|
The five medals
represented a first for a female track and field
athlete at one Games, and for that accomplishment
Jones was chosen Wednesday as The Associated
Press' Female Athlete of the Year.
In balloting by sportswriters and broadcasters,
Jones received 27 first-place votes and 111
points, beating tennis star Venus Williams,
runner-up with 161/2 firsts and 1041/2 points.
Golfer Karrie Webb was a distant third with
30 points. Points were awarded on a 3-2-1 basis.
Last year's
winner, the U.S. soccer team, didn't receive
any votes this time.
The confident
Jones was the 10th female track and field athlete
to win the honour since the award was inaugurated
in 1931, and the first since the late Florence
Griffith Joyner in 1988.
Jones' golds
came in the 100 and 200 metres and the 1,600
relay, the bronzes in the long jump and 400
relay. Those bronzes could have been golds,
Jones said. "That gold medal was there for
the taking in the long jump," she said. "And
in the (400) relay, we had some injuries (Gail
Devers and Inger Miller). We didn't have our
best horses. "I guess everybody wants to win
the lottery. You just don't want to win the
$2 ticket. I wanted to win them all, and I still
think it's possible. But I didn't, so I'm not
going to dwell on that. "I didn't get everything
I wanted, but I didn't give in. I can live with
that."
Her prediction,
made two years before the Sydney Games, earned
Jones a lot of publicity, something she will
avoid for the 2004 Olympics. "I've vowed not
to make a prediction such as the five golds,
especially not four years prior to the next
Games," said the 24-year-old Jones. "But whatever
I choose to do, I'll try and make it as extraordinary
as possible."
Jones' gold-medal
performances in Sydney were extraordinary, considering
she was mentally distracted by the IAAF's confirmation
that her husband, C.J. Hunter, the 1999 world
shot put champion, had tested positive for the
steroid nandrolone four times after the U.S.
Olympic trials. The disclosure came after Jones'
first event, the 100, meaning she had to compete
in four events with that burden. "It was very
unfortunate timing," she said.
Jones' timing
on the track was impeccable. She won the 100
at 10.75 seconds, and her victory margin of
0.37 seconds was the second largest in Olympic
history, man or woman. She won the 200 at 21.84,
and her victory margin of 0.43 seconds was the
second largest behind Wilma Rudolph's in 1960.
Her 100 and 200 times were the fastest in the
world this year.
Jones helped
the 1,600 relay team to victory at 3:22.62 with
a powerful third leg of 49.4, the same as Australia's
Cathy Freeman, the 400 gold medallist.
No one else
came close to running that fast. Even more remarkable
for Jones, she ran only one other individual
400 race during the year and had not run on
a 1,600 relay since she was a sophomore at North
Carolina. The 400 is a distance she dislikes.
"I don't like how I feel after it because I
like to be in control of my body, and in that
last stretch, you have no control of your body
reprinted with
permission
|
