Sprint queen Marion Jones tumbled from her pedestal with a resounding, if not surprising, crash on Friday and US sports fans are now left to wonder if home run king Barry Bonds could be next.
Jones became the face of a sport as she pursued an unprecedented five gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she eventually won three gold and two bronze medals.
Once held up as a role model of a strong, smart, modern woman, Jones ended years of whispers on Friday when she pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent about her use of illicit performance enhancing drugs.
She became the biggest fish so far to be caught in the net of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) criminal steroid distribution probe.
But one catch could remain, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who this year seized Major League Baseball's coveted all-time home run record, remains the target of federal investigators.
Like Jones, Bonds was one of many star athletes to testify before a grand jury investigating BALCO, a purported vitamin firm fingered by authorities as the source of the designer steroid THG.
Like Jones, Bonds has denied ever knowingly using steroids -- both saying that they were told one product from BALCO, "the clear," was flaxseed oil. That product was really THG.
On Friday, a tearful Jones admitted she had used it prior to and after the 2000 Summer Olympics.
She admitted that by the time authorities questioned her in November of 2003, she had realized it was an illegal drug and that she lied to them when she denied using it.
It took US authorities almost four years to get that confession from Jones and they appear determined to continue their pursuit of Bonds.
Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer and one of five men convicted of illegal steroid distribution in the BALCO case, remains in custody for refusing to answer questions by a grand jury reportedly investigating Bonds for perjury and tax evasion.
Bonds' attorney Mike Rains said prosecutors would have charged Bonds by now if they had a legitimate case.
Rains also said he has evidence of government misconduct that he could reveal if the case against his client is pursued.
Regardless of the outcome for Bonds, his case and that of Jones demonstrate the power of the new alliance between anti-doping efforts and law enforcement.
"BALCO has been a turning point in the fight against doping in sport, but it will not end here," US Olympic Committee chief executive officer Jim Scherr said after Jones entered her guilty plea.
"If there are other athletes, coaches, trainers or agents -- from any segment of sport -- who are complicit in this matter, they too will be held accountable for their actions," he said.
In the US, Trevor Graham, the athletics coach who sparked the BALCO probe with an anonymous tip to the US Anti-Doping Agency, is due to go on trial next month on a charge of lying to investigators.
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