Speaker 1: Hey, the folks in this episode, our conversation with the
Speaker 1: woman who once held the title of fastest woman in
Speaker 1: the world, Marion Jones. And with that, welcome to Amy
Speaker 1: and DJ and your Lasting image Robe. Do you hear
Speaker 1: the name Marion Jones? And what is the image that
Speaker 1: comes to me?
Speaker 2: That big, beautiful smile, just that release of joy, like
Speaker 2: this is somebody who worked her butt off and she didn't.
Speaker 1: It's just hearing your voice. You sound like you only
Speaker 1: have happy thoughts, right right. We know the story that ensued,
Speaker 1: But the same with me. The only image I have
Speaker 1: is that big smile of hers holding that gold medal
Speaker 1: up to that big smiling face. That is the image.
Speaker 1: I had to think for a little while to come
Speaker 1: up with the other image of her crying at a
Speaker 1: podium admitting that she had lied and took steroids.
Speaker 2: Correct And also, in knowing that we were doing this interview,
Speaker 2: I learned things that I hadn't realized before that she
Speaker 2: had actually gone to prison, spent a lot of time
Speaker 2: behind bars, and completely then decided to take a step
Speaker 2: back from the spotlight. All together, these are all huge
Speaker 2: transformative moments that happened to her in her twenties, the
Speaker 2: greatest of successes and then the lowest of lows.
Speaker 1: And it's tough she was, and it's remind her. I
Speaker 1: know that legacy is tainted, but she had accomplished so
Speaker 1: much in her career. And look, she's admitted the things
Speaker 1: she's done wrong, but there is some talent and some
Speaker 1: a lot and not just not some, a lot of
Speaker 1: talent and a lot of hard work behind what she did.
Speaker 1: She was a world champion shell forget she played basketball.
Speaker 1: It knows Romana and won a championship there, so she
Speaker 1: has a world class athlete. But that scandal kind of
Speaker 1: tainted everything. But to talk to her now, it sounds
Speaker 1: like that was only the jumping off point to what
Speaker 1: is now going to be her greatest legacy. Was cool
Speaker 1: to hear her kind of talk about that.
Speaker 3: Isn't it true?
Speaker 2: Though? Because for anyone who has achieved something great but
Speaker 2: then had something taint their lives, so you don't want
Speaker 2: to be defined by your worst mistake. And if anything,
Speaker 2: any one of us who has lived enough life knows
Speaker 2: it's those mistakes. It's those moments of poor choices or failures,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call them, that made you say
Speaker 2: I got to do something different. I got to make
Speaker 2: a change. I have to change the trajectory of my life.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what she did in so many ways.
Speaker 2: And her children are her legacy. How she's living her
Speaker 2: life is what she wants to become her greatest legacy.
Speaker 1: Their children are her legacy. Folks. True story that we
Speaker 1: had to cut the interview short because she had to
Speaker 1: get a kid off to school. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: cool to see her forty nine years old now and
Speaker 1: just where she is in her life and looks like
Speaker 1: she is happy as all get out. So, folks, enjoy
Speaker 1: our conversation with the Marion Jones.
Speaker 3: How are you doing? How are you feeling today?
Speaker 4: And welcome?
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you, thank you both. I'm excited to chat
Speaker 3: with you. I'm doing well. You know, it has been
Speaker 3: a whirlwinds year for me. I made certain certain specific
Speaker 3: choices to step away from the spotlight and the public
Speaker 3: eye for almost a decade right after everything went down,
Speaker 3: and it was all very purposeful, y'all. I have three
Speaker 3: beautiful kids now they're nearly grown. But I made the
Speaker 3: choice that for my own mental health and for the
Speaker 3: lives of my kids, I wanted to pour into them,
Speaker 3: and I thought that a distraction would be the spotlight,
Speaker 3: and so it was purposeful. But in that I always
Speaker 3: knew that my reach, my public reach, my platform was
Speaker 3: something unique and special. And even though right like there
Speaker 3: was success on the track and I was blessed with
Speaker 3: talent and speed, there is I don't want to speak
Speaker 3: in the third person in the past, but there is
Speaker 3: something unique about my ability to connect with people. Right
Speaker 3: There have been a lot of Olympians, there have been
Speaker 3: a lot of gold medalists, but very few have I think,
Speaker 3: had the ability to connect with the world like I did.
Speaker 3: And it's more than just me being able to run
Speaker 3: from here to there very fast. And in that ten
Speaker 3: year Hiatus, I knew that I still had a stage
Speaker 3: and a platform to share, to share my experiences with
Speaker 3: the hopes of helping people who have been through hard
Speaker 3: times come back from then I was just waiting for
Speaker 3: that time. So in that ten years you didn't see me,
Speaker 3: but I was busy rebranding, creating my own narrative, refusing
Speaker 3: to allow the media the world to create my narrative.
Speaker 3: That that was my time to rebrand so that I
Speaker 3: can still have a platform. And so this past year,
Speaker 3: I said, you know, my kids are older, two of
Speaker 3: them out of the house, they're in college, one about
Speaker 3: to be out of the house. Now's the time. They're good,
Speaker 3: they are healthy, Amy and TJ. They are thriving in
Speaker 3: their own world. Now it's time for me now to
Speaker 3: step back on the stage. And what do I have
Speaker 3: to give to the public. What in essence, why am
Speaker 3: I currently relevant? And it's it's it makes me smile
Speaker 3: that there is an audience, that there are people like
Speaker 3: you TJ and you Amy who remember me and remember
Speaker 3: that there is there's something more like what is she
Speaker 3: doing right? And I don't think that happens with every
Speaker 3: former athlete, And so I'm excited to be able to
Speaker 3: share my experiences with people, mainly but but really giving
Speaker 3: people this sense of hope, which I think we really
Speaker 3: really need in this day and time, that once you
Speaker 3: make a choice good bad in between, and maybe there's
Speaker 3: a setback of some sort, that your world doesn't have
Speaker 3: to end, that you don't have to crawl under a rock,
Speaker 3: that you can still rebrand and rename and get yourself
Speaker 3: back out there in a positive light with the hopes
Speaker 3: that you can help people live a better life.
Speaker 4: Well, Mary, you said, you said you have this ability,
Speaker 4: and maybe some of it is natural disability to connect
Speaker 4: with people, certainly through your story, through your talent, and
Speaker 4: through the huge platform that you had. But do you
Speaker 4: find yourself these days when you're trying to connect with people,
Speaker 4: do you find we're so you're trying to tell them,
Speaker 4: appreciate to them to not make some of the same
Speaker 4: mistakes you made, or do you find yourself teaching more
Speaker 4: lessons about this is what you do when you make
Speaker 4: those mistakes that are now necessary and we're even necessary
Speaker 4: for you to be sitting here in the headspace that you're.
Speaker 3: Tj a little bit of both. I share with people
Speaker 3: that I am unique in that a former goal medalist
Speaker 3: and former fastest woman in the world. Not a lot
Speaker 3: of people can relate to that. But I think our
Speaker 3: common bond is that everybody on this planet can or
Speaker 3: will experience some type of setback or some type of failure,
Speaker 3: or some type of something that knocks you off of
Speaker 3: your feet. It can. I mean, it might not be
Speaker 3: on the grand scale potentially that mine was or that
Speaker 3: y'all's were or whatever, but people can relate to a
Speaker 3: park happy everybody right and so that is how we
Speaker 3: are unique. And I think that is what makes potentially
Speaker 3: me a little more relatable. When you say, oh, I
Speaker 3: can't relate or she man, she ran this, or she
Speaker 3: had a gold medal, or she was on the cover
Speaker 3: of Vogue or this, people can't relate to that. But
Speaker 3: when you say, you know what, have you ever been
Speaker 3: knocked down? Have you ever been a product of divorce?
Speaker 3: Have you ever been bankrupt? Have you ever told a lie?
Speaker 3: And you're like, shit, how do I make this right?
Speaker 3: Most people can understand that. And so that's what I
Speaker 3: share that it doesn't have to knock you down. You
Speaker 3: deal with it, obviously, you deal with the consequences. Mine
Speaker 3: were severe. Y'all's were severe, right, Like, we all deal
Speaker 3: with it. But to me, it makes our testimony like
Speaker 3: and are the fact that And let me give you
Speaker 3: a quick example. You know, I have kids, they have
Speaker 3: done sports, and I found that even with my own kids,
Speaker 3: when they were growing up and they had coaches, they
Speaker 3: would listen to their coaches, who maybe had a junior
Speaker 3: high athletic experience over their mamas. Right, that's about right.
Speaker 3: Kids are the same When you say, hey, like my
Speaker 3: coach or my mentor or the person who's teaching me
Speaker 3: something has really been through it. Like, doesn't that give
Speaker 3: you like a little more mph to want to listen
Speaker 3: to say? You know what, like if she or he
Speaker 3: or they have been through what they've been through and
Speaker 3: they're showing me how they can rebrand and rename and
Speaker 3: put themselves out there whereby you know, the TJ's and
Speaker 3: Amys and Robins and whomever in the world still want
Speaker 3: to hear their voice and their experiences. Maybe I should,
Speaker 3: Maybe I should take note right that you don't have
Speaker 3: to just give up when life knocks you down.
Speaker 4: And how often do you talk to people and you
Speaker 4: get introduced, right, if it's an interview like this, where
Speaker 4: how long does it take right talking to you before
Speaker 4: anything related to a scandal gets brought up?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: It's because, let me say you, like this from our experience,
Speaker 4: it took a while to where we're like, oh wow, okay,
Speaker 4: we're actually just normal people who are in reallytionationship instead
Speaker 4: of scandalous this or the form or that. Right, does
Speaker 4: it take a while? Is it starting to happen?
Speaker 3: Do you?
Speaker 4: Like, I know it's always going to be a part
Speaker 4: of your story, but does it move way down in
Speaker 4: terms of who Marion Jones is.
Speaker 3: I'm not at that place yet, TJ. When I'm introduced,
Speaker 3: I am generally introduced as former Olympian gold medalists who
Speaker 3: had being stripped because of poor choices that she made whatever, right.
Speaker 3: What what I do find there's an area of growth
Speaker 3: in my story is that after I am introduced and
Speaker 3: after five minutes into our conversation right where it's addressed,
Speaker 3: I don't run away from it. We talk about it
Speaker 3: more choices, I lie, right, and I let down a
Speaker 3: nation in a world. I get it at the age
Speaker 3: of twenty something years old. Right, five minutes, maybe a
Speaker 3: few more, and then I'm able rights put out there. Right,
Speaker 3: I have attacked it. I have addressed it. And so
Speaker 3: the rest of the interview or whatever it.
Speaker 6: Is, we talk about what I want to talk about,
Speaker 6: really right, which is how to help people live a
Speaker 6: better life, how to help people get it have a
Speaker 6: comeback which everybody can experience.
Speaker 3: And I find that that is what is changing.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: Sure, the introduction might likely stay similar for however long,
Speaker 3: but the ninety five percent of the content of our
Speaker 3: interaction has nothing to do with that, and it's going
Speaker 3: to get less and less and less and less, and
Speaker 3: I'm okay with that as long as I see forward movement.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you are doing that a triathlon? Why the triathlon?
Speaker 5: And I'm just curious because for those of us who
Speaker 5: don't know, because I get confused, what does that intel?
Speaker 5: Obviously there are three different sports, and I know it
Speaker 5: involves running, cycling, and swimming, I believe, But tell us
Speaker 5: what you're in for. You're doing this in how to correct,
Speaker 5: in may correct.
Speaker 3: So it's always been on my bucket list, even when
Speaker 3: I competed. The athletes in that sport are built different,
Speaker 3: not just physically, but their mindsets is different. It is
Speaker 3: similar to how I function, how I think in my
Speaker 3: normal life right where you get obsessed with something right,
Speaker 3: get obsessed with your training, your nutrition, how you live.
Speaker 3: And it's the only way that you could succeed in
Speaker 3: that sport by balancing all of those three things right,
Speaker 3: which I think right now TJ and Amy is perfect
Speaker 3: in my life because my constant challenge is how do
Speaker 3: I balance? As you get older? It's all about balancing, right.
Speaker 3: Like I teach my clients, it is a circle of
Speaker 3: life and the goal is for everything to be green.
Speaker 3: Which means good.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: There might be some areas that are green, there are
Speaker 3: some areas that are orange, and there's a few that
Speaker 3: are red. The goal is for a balance and figuring
Speaker 3: that out. At almost the age of fifteen, I couldn't
Speaker 3: think of a more a better sport, a challenge to
Speaker 3: choose than a try because I have to learn how
Speaker 3: to balance all of them, which for me is a challenge, right,
Speaker 3: Like I'll tell you endurance side not my jam.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: Do I run a few miles every day? Sure? Three macs? Right?
Speaker 3: Do I know how to bike? Yes, because I have
Speaker 3: kids and we used to go around the block. Do
Speaker 3: I know how to handle power and cadence when it
Speaker 3: comes to a bike a cycle? I do not. So
Speaker 3: there's my challenge. Let's talk swim for a second. Do
Speaker 3: I know how to swim? Do I know how not
Speaker 3: to drown? Yes? I have kids, You're right, like, hey,
Speaker 3: let me jump in the pool and play with them.
Speaker 3: But do I know how to Do I know a
Speaker 3: swim stroke? Do I know how to breathe properly? Do
Speaker 3: I know how to keep my hips up and keep
Speaker 3: my court? I do not. So the challenge of an
Speaker 3: athlete former athlete in particular elite athlete to have to
Speaker 3: figure out this balance at this point in her life
Speaker 3: when now, TJ, I'm not paying to do triathlons, right,
Speaker 3: this is my choosing.
Speaker 4: You have pay to enter the triathlon.
Speaker 3: In addition balancing everything else in my life. Right, So,
Speaker 3: at the end of this try experience, and I don't
Speaker 3: know when the end will be. Most likely it's not
Speaker 3: going to be when I'm done with my first one,
Speaker 3: because I'm gonna get hooked, right, But the challenge for
Speaker 3: me is how do I create green in not just
Speaker 3: my try journey, but in all of the other relationships
Speaker 3: in my life, my business, my career, my everything like
Speaker 3: that to me is success at this point. So that's
Speaker 3: kind of in a nutshell, Amy, That's why I'm doing it.
Speaker 4: How many how many miles are in the triathlon?
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's back up.
Speaker 4: You said you only we run about three miles max,
Speaker 4: But how many you got them run in the travelin?
Speaker 3: Well, I have chosen for my first try to be
Speaker 3: a sprint trye. So they're different, right, Like there is
Speaker 3: an iron Man iron woman distance. We are not there yet, friends, right,
Speaker 3: I am literally walking before I run. Okay, And so
Speaker 3: in the sprint try, I mean specifics. I think it's
Speaker 3: a little over three miles, right, so it's a much
Speaker 3: dial down version. But I know me right, I know
Speaker 3: I'm gonna crush it. I know all this, and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be challenged, which I already have been by my
Speaker 3: try coach, Like I am looking for X, Y, and
Speaker 3: Z after this, So the first one will be mild.
Speaker 5: I like how you said the first one, so there
Speaker 5: are more to come. And I'm curious as you talk
Speaker 5: about how you're introduced and how you always have to
Speaker 5: at least address or explain your history.
Speaker 3: How do you hope in this next.
Speaker 5: Check of your life where you are looking at everything
Speaker 5: green and you're rewriting, or at least you're creating your
Speaker 5: next chapter, how do you want people to introduce you
Speaker 5: in ten years?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Right, ten years? And know that's a good question.
Speaker 3: I know that ultimately, I would love for my name
Speaker 3: to be synonymous with people whom it struggled to navigate
Speaker 3: stardom right, but figured it out, figured it out and
Speaker 3: ultimately poured into the lives of people who around her
Speaker 3: like that. That would be a great legacy for me
Speaker 3: to have in ten years. I would hope people will
Speaker 3: just say, wow, right, a talent, right, and maybe they'll
Speaker 3: throw in a waste of talent. I don't think so,
Speaker 3: because my talent has not just the physical. My ability
Speaker 3: to motivate and coach and train and provide inspiration to
Speaker 3: people is also a talent. Now you'll know everybody doesn't
Speaker 3: have that, right, and so being able to foster that,
Speaker 3: learn that create, cultivate that to me as a talent.
Speaker 3: And so in ten years, I would hope that the
Speaker 3: people who've the people's lives whom I have positively influenced,
Speaker 3: is however many more than what it was before I started.
Speaker 3: Right or people initially heard my name and were like, ah, no,
Speaker 3: she's done. I don't want to hear from her, but
Speaker 3: I sort of get something out of her story. And
Speaker 3: if you've used it to I've used it to apply
Speaker 3: to my own life, even if it's just a few
Speaker 3: people's success. But I know it's going to be, however
Speaker 3: many much more than that.
Speaker 4: You know as well, to think the whole world is
Speaker 4: watching you and Sydney, and we've talked about all the
Speaker 4: people you inspire hired by your brilliant talent obviously, but
Speaker 4: the thing that that might not even be your greatest impact.
Speaker 4: That you're putting something together in your life now you
Speaker 4: could have more of an impact on people's lives post
Speaker 4: all of that than you ever did when they saw you.
Speaker 4: But goldmells around you and TJ.
Speaker 3: It's not even an if, right, Like it's not to me,
Speaker 3: it's not even an if, And it's it's what I
Speaker 3: share with the athletes that are achieving success right now.
Speaker 3: Right whereby we only have athletes entertainers, We really only
Speaker 3: have that big platform for a certain amount of time, right,
Speaker 3: how do you capitalize on it? Right? Like these these
Speaker 3: young athletes, they win a gold medal, right, they're on
Speaker 3: the cover, they're making millions right now, but their window
Speaker 3: is so short. Now if they squander that away with
Speaker 3: silly stuff on social media or right like they are
Speaker 3: doing themselves such a disservice, why not in that window
Speaker 3: of fame which is limited, once again, they attach their
Speaker 3: brand to something bigger than sport, right, whatever that could be,
Speaker 3: whether it's about climate change or the homeless or whatever,
Speaker 3: like something that you are truly passionate about, passionate about,
Speaker 3: not just something that's going to you know, get a
Speaker 3: quick audience. You will extend the life of your fame
Speaker 3: ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and hopefully truly impact people,
Speaker 3: because I know that me running from here to there
Speaker 3: impacted the lives of people. I'm sure in a positive way.
Speaker 3: But really, when you really look at the grand scope
Speaker 3: of the platform that you can really get if you
Speaker 3: truly are passionate about something bigger than sport man, that
Speaker 3: could be something special in your life. So I love you, know,
Speaker 3: and Mary, and I love you.
Speaker 5: Just turned forty nine, and so many of our listeners
Speaker 5: are women, and I'm in my fifties already, and I
Speaker 5: love hearing, especially someone who has such an accomplished past.
Speaker 3: And you were killing it in your twenties.
Speaker 5: But now to be two decades older and to be
Speaker 5: wiser and as TJ said, slower but go ahead, the.
Speaker 3: Impact could be greater.
Speaker 5: And I'm just that that thought that we have a
Speaker 5: lot left in our tank to get in different ways.
Speaker 5: And it's a beautiful message to all of us out
Speaker 5: there that we still have value and we still have worth,
Speaker 5: and we have so much more to give.
Speaker 3: Perfect well said Amy, And really the best is yet
Speaker 3: to come, and the best is yet to come, y'all.
Speaker 3: I believe that for y'all, for me, and Pete looked
Speaker 3: him knock down, and here you're like, you know what, No,
Speaker 3: it's not who I am. Like that, my biggest mistake,
Speaker 3: my biggest setback, does not define who I am.
Speaker 4: I wish folks could see and we all fell in
Speaker 4: love with a smile twelve years ago in Sydney. But
Speaker 4: you still have that great smile and glow and energy
Speaker 4: and you look like there is not a weight on
Speaker 4: your shoulder in the least. You just look wonderful.
Speaker 3: Marian.
Speaker 4: Really, if you have to go run one hundred meter
Speaker 4: right now, what time could you put up?
Speaker 3: Well, since we were briefly speak talking about knees earlier,
Speaker 3: let's first put that out in the universe. I have
Speaker 3: grade four arthritis in both of my nis. All right,
Speaker 3: I am, But I am an adrenaline junkie, which means
Speaker 3: that when I train and work out, I don't feel
Speaker 3: it right. I feel it the minute that I leave
Speaker 3: the gym or walking the stairs or getting out of
Speaker 3: my vehicle, which is a plus and a minus. When
Speaker 3: I was in the midst of my career, I go,
Speaker 3: I train hard, I go hard. I don't really feel
Speaker 3: a pain injury. But if I was just stoop on
Speaker 3: the track right now, A former athlete is always an athlete.
Speaker 3: If you ask any football player, any boxer, any sprinter.
Speaker 3: If you tell me TJ that I can get six
Speaker 3: months dedicated to sprint training, I feel in my heart
Speaker 3: that I can be back out on the track, I
Speaker 3: don't care. And so if you were to get me
Speaker 3: on the track, you and I, TJ. Nice say you
Speaker 3: and I we were to line up, I would crush it.
Speaker 3: I would crush you because I won't in the midst
Speaker 3: of it feeling now, will I tear every hamstring? Tea
Speaker 3: Achilles correct, I would we have to lift it away
Speaker 3: from the track, But I would fly. I would go fast.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I most likely I'm not going under
Speaker 3: eleven seconds, but I don't know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he win the race, but I win the recovery.
Speaker 4: Got it.
Speaker 3: I would crush the race, but you would crush the recovery.
Speaker 5: Yes, I love that positive attitude is taking board and
Speaker 5: fill it up our day too. Marion Jones, thank you
Speaker 5: so much for being with us on the podcast. Whish
Speaker 5: we could talk longer, but mom duties are calling. I
Speaker 5: know you got to get for your youngest to school.
Speaker 5: So thank you for us today.
Speaker 3: Thank y'all, I was so pleasant. I wish all all
Speaker 3: the best in your training and in your world. And yeah,
Speaker 3: have a great day, y'all.
Speaker 4: Thank you there, you have a good one. Hopefully we'll
Speaker 4: see you out on the road at some point. And folks,
Speaker 4: thank you as always for listening to us. You can
Speaker 4: catch us on our official Instagram page to Amy and
Speaker 4: TJ Podcast, But for now, I'm TJ and.
Speaker 5: I'm Amy Roboch.
Speaker 3: Have a great day.