Olympic Trials but turned down a chance to run on the U.S. four-by-100-meter relay team at the Barcelona Olympics.

At the University of North Carolina, Jones participated in both basketball and track and field. She was a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference long jump champion and finished second in the 200 meters at the 1994 conference championships. During her collegiate career, Jones had five top eight finishes at the national championships. She also helped North Carolina to the national basketball collegiate championship her freshman year.

Jones hoped to make the 1996 U.S. Olympic basketball team, but she broke a bone in her left foot during practice at the 1995 World University Games. When she re-injured her foot in December of that year, her season and her basketball career ended.

After graduating from college with a degree in journalism⁸ and communications, Jones won her first two national outdoor titles by beating Olympic champions Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the long jump and Gail Devers in the 100 meters. Marion Jones also won her first world title in the 100 at the 1997 World Athletics⁹ Championships.

In 1998, Jones was undefeated until German Heike Drechsler beat her in the long jump at the World Cup. Jones has also won three Goodwill¹⁰ Games gold medals, two in the 100 meters and another in the 200. She was named the 1998 track and field athlete of the year.

After aiming for five gold medals in Sydney, Jones won the 100 and 200 and was a member of the gold medal-winning four-by-400-meter relay team. But she finished with the bronze medals in the long jump and four-by-100 relay.

The five-time world champion was undefeated in 2002 and did not compete in 2003 because of her son's birth. Marion Jones said having a baby the year before the Olympics was a big risk, so keeping in shape was important to her during the pregnancy¹¹. "I was on the treadmill¹² working out up until two days before my son was born and felt that I wanted to get back into it as soon as possible," she says.

Jones resumed¹³ full training only a couple months after her son was born. The 13 time national champion came back in 2004 to win the long jump at the U.S. Olympic trials, but failed to qualify¹⁴ for the team in the 100, finishing fifth, and she pulled out of the 200 because of fatigue¹⁵.

Unlike before the Sydney games, Marion Jones is not putting her Olympic expectations and hopes for a relay appearance out in the public. She realizes this time around that she is not guaranteed a relay berth¹⁶. "I don't have total control in terms of the relays¹⁷. If Marion Jones wants to run a relay, she just can't put herself on a relay, I need to work with the U.S. Olympic coaches, and this time around I decided¹⁸ I am going to be more open to doing that," she says.

Marion Jones has said her goal is to win a gold medal in Athens. After the Olympics, she plans to continue training and competing through the 2008 Beijing Games. She is also looking forward to being at home with her son more often after she retires from the sport.

VOA Sports.

注释:
duplicate 重演
performance 表现
Athens 雅典
sprinter 赛跑选手
allegation 指控
Anti-Doping Agency 反兴奋剂组织
Track and Field Championships 田径锦标赛
Olympic Trials 奥运会选拔赛
Atlantic Coast Conference 大西洋海岸联盟
World Cup 世界杯
Goodwill Games 友好运动会
pregnancy 怀孕
treadmill 单调的工作
resume 恢复

 

1 duplicate   

n.复制品；v.复写，使加倍；adj.复制的，二倍的

参考例句：

• The manager asks the secretary to duplicate the document.经理让秘书复印这份文件。
• This agreement is done in duplicate.本协议书一式两份。

2 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

3 relay   

n.接力赛，中继转播（设备）；vt.转述，转播

参考例句：

• They will relay your message.他们会转达你的口信。
• This metal tower is used to relay television signals to distant villages.这个金属塔是用于向遥远的村子转播电视讯号的。

4 sprinter   

n.短跑运动员，短距离全速奔跑者

参考例句：

• He is more a sprinter than a swimmer. 他是短跑健将，而不是游泳选手。 来自辞典例句
• The sprinter himself thinks he can run the race at 9.4 seconds. 这位短跑运动员自认为可以用9.4秒跑完比赛。 来自互联网

5 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

6 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

7 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

8 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

9 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

10 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

11 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

12 treadmill   

n.踏车；单调的工作

参考例句：

• The treadmill has a heart rate monitor.跑步机上有个脉搏监视器。
• Drugs remove man from the treadmill of routine.药物可以使人摆脱日常单调的工作带来的疲劳。

13 resumed   

v.重新开始( resume的过去式和过去分词 )；重新获得；重新占用；恢复

参考例句：

• Play resumed quickly after the stoppage. 比赛中断后不久又继续进行。
• The violinist resumed playing after the intermission. 幕间休息之后，那小提琴手又重新开始演奏。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 qualify   

vt.取得资格，有资格，限定，描述；vi.取得资格，有资格

参考例句：

• I won't qualify until next year.我明年才具备资格。
• You must qualify yourself for the post.你必须使自己具备担任这一工作的资格。

15 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

16 berth   

n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊

参考例句：

• She booked a berth on the train from London to Aberdeen.她订了一张由伦敦开往阿伯丁的火车卧铺票。
• They took up a berth near the harbor.他们在港口附近找了个位置下锚。

17 relays   

v.转述( relay的第三人称单数 )；转达

参考例句：

• New relays of troops were sent to the battle front. 新补充的部队已送往前线。 来自辞典例句
• His questioners worked on him in relays. 审讯人员轮流对他进行审讯。 来自辞典例句

18 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。