Jan. 22, 2008
By The Sportsman's Daily
Special to CBSSports.com

WHITE PLAINS, NY (Sportsman's Daily Wire Service) -- Judge Kenneth M. Karas of the United States District Court sentenced Marion Jones to six months in prison for pleading guilty to two counts of perjury. After the sentence, Jones hugged her husband, the former sprinter Obadele Thompson, and promised to use all but five seconds of her allotted time behind bars to send a positive message.

Can Marion Jones outrun her six-month sentence? (Getty Images)

To a world class sprinter who's living off tenths of a second, five seconds is an eternity. The fact that no inmate in U.S. penal history has ever shortened a fixed sentence by minutes, let alone seconds, further underscores the level of difficulty.

"It would be a lot tougher on the outside, with all the distractions," said Jones. "But with six months of focused training, knocking off five seconds shouldn't be a problem. Now, I know what you're thinking: how will I deal with the lesbian rape issue. Hey, I've spent a lot of years taking showers in locker rooms with world class women athletes. If I can fend off the advances of a 300 pound shot-putter from Istanbul, I don't see having a problem."