Jones handles press like a pro
After her royal welcome and hero’s ride through Belize City Marion Jones still had enough stamina to share a few words with the Belizean media. The tape is just back from the Princess Hotel, and here’s what she had to say.
Marion Jones
?To look out my window in the airplane and see all of the school children lined up, gosh it was completely overwhelming. I don?t think it was surprise because I?m not surprised quite often, but it?s overwhelmed and wonderful.?
Q: One of the main purposes of your visit is to get the Order of Belize and to be named ambassador for sports for Belize. What does this mean to you and what do you plan to do in this capacity??
Marion Jones
?Of course it?s an honour. First and foremost, I was just excited to be able to come and share my experience with the school children in particular of Belize and get a chance to look in their faces and see their eyes light up when they saw me. That was, I think for me, the biggest reason coming and of course to see my family. To have an honour such as that bestowed upon me is incredible and just like an earlier question, I plan to sit down over the next couple of days and talk all about it and talk about what my role is going to be. I?m very, very excited about it and looking forward to getting more involved.?
?Very early on we knew that whatever I put my mind to I was gonna achieve great things, and it happened to be at this point athletics, so I think that it comes from a number of influences in my life. Obviously my mother has influenced me a great bit in just having the family around me. I think that instilled a certain type of confidence that I exhibit today.?
Q: Have you suffered at all from your embracement of the Belizean flag? Have you suffered because in the eyes of the world certainly you have celebrated you mixed linage??
Marion Jones
?Yes, I understand. No I haven?t received any form of backlash because of my carrying the American flag and the Belize flag. Overall, I received tremendous amount of support from everybody, from the Americans that I meet, from the Belizeans that I meet in the States and I have received not one once of backlash from it. And if so, I?ll just have to deal with it.?
Ann-Marie Williams
?After the Olympic flames dwindles, what does Marion Jones wants to do maybe in the next ten, fifteen years??
Marion Jones
?I don?t know if dwindle is the right word to use. In my mind, I think it will burn on and on forever. I?m still quite young, I just turned twenty-five in October, so I think I have a number of Olympic games still in my future, but track and field is not the only thing I see in my future. I have a certain passion for the game of basketball, some of you might know that, so perhaps once this track and field career is over I might dabble in that. I?m interested in journalism, so very soon I hope to be on the other side of the microphone.?
Marion Hulse Toler, Mother of Marion Jones
?I?m very grateful, I?m deeply grateful to all of you, to my country, countryman, countrywoman for this goodwill effort. It?s such a tremendous spiritual thing for me. The love, I have said to many of the members of my family, that… I really don?t need to eat for another month at least, I can sustain myself from this outpouring of love that I have seen today.?
?It?s been a long time coming, it?s a lot of work, but you can do it. My daughter said all you have to do is believe, I believe too. I never forgot who I am, where I came from, forever love my country and I?m very happy to be able to share my daughter with you and I actually considered this for a long, long time.?
Jones will be honoured tonight at a reception at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel. She will be up bright and early Wednesday for a talk show hosted by her uncle, Godwin Hulse. That town hall style broadcast begins at seven a.m. and will be carried live right here on Channel 5. Our coverage will continue Wednesday night with a live broadcast of Marion receiving the Order of Belize at what will soon be called–what else–Marion Jones Stadium. During the day Jones will meet there with young athletes before travelling south to Dangriga and Punta Gorda.
