American Olympic drug cheat

From the department of the-kind-that-help-our- Olympic-athletes-reach-new-peaks-of-excellence:

Sprint queen Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Citing a letter Jones sent to close family and friends, which was "read to the Washington Post by a person who had been given a copy of it," Jones plans to plead guilty on Friday in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter.

The Post reported that in the letter, Jones said she took the steroid produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999.

Jones, 31, won five medals, including three gold, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.