Marion Jones speaks in Huntsman about Title IX and her time in prison

In a sport where half a second can separate first from last, 10 years might feel like a long time.

Maybe even a little longer for Marion Jones. Two grand-jury testimonies, five doomed-to-be-stripped Olympic medals and six months in jail longer.

A full decade after anchoring the Nike International team to victory in the 4x200 meters at the 1999 Penn Relays, the former track star returned to West Philadelphia last night to headline the latest installment of the "Race and Sports" lecture series in Huntsman Hall Auditorium, a program co-sponsored by the Wharton Sports Business Initiative and the Center for Africana Studies.

The 33-year old Jones spent the majority of her prepared remarks discussing the significance of Title IX, the 1972 measure that banned sex-based discrimination in education and, by extension, amateur athletics.

"Title IX was, and remains, a platform that provides opportunities to succeed in academics and sports for all women, especially black women," said Jones, who was sentenced to six months behind bars last year and forced to surrender her Olympic medals after lying about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

"We all share a responsibility through our actions to make sure that the world understands that women can and will succeed at the highest levels of sports and academics."

Following her speech, Jones engaged in a Q&A; session with Barbara Savage, history professor and interim director of the Center for Africana Studies.

In this forum, the issue of Jones' recent turmoil dominated the conversation.

"I messed up. I said it, and I'll say it again," Jones said. "I certainly don't plan to do a tell-all that's going to rip people up, like you see some athletes do. That's not the message I want to share."

Jones went on to describe the surreal circumstances of her entrance into prison last March, at an all-female facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

"It was on the news. There were helicopters," she recalled. "As I'm walking into the prison . the TVs that they have are broadcasting me."

While in prison, though, Jones rediscovered an old passion: writing.

She had majored in journalism - and started at point guard on a national championship-winning basketball team - while enrolled at North Carolina.

And while Jones acknowledges that having "not much else to do" was a driving force behind her decision to pick up the pen again, her recent experiences allowed her to write "on a different level" than she ever had before.

Jones also articulated the kinship she felt with the other inmates, who became key sources of support as she struggled with her separation from two young sons.

"On the evenings and the nights that were challenging for me, all I had to do was look at my neighbor," Jones said, fighting back tears. "And she'd been in there for 15 years, and her kids hadn't seen her. I said to myself, 'You know what? Six months, I can do. With God, I can do it.'"

As the event neared its end, Jones spotted a familiar face, track legend John Carlos, and waded into the crowd to embrace him.

Carlos, along with teammate Tommie Smith, authored one of the most iconic moments in sports history when, on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics, the two men each raised a fist in a "Black Power" salute during the playing of the National Anthem.

After serving as last year's speaker (along with Smith) for the same lecture series, Carlos attended last night's session in a show of solidarity toward Jones.

"She's come to the conclusion," Carlos said, "that the greatest invention of all time is not the airplane or the television or the teletype, but the simple thing on the back of that pencil: the eraser."

"She realizes she can make the correction to the mistakes she's made in life and move on. That's a gallant individual."

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