It didn't take long for new USA Track & Field CEO and President Douglas Logan to stir up some controversy. Logan, who was just named the new head of USATF last week, has written President George Bush asking him not to pardon Marion Jones. Jones, the disgraced sprinter who lives in Austin, received a six-month sentence for lying to Federal agents about a drug investigation and her role in a phony check cashing scheme.
Jones is serving her sentence in a Federal facility in Ft. Worth and has only a few weeks left to go before her release. Still, she has asked Bush for a full pardon which Logan (and by extension USATF) clearly opposes. It's worth noting again that Jones is not in prison for taking performance-enhancing drugs, but for lying.
Regardless, here is the text of Logan's letter to Bush:
Dear President Bush,
They say you can't always believe what you read in the papers. So, when I read that Marion Jones has applied to you for a pardon or commutation of her federal conviction for making false statements to investigators, I couldn't believe it. She lied to federal agents. She took steroids. She made false statements in a bank fraud investigation - not necessarily in that order. She admitted it. And now she apparently wants to be let off.
As the new CEO of USA Track & Field, I have a moral and practical duty to make the case against her request.
With her cheating and lying, Marion Jones did everything she could to violate the principles of track and field and Olympic competition. When she came under scrutiny for doping, she taunted any who doubted her purity, talent and work ethic. Just as she had succeeded in duping us with her performances, she duped many people into giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She pointed her finger at us, and got away with it until federal investigators teamed up with USADA and finally did her in. It was a sad thing to watch, the most glorious female athlete of the 20th century in tears on courthouse steps.
Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes. If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.
To reduce Ms. Jones' sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.
In my new job as CEO of USA Track & Field, I must right the ship that Ms. Jones and other athletes nearly ran aground. I implore you, Mr. President: Please don't take the wind out of our sails.
Respectfully Yours,
Douglas G. Logan
