Disgraced Olympic sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison today for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use.

US District Court judge Kenneth Karas imposed the sentence after Jones pleaded guilty to two charges last October, part of a stunning demise of the five-time medalist from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Karas gave Jones six months for lying about steroid use and two months — to run concurrently — for a separate charge of misleading federal investigators about her knowledge of a checque fraud case involving her ex-boyfriend, former 100 metres world record holder Tim Montgomery.

Jones, 32, became the biggest name in international sport to admit to using steroids with her guilty plea in October. She tearfully admitted to betraying the trust of her fans and country after years of vehemently denying she used performance enhancing drugs.

She confessed to lying to federal investigators in 2003 when she denied knowing that she took the banned substance tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), known as “the clear,” before the 2000 Olympics.

Jones has been stripped of the five track and field medals she won in Sydney and all of her performances as of September 2000 have been erased from the record books.

Jones, who once pulled in millions of dollars in product endorsements, is now in financial ruin.

Poised, articulate and gloriously talented, Marion Jones was an immediate sensation on her first tour of Europe in 1997. While Carl Lewis was making his farewell circuit of the continent’s great athletics stadia, Jones captivated opponents, spectators and journalists alike.

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