by MIKE KING

MARION JONES just could not outrun the truth. No one is fast enough to.

The sporting world has been in a tailspin since the "queen of sprinting" pleaded guilty in a New York district court on Friday to lying to federal investigators when she originally told them she had never used performance-enhancing drugs.

In court, Jones read out a statement confirming that before the start of the Sydney Games she had taken THG, the designer steroid at the heart of the BALCO doping conspiracy.

The real truth is, Jones' admission is anything but a shock to those of us close to the inside story on rampant drug use that has become part and parcel of international sport. It is mind-boggling for a natural woman to run 10.65 secs in the 100-metre dash and 21.62 secs in the 200 metres.

Make no mistake about it; drugs alone don't make you good, but if you are good, they can make you much better.

Modern sport has become a multi-million dollar business and elite athletes in all sports are prepared to turn to modern science to get that extra edge that can pave their future.

And steroid use is no longer limited to the old Eastern bloc and the Americans. It's here in the Caribbean. In other words, there is globalisation in drugs.

Steroid agents, stimulants, diuretics, masking agents, have been around for a long time. In the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Missouri, some marathon runners took brandy mixed with arsenic and eggs to improve their performance. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, dubbed the last Games of Innocence, Danish cyclist Kurt Jensen died from an overdose of amphetamines.

Jones, who turns 32 on Friday, had it all. She was to women's sprinting what the other famous MJs – Michael Jordan and Michael Johnson – were to basketball and the men's 400 metres, respectively.

She has cheated and retired in disgrace but where do we go from here in this war on drugs? We should never be naive enough to believe it is only in the strength sports such as track and field, bodybuilding, cycling, swimming and baseball.

There are strong suspicions in king cricket as well. The endurance level of some fast bowlers and the amazing recovery time of other players from injuries, have raised eyebrows.

One thing we all have to acknowledge. There are thousands of sportsmen and women. There are not thousands of saints. We will always have cheats. We just have to keep catching them or hope they confess.