February 4, 2025 • 31 mins
In 2000, Marion Jones Jones won five medals at the Sydney Olympics. She was celebrated as the fastest woman in the world, appeared on the cover of “Vogue,” and was sponsored by Nike. But then, she lost everything. In 2003, she lied to federal investigators about performance enhancing drugs. In the end, Marion was stripped of her Olympic medals, and was sentenced to prison. More than two decades later, Marion Jones is back in the limelight to share the wisdom she’s earned from her biggest mistakes.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello Sunshine, Hey Bessies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side were joined by the former
fastest woman in the world, Olympic champion and coach, Marion Jones.
At the height of her career, she was caught up
in a performance enhancing drug scandal that ended up with
her serving time in jail. Well, now she's back and
she is sharing the lessons she's learned from failure and
also how she's rebuilding her life.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's Tuesday, February fourth. I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Okay, Danielle, I am just sitting here thinking about baby
Simone and how her mind would be blown to know
that Marian Jones is coming on her show today. I mean,
I have such vivid memories watching her as a kid.
She was the breakout star of the two thousand Olympics
in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
She was such a powerhouse and at her Olympic debut
in two thousand, she earned five medals. At the time,
she was known as the fastest woman on the planet
and she really was on top of the world. But
her story took an interesting turn A few years later.
Marian became the subject of an FBI investigation into performance
enhancing drugs, and ultimately Marian admitted that during the investigation
(01:16):
she lied to federal investigators about never having taken performance
enhancing drugs. So four years after that she was sentenced
to six months in prison. There are a lot of
layers to Marian's story, and I think it's fair to
say that some of them still remain up for debate.
So having her on the show is a really interesting
opportunity to ask her all about it.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think it takes so much courage to go through
something like that so publicly, especially at such a young age,
and then come back around and be willing to talk
about it, definitely, And what's clear throughout all of it
is that she is someone who has had to take
ownership over those mistakes and learn how to move forward
and forgive herself and listen, we have all all been
(02:00):
there in some way before.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
She's been out of the spotlight for some time, and
she's making her rounds in interviews opening up, So let's
bring her in and hear Marion's story in her own words.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Welcome to the right Side, Marion. Yay, Thank you Simone,
Thank you Danielle for having.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Me welcome, Welcome, So explain this to me. Fastest woman
on the planet. That's quite a title at one.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Point, you know, I, I mean, I never really subscribed
to that title, Danielle, because I'm always I always have
the belief that there's somebody who has like hasn't been
discovered in like the remote region of South America, who
lives in the Amazon jungle or somewhere in Africa, and
they just never had opportunity, and they.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Most likely were the fastest in the world.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But in regards to like my season to shine, I
was definitely one of the fastest.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So it was a fun time. But it really does
seem like a whole other life ago. You know, our job.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
In our job, we get to interview people who have
really interesting titles often and I hear things like.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Richest person in North America or.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Highest IQ in Greenland. It's rare that I get something
that's like in the plan on the planet, like fastest
women on the planet is a wild title. But you've
recently stepped back into the public eye to tell your
story after what feels like a long time away. What
is this phase about What in your life makes it
(03:39):
feel like this is the right time to start talking.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
As you all know, being constantly being in the spotlight
can become very heavy, especially if you find that that
spotlight can become a distraction to family and to friends
and really to your life journey and growth.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And I applaud anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Who you know has made the decision to be in
the spotlight and then made the decision to step away.
It's a very courageous move, you're saying. More and more,
Actually athletes do that.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You saw Simone Biles do that.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And not to say that it was for my positive
mental health journey, but in essence it is. I made
the decision to raise a family, and I wanted the
focus to be on them and not me having to juggle,
you know, answering questions or being part of a media
system that can be intrusive and obtrusive and all that.
(04:41):
And so it was about a decade I just made
the decision that I wanted to be mom.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Create my own space, not based off of something that
I had done or not done, but really see what
I can do in my community.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
But last year, you.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Know, I but my kids are older too, you know,
out of the house now, like just have my fifteen
year old daughter here, and I was just in a
space where I felt that people needed to hear a
story of I could come back story Like, there's so
(05:19):
much negativity in the media and so many things that
when you listen or see like this brings you down.
And I just generally felt that my story could could
resonate with a lot of people. The story is, hey,
you know, once there are poor decisions made made for
you or you make them yourself, Like that doesn't have
(05:40):
to be the end of your story. That it could
be a catalyst for bigger and better things. And people
are like, how much bigger and better could it be
than winning gold medals or being considered the fastest women
in the world.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But when you get older.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
And you realize that, like, your true test of character
is the impact that you make.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
On people's day to day lives.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
When you get old enough and you're like, man, like
I helped somebody move from one dark space like out
of that and like that is so fulfilling, And that
is what I thought that my story could do and
it has so that that is an in a nutshell,
that's kind of why I decided to, you know, share
(06:22):
my story more.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I feel like we are getting closer to the heart
of your story, Marion, but I do think we have
to take a moment to properly set up the stakes.
So take us back to the year two thousand, Marion.
You were on top of the world, five Olympic medals,
Nike Deals, Wheaties boxes, and the cover of Vogue. I mean,
this is like, this has got to be the stuff
(06:44):
you dream of as an aspiring athlete. What was the
moment when you realized you made it as a professional athlete.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
When I made my first Olympic team at the age
of fifteen years old, that's probably the first time that
I knew like, okay, like I got some talent going on,
you know, genetically, I've been blessed and gifted, but I
have pretty unique work ethic.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What makes it unique.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I'm originally from the Los Angeles area and at nine,
the nineteen eighty four Olympics came to LA and that
was my first exposure.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
To the Olympic experience, and I knew that summer.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I wrote on my chalkboard all that that I was
going to be an Olympic champion, and from the age
of nine, that.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Was my world That was my that was my goal,
that was my priority.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My mom says, you know, the only way that you
can compete in sports is if you get good grades.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Check, go to.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Practice, be diligent, check check check, work harder than anybody else.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Check.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And that narrative kind of just continued with me. Right, like,
I never was distracted with you know, social pressures or
any of that. You know, at that point, I knew
that I wanted to be a star.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You couple the pursuit of stardom with an incredible work ethic.
For example, I remember when I would train at the
highest of heights, Simone. I would when I would travel
to my training site, I would flip down my rearview mirror,
my mirror in my vehicle, and I would ask myself
prior to every session, will anybody train harder than you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Today in the world, Marion? And I would close it.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I would go work out to three four hours, come back,
flip it down, and just me, I'd ask myself, Okay, honestly,
one on one, is there anybody you think in the
world that trained harder or better or smarter than you?
And I could say probably in a decade span, there
might have been a I got handful, maybe less than.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Five times that I said to myself, you know what.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I probably would have been beaten today for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Wait, this is such a fascinating look into your inner dialogue,
your inner monologue.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Into my crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Hey, if I think it takes a little bit crazy,
you know, if you're trying to go somewhere, you need
to have a little bit of crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I actually wanted to go back to something that you
said earlier. You said that the spotlight felt heavy, like
you really looking back and acknowledge that what was the
heaviest part of being the fastest woman on the planet
at that time, of enjoying the limelight, Well.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
The heaviest part is I mean, this is all in retrospects, right, right,
And I'm almost fifty This year, I will be fifty
years old, and that's.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Crazy even to say that.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
But the idea that in that season of my life,
I surrounded myself with people who were what I call
yes people and entertainers and celebrities, and the lights can
understand when you achieve a certain level of success, like
everybody wants to be your friend.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Right, for whatever reason, you can take the.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Care of them, right, It's it's just a thing that
people gravitate towards. And because of my age at that time,
I was young. I was in my early twenties. You
like the idea of somebody saying, ah, Danielle Simon, y'all
are like, y'all are.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Awesome, y'all are rocking it.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
You're achieving success like this, that and the other, and
you start to only want that around you, people who
are going to say yes to whatever you want, and
you start distancing yourself from the people in your life
that will give it to you straight sometimes even when
you're a success.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And so for me, that was.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
The hardest part getting caught in what I call that
wave of stardom, meaning it took me out in the
ocean and I was surrounded the ocean for me were
yes people.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And I made the decision, like I'm.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Not blaming anybody else, right, I guess if there's anything
it was naivety, right, Like I was just young and
got caught and thought for a while that I only
wanted to be around people who are going to tell
me how great I was. And at the shore were
the people my family, right, my childhood friends, the people
who I should have stayed close to but would have said,
(11:06):
you know what, Mariyan like, hmm, probably look twice at
that relationship or that business decision or this, that and
the other. But I didn't, and because of that, poor
choices were made. Consequences all of that, And yeah, people say,
if you could do things differently, Mary, and what would
it be, And I'd certainly say, hey, I would make
(11:26):
sure that I'll enjoy the ocean, right, but I won't
get too far away where I can't swim my way
back to shore whenever I want or need to.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, we've got to take a short break, but don't
go anywhere. We'll be right back with Marion Jones. And
we're back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. I
think everyone who's you know, watched you perform, who's followed
(11:58):
your career, they know that you have gained and won,
but not everyone knows how much you lost. So in
two thousand and three, you were interviewed by federal agents.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What happened next?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, in two thousand and three, to take people back
to that time, especially people that are younger and don't
remember or know what happened, there was a lot of
talk investigations about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs and
who was giving that to them, who was supplying that
to them, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Whole cover up.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And when I was invited to speak to federal investigators
in three I accepted that invitation based off of the
knowledge that, hey, I'm here to answer whatever questions you
might have. I don't have any personal knowledge of it,
but hey, maybe we can talk, right, you don't You
don't really turn down an interview request by federal investigators
(12:53):
f L. And so we went there and my attorneys
were with me, and you know, they're like, hey, Marion,
you know anything with us that you want to share
that you're nervous for?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
And I said no. And prior to the meeting.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
And most many people don't know, Simon and Daniel is
prior to the meeting, I signed what's.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Called a clean for a Day letter.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
It's a very popular letter in that prior to meeting
with federal investigators, if you sign this in essence says
that no matter what you share with them, if you
tell the truth to them, they won't pursue you in
any prosecution. Right, So, and it's like protecting you. And
(13:34):
because I had nothing to hide. I signed the letter
with my attorneys giving me information, making sure I have
all of the information.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Cool sign the letters.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So we go into the interview and I'm being asked
questions about if I knew this, if I knew about
this supplement, and I'm like, no, I don't you know.
I have a relationship with a certain company and they
supply my supplements, and I've been tested probably the most
tested athlete in the world in terms of if I'm
taking performance enhancing drugs, and never ever did anything come
(14:07):
up as positive. And finally they took something out of
their bag. It was in a little zip lacked bag
and they kind of pushed it across the table, and.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Immediately when they did that, I recognized it.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I recognized that it had been something that I had
been given for a good amount of time prior to
the Games and was told that it was something else.
And in the span of forty five seconds, I realized
that what I had been reading about in the news
right was this particular supplement or performance enhancing drug and
(14:43):
I had taken it, had been given it and taken
it and told that it was something else. So I
made the decision in that split moment, Okay, if I
tell them that I know what this is and that
indeed I had taken it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
In that I felt that.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
If I was told them the truth, everything that I
had worked for, everything that I dreamed of, all the
successes that I had would be gone. So I made
the decision in that split moment to lie to them
and tell them, hey, don't know what it is, never
seen it, never taken it. Fast forward, however, many years
the weights of that lie, although like they never pursued
(15:24):
me or anything, the weight of that lie became heavy.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And at that point I had kids.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I had my two boys by that point, and I'm,
you know, trying to do the right thing as a parent,
tell them like, hey, you know, son, once you make
a poor decision, what are you supposed to do? And
they're little boys at this point. Sure, you tell them, hey,
we're all going to make mistakes, and when you make
a mistake, you come and tell mammy, right, and there
probably will be a consequence, but it's better if you
(15:51):
tell me sooner rather than later, right, And That's was
what I was feeling, right like, I'm telling my boys this,
but I'm not this And I knew that if I
decided to, you know, come clean and tell the truth,
that there would be severe consequences, and there were, but
I could never have guessed how severe they were my issue.
(16:13):
People think, you know what she she went to prison
and I was sentenced to six months incarceration. I spent
forty nine days in solitary confinement. I didn't go to
prison because I took performance enhancing drugs. I went to
prison because I lied to federal investigators and that that
was my that was my crime.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Were you shocked by your sentence? Ah?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Like understatement of the century right like there I was.
Certainly this was the president and the judge even in
sharing the sentence with us and with me, saying, hey,
you will be the example. You will be the example.
Even going into that particular court day, it was highly
(16:54):
recommended from the court that I'd be sentenced to probation
and you know, community service and doing things with young
athletes about you know, good choices and all those type
of things.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So we walked in there.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Really really thinking that that's what's going to be my sentence,
knowing that the other sentence was out there. It's always
out there, but that would not be a reality and
two and a half three hours later into the sentencing,
I had to look to my lefts and ask my
attorneys like, wait, hold on, is this what I think
it is?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And it was.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
And there's been a lot of time for me to
sit and say like like.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Why why why me? Woe is me? Woe is me?
That really hasn't gotten me anywhere. There was a moment's.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
There when I was in prison that I allowed myself
to go to that dark place like man.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Man, you you've lost it all? Like where do you
go from here?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And there were really a few moments where I was
I sat there saying like this is a mess.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I don't know what else I can do. But then
I snapped out of it and people ask well, like
how do you do that? Like that is the key,
Like that is what I want to share with people.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
And the way that I did that is that you
know what, it was one poor choice. It was one
poor choice and it does not define who I am,
Like I have so much respect for my incredible mother
who raised my brother and I as a single parent.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
She came to this.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Country at a very young age to create a better
life for herself and her family, and I says I
Am not going to step out of this facility thinking
that I'm not worthy of anything good. And how do
I do that? I fight, I reframe, I make a plan.
What's my next steps? What are my strengths? And there
(18:44):
are a lot more than just being the fastest woman
in the world, thankfully, and I have ways to connect
with people.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I have gifts that had nothing to do with sport.
How do I start to tap into all of those?
And that's what I started to do step by step.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Marion.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I know that Simon and I are both so curious
about the now, but I do want to go back
for a moment to when you were sentenced, because the
public was really shocked and they were kind of aggressive
about you using these drugs. But the athletic world is
different than the public sphere. How normalized were these in
(19:25):
the athlete world.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
The answer to that is, like I would know, my
bubble was small during that time. There was a lot
of tainting of supplements, so most professional athletes hired companies
to create our supplements.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I can remember that in the news, certain athletes going
to the gncs of the world and getting their supplements
and they're being tainted with things that potentially could be
performance enhancing. Well, when you are an elite professional athlete
and you're getting paid a lot of money, you can't
afford that to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
So you hire a company.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
You hire companies to make sure that what you are taking,
which is natural, you are asking a lot of your body.
You need supplements, you need things to make sure that
you can recover.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's just the way that it is. And you bring
in outside people to fulfill all those roles.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
You have a coach to make sure that you're programming
and you're working out in a certain way. You have
a psychologist to make sure that your mindset is prepared
for What about.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You have all these people whom you.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Hire, who are you're in your corner, and whom you
rely on to make certain decisions for you. Even more
so when you're nineteen and twenty and twenty one years
old and you're just out of college. I ask people
a lot of times who are very who were very aggressive,
and they're coming at me and why do you do
this and why.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Do you do that? And I say, just pause a second,
what were you doing at eighteen years old?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
At nineteen years old, were you are on the cover
of Vogue was every every time you stepped out of
the house doing this, Like, were the cameras on you? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And if they were, what kind of dirt before social media?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:11):
What kind of dirt would you be comfortable with the
world knowing? Like right now, right? And a lot of
people will say, oh, all right, right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Right, it's time for another short break. We'll be right
back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. And we're
back with Marion Jones. Maryan, how do you respond to
skepticism around your claim that you didn't know you were
(21:39):
taking performance enhancing drugs?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, well, for a while there, I claimed, well, hey,
I mean it's your word versus mine. And my claim
is that I was the most tested athlete in the world.
And if you followed the trajectory of my career from
like eleven years old old running you know, age group
(22:02):
track there in Los Angeles, you'll see the natural progression. Right,
So you're not going to see me running times when
I'm fifteen compared to twenty five, and there's like no
if you followed my career and most track historians have,
they can say, okay, right, like this is a natural progression.
She didn't like just pop on the scene and win
(22:25):
these gold medals. This was a many, many year journey.
And then Danielle, you get to a point where like, like,
I'm not going to argue that point anymore. Right, Like
I've said what I've said, I have paid my consequences, right,
Apologies have been made, Tears have been shed, money has
been lost, consequences were steep, and I'm done with it.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Like this is where I'm at now.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I don't have any problem sharing and giving context, like
we've done with what happened.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You forgot prison time, you did the day in that
as they say, I did.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
The time plus right, like the forty nine days in solitary.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I mean, come on, now, at some point, I've moved on.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
And that is why you see a certain level of
success where I'm at now, you don't have to keep
shedding tears.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I've been there. I did that. Poor decisions were made,
consequences were had.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Now how can I help people like not have to
go through certain things that I did?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like that is where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I think in reflecting on that chapter of your life
when you faced this immense public scrutiny, you were twenty
five in the year two thousand, right, Yeah, you were
incredibly young. What did you learn about yourself and the
pressures that we all face to present this certain version
of ourselves to the world. What can you say in
hindsight about that.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
That the earlier on that you are comfortable and able
to step into your own authenticity, like the health you
will become and the healthier meaning you will be able
to make better decisions business career decisions, relationship decisions.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of
pressure on young athletes.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
There's a lot of pressure on how much money you
can make for yourself and for other people. You know,
an athlete has such a short window of fame, such
a short window in essence to make what money you
can retire off of, which is a span really, if
(24:34):
I'm being generous, five years, So the pressure is even
more intense, more intense, And I suppose, you know, if
what lesson has been learned from that whole situation is
really just be true to yourself. You know, you don't
have to say yes to every interview, you don't have
(24:56):
to say yes to every opportunity. Find what fits your personality,
what do you want to do right? Like find out.
I tell young athletes, now find what you're passionate about,
like while you're in the height of your fame, because
I've found that running again fast from here to there.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I mean it might inspire some young athletes, but on
the grand scheme of things, it's not going to really
make some young mother in Bolivia's life like that much
better and stronger. What is it that you can use
your name, your likeness, your image, your words to really
(25:40):
change the trajectory of this world.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You have such a short window. Take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, And I think that's universal, regardless of what industry
you're in. We all like to think that things last forever,
but you have to be able to recognize the moment
you're in and make the most of it.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I really see that.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
So, having gone through all of this, I feel like
you are one of the best people to ask about regret.
I'm curious what your philosophy is on regret and whether
it's evolved in light of your journey.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
It certainly has evolved.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
It evolves because of maturity and growth and what you
learn about the world and like myself, and it's a
sticky road when you start talking about regrets because if
I could go back and make certain changes in decisions
(26:40):
that I made. Sure, do I regret making a quick
decision that would affect my family and parts of my future. Sure,
But honestly, y'all, I find so much joy satisfaction knowing
(27:02):
that people's lives are truly transformed. People are inspired and
motivated to do things differently and better because of my journey.
I mean to break it down, like my kids would say,
I'm good, like like I want when my kids tell
me that, I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Like, can you give me more more than You're good?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But really, I mean, y'all know what I'm saying, Like
like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
In terms of regret, there's really not right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I think once you have owned up to something and
you've done everything imaginable to try and rectify the situation,
make it better, you gotta be done. You got to
move on, right, And I have raid, and it's not
it's not for me to help people also move on.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
If that makes any sense, Like I moved on.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
If people are unwilling to move on about a certain topic,
like like sorry, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Good, I think that's fair.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
When I was younger, I used to think, like live
no regrets, but I think there's like a gray area there,
and I'm starting to rethink my relationship with regret and
my philosophy with regret. I listened to this podcast that
Oprah hosted with an author who wrote a book about regret,
and I just thought it was really interesting to think
(28:20):
about the ways in which regrets can shape us and
can move us forward. You know, I think there's room
for a healthy relationship with it. But it sounds like
you've moved past that and you're in a really good space.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah. I am simonar And it takes time, right, and
it takes maturity, and it takes lifeing as they say, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Your life has been a story of these incredible highs
and challenging lows, and I think through it all, you've
really had to rebuild some of that trust with yourself,
with loved ones, with the public. For anybody who is
struggling to come back from their own set back, what
is your advice to them or to us?
Speaker 4 (29:04):
The first piece of advice would be to give yourself
some type of grace, right. I think life has a
way of knocking you down, So that's the first thing.
Give yourself some breathing room, and then from there start
making a running tallly of all of the wonderful things
(29:26):
about yourself, like what are your strengths, what do you
possess inside of you that is innate, that is good,
that is brilliant, that is genius, and what that's doing,
Danielle Simone, It is empowering you, not based off of
what anybody says or does about you, but this.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Is you building yourself up. And so from there then
you start moving forward.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I like to say I said it already, like you
start reframing, not just like in my sense like what
the media said about you or what media said about me,
or or what type of person I was or athlete
or whatever, but this is based off of what I know.
I am great at, what I am good at, what
I feel good about. And that's when you start building
(30:08):
and building and building into what you've created is something
that is very unique to you, not based off of
anybody like patting.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
You on the back or needing or want anything from you.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
This is you, right and you can begin to really
really flourish beautiful.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, I think that's a perfect place to end. Fam yayah, Mary,
and thank.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
You so much for talking with us on the bright Side.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You're welcome, Simone, Danielle. I wish you all all the best.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Well too, Thank you so much. Marion Jones is a
five time Olympic medalist and performance coach for entrepreneurs and
young professionals.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, It's Wellness Wednesday. Substance
abuse expert doctor Rachel Saiko Adams joins us to unpack
the Surgeon General's advisory about the link between alcohol consumption
and cancer. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side
and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine
on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh,
(31:10):
and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and
at danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hello Sunshine, Hey Bessies.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side were joined by the former
fastest woman in the world, Olympic champion and coach, Marion Jones.
At the height of her career, she was caught up
in a performance enhancing drug scandal that ended up with
her serving time in jail. Well, now she's back and
she is sharing the lessons she's learned from failure and
also how she's rebuilding her life.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's Tuesday, February fourth. I'm Simone Boyce.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Okay, Danielle, I am just sitting here thinking about baby
Simone and how her mind would be blown to know
that Marian Jones is coming on her show today. I mean,
I have such vivid memories watching her as a kid.
She was the breakout star of the two thousand Olympics
in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
She was such a powerhouse and at her Olympic debut
in two thousand, she earned five medals. At the time,
she was known as the fastest woman on the planet
and she really was on top of the world. But
her story took an interesting turn A few years later.
Marian became the subject of an FBI investigation into performance
enhancing drugs, and ultimately Marian admitted that during the investigation
(01:16):
she lied to federal investigators about never having taken performance
enhancing drugs. So four years after that she was sentenced
to six months in prison. There are a lot of
layers to Marian's story, and I think it's fair to
say that some of them still remain up for debate.
So having her on the show is a really interesting
opportunity to ask her all about it.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think it takes so much courage to go through
something like that so publicly, especially at such a young age,
and then come back around and be willing to talk
about it, definitely, And what's clear throughout all of it
is that she is someone who has had to take
ownership over those mistakes and learn how to move forward
and forgive herself and listen, we have all all been
(02:00):
there in some way before.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
She's been out of the spotlight for some time, and
she's making her rounds in interviews opening up, So let's
bring her in and hear Marion's story in her own words.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Welcome to the right Side, Marion. Yay, Thank you Simone,
Thank you Danielle for having.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Me welcome, Welcome, So explain this to me. Fastest woman
on the planet. That's quite a title at one.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Point, you know, I, I mean, I never really subscribed
to that title, Danielle, because I'm always I always have
the belief that there's somebody who has like hasn't been
discovered in like the remote region of South America, who
lives in the Amazon jungle or somewhere in Africa, and
they just never had opportunity, and they.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Most likely were the fastest in the world.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But in regards to like my season to shine, I
was definitely one of the fastest.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So it was a fun time. But it really does
seem like a whole other life ago. You know, our job.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
In our job, we get to interview people who have
really interesting titles often and I hear things like.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Richest person in North America or.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Highest IQ in Greenland. It's rare that I get something
that's like in the plan on the planet, like fastest
women on the planet is a wild title. But you've
recently stepped back into the public eye to tell your
story after what feels like a long time away. What
is this phase about What in your life makes it
(03:39):
feel like this is the right time to start talking.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
As you all know, being constantly being in the spotlight
can become very heavy, especially if you find that that
spotlight can become a distraction to family and to friends
and really to your life journey and growth.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And I applaud anybody.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Who you know has made the decision to be in
the spotlight and then made the decision to step away.
It's a very courageous move, you're saying. More and more,
Actually athletes do that.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Now.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You saw Simone Biles do that.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And not to say that it was for my positive
mental health journey, but in essence it is. I made
the decision to raise a family, and I wanted the
focus to be on them and not me having to juggle,
you know, answering questions or being part of a media
system that can be intrusive and obtrusive and all that.
(04:41):
And so it was about a decade I just made
the decision that I wanted to be mom.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Create my own space, not based off of something that
I had done or not done, but really see what
I can do in my community.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
But last year, you.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Know, I but my kids are older too, you know,
out of the house now, like just have my fifteen
year old daughter here, and I was just in a
space where I felt that people needed to hear a
story of I could come back story Like, there's so
(05:19):
much negativity in the media and so many things that
when you listen or see like this brings you down.
And I just generally felt that my story could could
resonate with a lot of people. The story is, hey,
you know, once there are poor decisions made made for
you or you make them yourself, Like that doesn't have
(05:40):
to be the end of your story. That it could
be a catalyst for bigger and better things. And people
are like, how much bigger and better could it be
than winning gold medals or being considered the fastest women
in the world.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But when you get older.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
And you realize that, like, your true test of character
is the impact that you make.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
On people's day to day lives.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
When you get old enough and you're like, man, like
I helped somebody move from one dark space like out
of that and like that is so fulfilling, And that
is what I thought that my story could do and
it has so that that is an in a nutshell,
that's kind of why I decided to, you know, share
(06:22):
my story more.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I feel like we are getting closer to the heart
of your story, Marion, but I do think we have
to take a moment to properly set up the stakes.
So take us back to the year two thousand, Marion.
You were on top of the world, five Olympic medals,
Nike Deals, Wheaties boxes, and the cover of Vogue. I mean,
this is like, this has got to be the stuff
(06:44):
you dream of as an aspiring athlete. What was the
moment when you realized you made it as a professional athlete.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
When I made my first Olympic team at the age
of fifteen years old, that's probably the first time that
I knew like, okay, like I got some talent going on,
you know, genetically, I've been blessed and gifted, but I
have pretty unique work ethic.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What makes it unique.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I'm originally from the Los Angeles area and at nine,
the nineteen eighty four Olympics came to LA and that
was my first exposure.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
To the Olympic experience, and I knew that summer.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I wrote on my chalkboard all that that I was
going to be an Olympic champion, and from the age
of nine, that.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Was my world That was my that was my goal,
that was my priority.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
My mom says, you know, the only way that you
can compete in sports is if you get good grades.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Check, go to.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Practice, be diligent, check check check, work harder than anybody else.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Check.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And that narrative kind of just continued with me. Right, like,
I never was distracted with you know, social pressures or
any of that. You know, at that point, I knew
that I wanted to be a star.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You couple the pursuit of stardom with an incredible work ethic.
For example, I remember when I would train at the
highest of heights, Simone. I would when I would travel
to my training site, I would flip down my rearview mirror,
my mirror in my vehicle, and I would ask myself
prior to every session, will anybody train harder than you.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Today in the world, Marion? And I would close it.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I would go work out to three four hours, come back,
flip it down, and just me, I'd ask myself, Okay, honestly,
one on one, is there anybody you think in the
world that trained harder or better or smarter than you?
And I could say probably in a decade span, there
might have been a I got handful, maybe less than.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Five times that I said to myself, you know what.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I probably would have been beaten today for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Wait, this is such a fascinating look into your inner dialogue,
your inner monologue.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Into my crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Hey, if I think it takes a little bit crazy,
you know, if you're trying to go somewhere, you need
to have a little bit of crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I actually wanted to go back to something that you
said earlier. You said that the spotlight felt heavy, like
you really looking back and acknowledge that what was the
heaviest part of being the fastest woman on the planet
at that time, of enjoying the limelight, Well.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
The heaviest part is I mean, this is all in retrospects, right, right,
And I'm almost fifty This year, I will be fifty
years old, and that's.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Crazy even to say that.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
But the idea that in that season of my life,
I surrounded myself with people who were what I call
yes people and entertainers and celebrities, and the lights can
understand when you achieve a certain level of success, like
everybody wants to be your friend.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Right, for whatever reason, you can take the.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Care of them, right, It's it's just a thing that
people gravitate towards. And because of my age at that time,
I was young. I was in my early twenties. You
like the idea of somebody saying, ah, Danielle Simon, y'all
are like, y'all are.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Awesome, y'all are rocking it.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
You're achieving success like this, that and the other, and
you start to only want that around you, people who
are going to say yes to whatever you want, and
you start distancing yourself from the people in your life
that will give it to you straight sometimes even when
you're a success.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
And so for me, that was.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
The hardest part getting caught in what I call that
wave of stardom, meaning it took me out in the
ocean and I was surrounded the ocean for me were
yes people.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And I made the decision, like I'm.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Not blaming anybody else, right, I guess if there's anything
it was naivety, right, Like I was just young and
got caught and thought for a while that I only
wanted to be around people who are going to tell
me how great I was. And at the shore were
the people my family, right, my childhood friends, the people
who I should have stayed close to but would have said,
(11:06):
you know what, Mariyan like, hmm, probably look twice at
that relationship or that business decision or this, that and
the other. But I didn't, and because of that, poor
choices were made. Consequences all of that, And yeah, people say,
if you could do things differently, Mary, and what would
it be, And I'd certainly say, hey, I would make
(11:26):
sure that I'll enjoy the ocean, right, but I won't
get too far away where I can't swim my way
back to shore whenever I want or need to.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, we've got to take a short break, but don't
go anywhere. We'll be right back with Marion Jones. And
we're back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. I
think everyone who's you know, watched you perform, who's followed
(11:58):
your career, they know that you have gained and won,
but not everyone knows how much you lost. So in
two thousand and three, you were interviewed by federal agents.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What happened next?
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, in two thousand and three, to take people back
to that time, especially people that are younger and don't
remember or know what happened, there was a lot of
talk investigations about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs and
who was giving that to them, who was supplying that
to them, and the.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Whole cover up.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And when I was invited to speak to federal investigators
in three I accepted that invitation based off of the
knowledge that, hey, I'm here to answer whatever questions you
might have. I don't have any personal knowledge of it,
but hey, maybe we can talk, right, you don't You
don't really turn down an interview request by federal investigators
(12:53):
f L. And so we went there and my attorneys
were with me, and you know, they're like, hey, Marion,
you know anything with us that you want to share
that you're nervous for?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
And I said no. And prior to the meeting.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
And most many people don't know, Simon and Daniel is
prior to the meeting, I signed what's.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Called a clean for a Day letter.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
It's a very popular letter in that prior to meeting
with federal investigators, if you sign this in essence says
that no matter what you share with them, if you
tell the truth to them, they won't pursue you in
any prosecution. Right, So, and it's like protecting you. And
(13:34):
because I had nothing to hide. I signed the letter
with my attorneys giving me information, making sure I have
all of the information.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Cool sign the letters.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So we go into the interview and I'm being asked
questions about if I knew this, if I knew about
this supplement, and I'm like, no, I don't you know.
I have a relationship with a certain company and they
supply my supplements, and I've been tested probably the most
tested athlete in the world in terms of if I'm
taking performance enhancing drugs, and never ever did anything come
(14:07):
up as positive. And finally they took something out of
their bag. It was in a little zip lacked bag
and they kind of pushed it across the table, and.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Immediately when they did that, I recognized it.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I recognized that it had been something that I had
been given for a good amount of time prior to
the Games and was told that it was something else.
And in the span of forty five seconds, I realized
that what I had been reading about in the news
right was this particular supplement or performance enhancing drug and
(14:43):
I had taken it, had been given it and taken
it and told that it was something else. So I
made the decision in that split moment, Okay, if I
tell them that I know what this is and that
indeed I had taken it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
In that I felt that.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
If I was told them the truth, everything that I
had worked for, everything that I dreamed of, all the
successes that I had would be gone. So I made
the decision in that split moment to lie to them
and tell them, hey, don't know what it is, never
seen it, never taken it. Fast forward, however, many years
the weights of that lie, although like they never pursued
(15:24):
me or anything, the weight of that lie became heavy.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And at that point I had kids.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
I had my two boys by that point, and I'm,
you know, trying to do the right thing as a parent,
tell them like, hey, you know, son, once you make
a poor decision, what are you supposed to do? And
they're little boys at this point. Sure, you tell them, hey,
we're all going to make mistakes, and when you make
a mistake, you come and tell mammy, right, and there
probably will be a consequence, but it's better if you
(15:51):
tell me sooner rather than later, right, And That's was
what I was feeling, right like, I'm telling my boys this,
but I'm not this And I knew that if I
decided to, you know, come clean and tell the truth,
that there would be severe consequences, and there were, but
I could never have guessed how severe they were my issue.
(16:13):
People think, you know what she she went to prison
and I was sentenced to six months incarceration. I spent
forty nine days in solitary confinement. I didn't go to
prison because I took performance enhancing drugs. I went to
prison because I lied to federal investigators and that that
was my that was my crime.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Were you shocked by your sentence? Ah?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Like understatement of the century right like there I was.
Certainly this was the president and the judge even in
sharing the sentence with us and with me, saying, hey,
you will be the example. You will be the example.
Even going into that particular court day, it was highly
(16:54):
recommended from the court that I'd be sentenced to probation
and you know, community service and doing things with young
athletes about you know, good choices and all those type
of things.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So we walked in there.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Really really thinking that that's what's going to be my sentence,
knowing that the other sentence was out there. It's always
out there, but that would not be a reality and
two and a half three hours later into the sentencing,
I had to look to my lefts and ask my
attorneys like, wait, hold on, is this what I think
it is?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And it was.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
And there's been a lot of time for me to
sit and say like like.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Why why why me? Woe is me? Woe is me?
That really hasn't gotten me anywhere. There was a moment's.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
There when I was in prison that I allowed myself
to go to that dark place like man.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Man, you you've lost it all? Like where do you
go from here?
Speaker 4 (17:52):
And there were really a few moments where I was
I sat there saying like this is a mess.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I don't know what else I can do. But then
I snapped out of it and people ask well, like
how do you do that? Like that is the key,
Like that is what I want to share with people.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
And the way that I did that is that you
know what, it was one poor choice. It was one
poor choice and it does not define who I am,
Like I have so much respect for my incredible mother
who raised my brother and I as a single parent.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
She came to this.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Country at a very young age to create a better
life for herself and her family, and I says I
Am not going to step out of this facility thinking
that I'm not worthy of anything good. And how do
I do that? I fight, I reframe, I make a plan.
What's my next steps? What are my strengths? And there
(18:44):
are a lot more than just being the fastest woman
in the world, thankfully, and I have ways to connect
with people.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I have gifts that had nothing to do with sport.
How do I start to tap into all of those?
And that's what I started to do step by step.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Marion.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I know that Simon and I are both so curious
about the now, but I do want to go back
for a moment to when you were sentenced, because the
public was really shocked and they were kind of aggressive
about you using these drugs. But the athletic world is
different than the public sphere. How normalized were these in
(19:25):
the athlete world.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
The answer to that is, like I would know, my
bubble was small during that time. There was a lot
of tainting of supplements, so most professional athletes hired companies
to create our supplements.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I can remember that in the news, certain athletes going
to the gncs of the world and getting their supplements
and they're being tainted with things that potentially could be
performance enhancing. Well, when you are an elite professional athlete
and you're getting paid a lot of money, you can't
afford that to happen.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
So you hire a company.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
You hire companies to make sure that what you are taking,
which is natural, you are asking a lot of your body.
You need supplements, you need things to make sure that
you can recover.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's just the way that it is. And you bring
in outside people to fulfill all those roles.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
You have a coach to make sure that you're programming
and you're working out in a certain way. You have
a psychologist to make sure that your mindset is prepared
for What about.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
You have all these people whom you.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Hire, who are you're in your corner, and whom you
rely on to make certain decisions for you. Even more
so when you're nineteen and twenty and twenty one years
old and you're just out of college. I ask people
a lot of times who are very who were very aggressive,
and they're coming at me and why do you do
this and why.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Do you do that? And I say, just pause a second,
what were you doing at eighteen years old?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
At nineteen years old, were you are on the cover
of Vogue was every every time you stepped out of
the house doing this, Like, were the cameras on you? Right?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And if they were, what kind of dirt before social media?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:11):
What kind of dirt would you be comfortable with the
world knowing? Like right now, right? And a lot of
people will say, oh, all right, right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Right, it's time for another short break. We'll be right
back with olympian and performance coach Marion Jones. And we're
back with Marion Jones. Maryan, how do you respond to
skepticism around your claim that you didn't know you were
(21:39):
taking performance enhancing drugs?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, well, for a while there, I claimed, well, hey,
I mean it's your word versus mine. And my claim
is that I was the most tested athlete in the world.
And if you followed the trajectory of my career from
like eleven years old old running you know, age group
(22:02):
track there in Los Angeles, you'll see the natural progression. Right,
So you're not going to see me running times when
I'm fifteen compared to twenty five, and there's like no
if you followed my career and most track historians have,
they can say, okay, right, like this is a natural progression.
She didn't like just pop on the scene and win
(22:25):
these gold medals. This was a many, many year journey.
And then Danielle, you get to a point where like, like,
I'm not going to argue that point anymore. Right, Like
I've said what I've said, I have paid my consequences, right,
Apologies have been made, Tears have been shed, money has
been lost, consequences were steep, and I'm done with it.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Like this is where I'm at now.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
I don't have any problem sharing and giving context, like
we've done with what happened.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
You forgot prison time, you did the day in that
as they say, I did.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
The time plus right, like the forty nine days in solitary.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I mean, come on, now, at some point, I've moved on.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
And that is why you see a certain level of
success where I'm at now, you don't have to keep
shedding tears.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I've been there. I did that. Poor decisions were made,
consequences were had.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Now how can I help people like not have to
go through certain things that I did?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like that is where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I think in reflecting on that chapter of your life
when you faced this immense public scrutiny, you were twenty
five in the year two thousand, right, Yeah, you were
incredibly young. What did you learn about yourself and the
pressures that we all face to present this certain version
of ourselves to the world. What can you say in
hindsight about that.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
That the earlier on that you are comfortable and able
to step into your own authenticity, like the health you
will become and the healthier meaning you will be able
to make better decisions business career decisions, relationship decisions.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
But there's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of
pressure on young athletes.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
There's a lot of pressure on how much money you
can make for yourself and for other people. You know,
an athlete has such a short window of fame, such
a short window in essence to make what money you
can retire off of, which is a span really, if
(24:34):
I'm being generous, five years, So the pressure is even
more intense, more intense, And I suppose, you know, if
what lesson has been learned from that whole situation is
really just be true to yourself. You know, you don't
have to say yes to every interview, you don't have
(24:56):
to say yes to every opportunity. Find what fits your personality,
what do you want to do right? Like find out.
I tell young athletes, now find what you're passionate about,
like while you're in the height of your fame, because
I've found that running again fast from here to there.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I mean it might inspire some young athletes, but on
the grand scheme of things, it's not going to really
make some young mother in Bolivia's life like that much
better and stronger. What is it that you can use
your name, your likeness, your image, your words to really
(25:40):
change the trajectory of this world.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You have such a short window. Take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, And I think that's universal, regardless of what industry
you're in. We all like to think that things last forever,
but you have to be able to recognize the moment
you're in and make the most of it.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I really see that.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
So, having gone through all of this, I feel like
you are one of the best people to ask about regret.
I'm curious what your philosophy is on regret and whether
it's evolved in light of your journey.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
It certainly has evolved.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
It evolves because of maturity and growth and what you
learn about the world and like myself, and it's a
sticky road when you start talking about regrets because if
I could go back and make certain changes in decisions
(26:40):
that I made. Sure, do I regret making a quick
decision that would affect my family and parts of my future. Sure,
But honestly, y'all, I find so much joy satisfaction knowing
(27:02):
that people's lives are truly transformed. People are inspired and
motivated to do things differently and better because of my journey.
I mean to break it down, like my kids would say,
I'm good, like like I want when my kids tell
me that, I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Like, can you give me more more than You're good?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But really, I mean, y'all know what I'm saying, Like
like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
In terms of regret, there's really not right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I think once you have owned up to something and
you've done everything imaginable to try and rectify the situation,
make it better, you gotta be done. You got to
move on, right, And I have raid, and it's not
it's not for me to help people also move on.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
If that makes any sense, Like I moved on.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
If people are unwilling to move on about a certain topic,
like like sorry, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Good, I think that's fair.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
When I was younger, I used to think, like live
no regrets, but I think there's like a gray area there,
and I'm starting to rethink my relationship with regret and
my philosophy with regret. I listened to this podcast that
Oprah hosted with an author who wrote a book about regret,
and I just thought it was really interesting to think
(28:20):
about the ways in which regrets can shape us and
can move us forward. You know, I think there's room
for a healthy relationship with it. But it sounds like
you've moved past that and you're in a really good space.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah. I am simonar And it takes time, right, and
it takes maturity, and it takes lifeing as they say, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Your life has been a story of these incredible highs
and challenging lows, and I think through it all, you've
really had to rebuild some of that trust with yourself,
with loved ones, with the public. For anybody who is
struggling to come back from their own set back, what
is your advice to them or to us?
Speaker 4 (29:04):
The first piece of advice would be to give yourself
some type of grace, right. I think life has a
way of knocking you down, So that's the first thing.
Give yourself some breathing room, and then from there start
making a running tallly of all of the wonderful things
(29:26):
about yourself, like what are your strengths, what do you
possess inside of you that is innate, that is good,
that is brilliant, that is genius, and what that's doing,
Danielle Simone, It is empowering you, not based off of
what anybody says or does about you, but this.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Is you building yourself up. And so from there then
you start moving forward.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I like to say I said it already, like you
start reframing, not just like in my sense like what
the media said about you or what media said about me,
or or what type of person I was or athlete
or whatever, but this is based off of what I know.
I am great at, what I am good at, what
I feel good about. And that's when you start building
(30:08):
and building and building into what you've created is something
that is very unique to you, not based off of
anybody like patting.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
You on the back or needing or want anything from you.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
This is you, right and you can begin to really
really flourish beautiful.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, I think that's a perfect place to end. Fam yayah, Mary,
and thank.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
You so much for talking with us on the bright Side.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You're welcome, Simone, Danielle. I wish you all all the best.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Well too, Thank you so much. Marion Jones is a
five time Olympic medalist and performance coach for entrepreneurs and
young professionals.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, It's Wellness Wednesday. Substance
abuse expert doctor Rachel Saiko Adams joins us to unpack
the Surgeon General's advisory about the link between alcohol consumption
and cancer. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side
and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine
on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh,
(31:10):
and feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and
at danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
See you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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