Marion Jones Is Top Female Athlete

Wednesday, December 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Marion Jones gambled â€” then won and lost. Boldly predicting she could become the first track and field athlete to win five gold medals at a single Olympics, Jones' drive for five left her with three golds and two bronzes.

The five medals represented a first for a female track and field athlete at one games, and for that accomplishment Jones was chosen Wednesday as The Associated Press' Female Athlete of the Year.

In balloting by sportswriters and broadcasters, Jones received 27 first-place votes and 111 points, beating tennis star Venus Williams, runner-up with 16 1/2 firsts and 104 1/2 points. Golfer Karrie Webb was a distant third with 30 points. Points were awarded on a 3-2-1 basis.

Last year's winner, the U.S. soccer team, didn't receive any votes this time.

The confident Jones was the 10th female track and field athlete to win the honor since the award was inaugurated in 1931, and the first since the late Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988.

Jones' golds came in the 100 and 200 meters and the 1,600 relay, the bronzes in the long jump and 400 relay.

Those bronzes could have been golds, Jones said.

``That gold medal was there for the taking in the long jump,'' she said. ``And in the (400) relay, we had some injuries (Gail Devers and Inger Miller). We didn't have our best horses.

``I guess everybody wants to win the lottery. You just don't want to win the $2 ticket. I wanted to win them all, and I still think it's possible. But I didn't, so I'm not going to dwell on that.

``I didn't get everything I wanted, but I didn't give in. I can live with that.''

Her prediction, made two years before the Sydney Games, earned Jones a lot of publicity, something she will avoid for the 2004 Olympics.

``I've vowed not to make a prediction such as the five golds, especially not four years prior to the next games,'' said the 24-year-old Jones. ``But whatever I choose to do, I'll try and make it as extraordinary as possible.''

Jones' gold-medal performances in Sydney were extraordinary, considering she was mentally distracted by the IAAF's confirmation that her husband, C.J. Hunter, the 1999 world shot put champion, had tested positive for the steroid nandrolone four times after the U.S. Olympic trials. The disclosure came after Jones' first event, the 100, meaning she had to compete in four events with that burden.

``It was very unfortunate timing,'' she said.

Jones' timing on the track was impeccable.

She won the 100 at 10.75 seconds, and her victory margin of 0.37 seconds was the second largest in Olympic history, man or woman. She won the 200 at 21.84, and her victory margin of 0.43 seconds was the second largest behind Wilma Rudolph's in 1960. Her 100 and 200 times were the fastest in the world this year.

Jones helped the 1,600 relay team to victory at 3:22.62 with a powerful third leg of 49.4, the same as Australia's Cathy Freeman, the 400 gold medalist. No one else came close to running that fast. Even more remarkable for Jones, she ran only one other individual 400 race during the year and had not run on a 1,600 relay since she was a sophomore at North Carolina. The 400 is a distance she dislikes.

``I don't like how I feel after it because I like to be in control of my body, and in that last stretch, you have no control of your body,'' she said.

Overall, the durable Jones competed 12 times in nine days at the games â€” four rounds of the 100, four rounds of the 200, a long jump qualifying round and the final, the anchor leg of the 400 relay final and the 1,600 relay final.

During the year, she also had the six fastest times and eight of the best nine in the 100; the two fastest in the world in the 200; the best long jump by an American and fourth-best in the world, 23 feet, one-half inch; the fastest individual 400 by an American and fifth-fastest in the world, 49.59; ran on the world's fastest 1,600-meter relay team; and anchored a U.S. team to a world record of 1:27.46 in the 800-meter relay.

Williams also starred at the Olympics. She won the women's singles title and teamed with sister Serena to win the doubles championship. Venus also had a 35-match winning streak during the year that included Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

To cap her year, she signed a five-year contract for a reported $40 million with Reebok, the richest endorsement deal for a female athlete.