Perhaps the Oympians who didn’t cheat, and lost to this cheat — should file claims they were denied their millions by the FRAUD perpetrated by Jones.
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http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2007/10/nike-puts-the-i.html
Fraud? Marion Jones endorsements are courtesy of anabolic steroids
Marion_jones_l Recent admitted steroid user Marion Jones is but one of the stable or current and former Nike endorsing athletes to use anabolic drugs to enhance their standing in the sports and endorsement world. Nike injected millions of dollars of endorsements into PED abusing athletes. Jones will return her 5 gold medals, but will not return the millions of Nike, Gatorade and other endorsement bucks she earned and squandered over the years.
Does the use of illegal drugs nullify Jones’ track wins beyond the 2000 Sydney Olympics? Do the millions of dollars of endorsements racked up by the disgraced Jones then represent fraud? Jones won races using PEDs; the tainted wins led to her fame in the corporate product world and to lucrative endorsement contracts. Doesn’t that appear to be fraud?
The other athletes Jones defeated would have a case against Jones too. Where is their prize money? Where are their juicy endorsement deals? The other female track stars found their endorsement balloons punctured by the sharp needle on the end of a steroid syringe.
In 2000, the New York Times trumpeted the success of the new breed of female athletes, who received endorsements by appealing to the general female consumers with dollars to spend. How many of those females would spend their dollars now identifying with a big time steroid cheater.
Using Marion Jones’ financial house of cards as an example, when a drug cheater immorally and illegally wins races, then receives endorsement dollars, should that situation be considered sports fraud? Here is the definition of fraud:
All multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise, and which are resorted to by one individual to get an advantage over another by false suggestions or suppression of the truth. It includes all surprises, tricks, cunning or dissembling, and any unfair way which another is cheated.
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th ed., by Henry Campbell Black, West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minnesota, 1979.
Do current fraud laws cover the concept of sports law? Don’t know here; however the sports fans, the paying ticket holders, and the honest competitors deserve redress when one of the superstars uses cheating (PEDs) to secure their own unholy victories and to enhance their bloated financial status over their competitors.
right, that’s a matter with civil, not criminal, courts.