In the letter, read to a reporter from The Post, Jones said that she took “the clear” for two years, beginning in 1999, and that she got it from former coach Trevor Graham, the newspaper reported. Graham told her it was flaxseed oil.
“I want to apologize for all of this,” the newspaper reported Jones as writing, quoting a person who received a copy of the letter. “I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways.”
“The clear” is a performance-enhancing drug linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of a federal steroids investigation. Until now, Jones has denied she ever took performance-enhancing drugs.
In the letter Jones also said she planned to plead guilty in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter.
Jones was one of several athletes to testify in 2003 to a San Francisco federal grand jury. She had been implicated by Victor Conte, head of the Bay Area lab, who had repeatedly accused Jones of doping. Last year one of her urine samples tested positive for EPO, but she later was cleared when a backup sample did not test positive.
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