(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-10 11:22

NEW YORK - Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones returns to U.S. federal court for sentencing on Friday, three months after she broke down in tears and begged for forgiveness for her steroid use.

Disgraced former Olympic star Marion Jones, seen here in November 2007, might face more than the six months behind bars prosecutors seek. [Agencies]

Reversing years of denials, Jones became the biggest name in international sport to admit to using performance-enhancing drugs when she pleaded guilty in October to two charges that are now likely to land her in jail.

In a stunning demise, she was stripped of her five Sydney 2000 Olympics medals, three of them gold, and had all her all results dating from September 2000 erased from the books.

The 32 year-old pleaded guilty to two felonies -- lying about her steroid use and her knowledge of the involvement of her ex-boyfriend and former 100 metres world record holder Tim Montgomery in a separate cheque fraud case.

The U.S. federal judge punishing Jones has raised the possibility of sentencing her to more than the six months' maximum jail time her lawyers had agreed with prosecutors.

In court, she confessed to taking steroids before the 2000 Sydney Games and lying to authorities investigating the now defunct San Francisco-area BALCO laboratory, which triggered a global sports doping scandal.

TEARFUL APOLOGY

In a tearful apology to reporters outside the court, Jones said: "I have let my country down and I have let myself down." She also announced her retirement from track and field.

Her stellar career ended in tatters after she told the court on October 5 that her coach Trevor Graham gave her the banned substance tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), known as "the clear," to swallow.

Jones told the court that at the time of those Olympics she thought the substance was flaxseed oil and only later realised it was THG.

But when questioned by federal investigators in 2003 and shown a THG sample, she lied about never having seen the drug.

Jones's lawyers have asked for probation and no jail time, saying the public scorn was punishment enough. The Los Angeles Times has reported she is in financial ruin.

The athlete captivated the Sydney Games by becoming the first woman to win five medals in track and field at a single Olympics after taking gold in the 100 metres, 200 and 4x400 relay and bronze in the long jump and 4x100 relay.

Her reputation had been in question in the past as those close to her were ensnared in doping controversies, including ex-husband C.J. Hunter, the 1999 world shot put champion, who tested positive for steroids in 2000.

Sprinter Montgomery, the father of one of Jones' children, was banned from athletics for two years after evidence showed he had taken THG. He is awaiting sentencing for bank fraud.

Athletics has been plagued by doping rumours and scandal in the past. Jones's case is the sport's biggest since Canadian Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids after winning the 100 metres in world record time at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.