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Track and field athlete. Born October 12, 1975, in Los Angeles, California. Jones’ parents divorced when she was still young; her mother, Marion Toler, who had immigrated to America from Belize, raised Jones and her older brother Albert. As a kid, Jones played baseball and soccer, among other sports, and studied ballet and gymnastics. She began participating in organized track when she was seven years old, and started playing basketball in the sixth grade. While watching the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul, Korea, in 1988, the young Jones was inspired by such great track and field athletes as Evelyn Ashford, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, the “fastest woman in the world” and still the world record holder in the 100- and 200-meter events. From the age of eight, Jones was determined to become an Olympic champion. As a freshman in high school in Oxnard, California, Jones won state track titles in both the 100- and the 200-meters. During her junior year, she finished fourth at the Olympic trials in the 200-meters, missing a spot in the Olympics by .07 seconds. Although she qualified for the 4x100-meter relay team, Jones decided not to travel to Barcelona, claiming that she wanted her first Olympic gold medal to come in an individual event. (Her mother has said that it was she who didn’t let Jones compete in the 1992 Olympics on account of her junior-year grades not being up to par.) During her senior year in high school, Jones faced a four-year ban from competition after she missed a mandatory drug test. Her mother hired the defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (best known for his defense of O.J. Simpson during the former football star’s trial for double murder), who successfully argued to the governing officials of track and field that Jones’ coach had not received notification of the test until after the scheduled date.
Approximate Word count = 1253
Approximate Pages = 5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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