On the day she admitted publicly to using performance-enhancing drugs, the former Olympic track champion Marion Jones wept yesterday as she stood on the steps of the United States District Courthouse here and apologised for her mistakes.

Inside the courtroom, she did not waver when confessing in a strong voice to Judge Kenneth M Karras that she had made false statements in two separate government investigations: the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case and a checque-fraud case based out of the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Jones repeatedly answered the judge’s questions by saying, “Yes, I understand,” as he explained the ramifications of her guilty plea. The prosecutors have recommended a sentence of no more than six months, according to the agreement. The maximum sentence is five years. She will be sentenced in January. The International Olympic Committee has indicated it will not wait until then to strip her of the five medals she won— including three gold—at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Jones, 31, was released after yielding her United States passport and promising to yield her passport from Belize, her mother’s native country. But in her emotional speech outside the courthouse, she made it clear that she believed she had lost far more.

She also announced she was retiring from track and field. Jones recently married the sprinter Obadele Thompson from Barbados and now goes by the name Jones-Thompson. She has two children, one with Thompson and the other from a relationship with the former sprinter Tim Montgomerie.

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