Marion Jones marries fellow sprinter

Second marriage for controversial U.S. track star

	Marion Jones, the only woman to win five track medals at an Olympics, made a comeback last year, winning the U.S. championship in the 100 meters. But she has been dogged by doping suspicions for years, allegations she vehemently has denied.
Michel Spingler / AP

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updated 5:40 p.m. ET March 7, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. - Olympic medal-winning sprinters Marion Jones and Obadele Thompson were married in a small ceremony in rural North Carolina, the service’s minister said Wednesday.

The Rev. Vibert Tyrrel, the pastor at Union Hill African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilson’s Mills, said the Feb. 24 ceremony was “an ordinary, small and family-oriented wedding.”

“It wasn’t elaborate, just very private,” said Tyrrel, who is Thompson’s uncle.

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It is the second marriage for the 31-year-old Jones, a basketball standout at North Carolina before beginning her track career. Her first marriage was to shot putter C.J. Hunter. She also has a 3-year-old son with sprinter Tim Montgomery.

Jones, the only woman to win five track medals at an Olympics, made a comeback last year, winning the U.S. championship in the 100 meters. But she has been dogged by doping suspicions for years, allegations she vehemently has denied.

Last year, her initial sample at the U.S. championships was positive for the banned endurance enhancer EPO, but she was exonerated when the second sample was negative.

Both Hunter and Montgomery have been suspended from competition for doping violations. Hunter tested positive for steroids in 2000, the year Jones won five medals — three of them gold — at the Sydney Olympics.

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Montgomery, a former 100-meter world record holder, is serving a two-year suspension although he never tested positive. He was punished by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency based on other evidence, primarily testimony from fellow sprinter Kelli White.

The 30-year-old Thompson became the first athlete from Barbados to win an Olympic medal when he took the bronze in the 100 at the 2000 Sydney Games. In April 1996, he ran the fastest 100 ever recorded with a wind-aided time of 9.69 seconds. The strong wind made the time ineligible for record purposes.