Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
October 12, 2007, Washington Post

Time to Forgive or Just Forget?

Marion Jones won five Olympic medals, including three golds, at the 2000 Summer Games. Her speed and smile made her America's favorite track star. America loves winners. Marion Jones was a winner.

Last week, though, Jones pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to federal investigators. She also admitted that she took steroids, illegal drugs that make athletes stronger and faster, before the 2000 Olympics. She has given back her five medals and might end up in jail.

Outside the courthouse last week, Jones said: "I want you to know that I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let [my family] down. I have let my country down. And I have let myself down. I recognize that by saying that I'm deeply sorry, it might not be enough . . . to address the pain and the hurt that I have caused you, therefore I want to ask for your forgiveness."

Jones seems truly sorry. But should sports fans, including kids who might have posters of her on their bedroom walls, forgive her?

It's a hard decision. Remember that, by cheating, Jones prevented honest athletes from getting to the Olympics and winning medals. I doubt that those athletes are ready to forgive and forget.

Also, it took Jones more than seven years to tell the truth. She lived a lie for a long time. It seems that she 'fessed up only when it appeared she would be caught. It is easier to forgive and forget when an athlete who cheated confesses sooner, before being forced to tell.

At least Jones finally told the truth. Too many athletes in her situation -- baseball sluggers, cyclists and football players among them -- keep denying the evidence that they cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs.

If we want athletes to admit that they cheated, we might have to be ready to forgive them. It's like when a kid does something wrong and a parent or teacher says, "If you tell the truth, I won't be mad at you." Well, if the kid does tell the truth and the adult gets mad anyway, maybe the kid won't be so honest the next time.

Jones made big mistakes. The only way she can come back is to admit those mistakes, take the punishment and try to do better. Telling the truth about her mistakes is a good start.

Perhaps a mistake all of us have made is making such a big deal of the winners in sports. If everyone, from pee-wees all the way to the pros, cared as much about the effort of the athletes as we do about who wins and loses, maybe there wouldn't be so many athletes and coaches willing to break the rules.

At some point, Jones and lots of sports fans forgot the message that is displayed at the start of each Olympics: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle."

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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