Editing Marion Jones (section)

===BALCO investigation===
On December 3, 2004, [[Victor Conte]], the founder of [[Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative|BALCO]], appeared in an interview with [[Martin Bashir]] on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[20/20 (American TV program)|20/20]]''. In the interview, Conte told a national audience that he had personally given Jones four different illegal performance-enhancing drugs before, during, and after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In the course of investigative research, San Francisco-based reporters [[Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada]] reported Jones had received banned drugs from BALCO, citing documentary evidence and testimony from Jones's ex-husband C.J. Hunter, who claims to have seen Jones inject herself in the stomach with the steroids.<ref name="Fainaru-Wada2006">{{cite book |last1=Fainaru-Wada |first1=M. |last2=Williams |first2=L. |title=Game of Shadows |url=https://archive.org/details/targetunderweara00aden |url-access=registration |publisher=Gotham Books |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/targetunderweara00aden/page/234 234–235]}}</ref>

According to Hunter's 2004 testimony before a federal grand jury, Jones's use of banned drugs began well before Sydney.<ref name="Williams20060819">{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Lance |date=August 19, 2006 |title=Sprinter Jones failed drug test |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/19/MNGBGKLP8H1.DTL&hw=marion+jones&sn=003&sc=976 |access-date=2008-08-04 |work=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> Hunter told the investigators that Jones first obtained EPO ([[erythropoietin]]) from Graham, who Hunter said had a Mexican connection for the drug. Later, Hunter said, Graham met Conte, who began providing the coach with BALCO "nutritional supplements", which were actually an experimental class of "designer" steroids said to be undetectable by drug screening procedures available at the time. Graham then distributed the performance enhancers to Jones and other Sprint Capitol athletes. Subsequently, Hunter told federal agents Jones began receiving drugs directly from Conte.

Jones had never failed a drug test using the then-existing testing procedures, and insufficient evidence was found to bring charges regarding other untested performance-enhancing drugs.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mackay |first=Duncan |date=2006-08-19 |title=Only surprise about Jones drugs bust was that was she got caught |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/aug/20/athletics.comment |access-date=2024-08-17 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>