Disgraced athlete pleads for probation

Marion Jones, disgraced former golden girl of American athletics, has launched a last-ditch attempt to escape a jail sentence. In court papers filed this week, her lawyer said she had been already punished enough for lying about using steroids, and about her knowledge of an alleged money-laundering scheme. Jones will be sentenced next week.

Last October, after years of denial, a tearful Jones finally confessed publicly to taking performance-enhancing drugs before the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, saying: "I have let my country down and I have let myself down." Jones won five medals in Sydney, but has now been stripped of them all. She was given a two-year suspension after her admission, and announced her retirement immediately.

In July 2006, she was linked to an alleged cheque-counterfeiting scheme that led to criminal charges against her ex-boyfriend, former world record holder and 'World's Fastest Man' Tim Montgomery. She later admitted making false statements to agents investigating the case. (Continued below)

Pleading for probation rather than a custodial sentence, Jones's lawyer told her judge: "She has been cast from American hero to national disgrace," adding: "The public scorn... and her fall from grace have been severe punishments."