No media interaction, Hunter ‘protects’ Jones

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Sydney: C J Hunter, the unsmiling giant at the side of Marion Jones, is a man famously intolerant of the trappings surrounding his celebrated wife.

Hunter, the world shotput champion, is reported to have tested positive for massive amounts of the anabolic steroid nandrolone in Oslo on July 28.

''What we would like is to come to the track, compete and go home,'' he once told a reporter. ''There would be no press conference and no interviews.''

The relationship between the sunny Jones, who won the first of a projected five gold medals in the Olympic 100 metres final on Saturday and the brooding Hunter has long intrigued US track and field reporters.

''He's very protective of Marion,'' said one journalist. ''He seems to be a very private, very intelligent individual. He's gruff, blunt and he hates all the publicity surrounding Marion.''

Hunter was born in Washington D C on December 14, 1968 and grew up in Hyde park, New York. Initially a baseball fan, he turned to track and field and quickly found his success in the shot, discus and javelin.

Hunter won a scholarship to Penn State where he earned a national collegiate title and a world ranking. He placed seventh in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and improved sufficiently to take the title in Seville last year.

Jones met Hunter while undergoing rehabilitation on a broken foot at the University of North Carolina four years ago. Hunter was the assistant track coach in charge of shotputters, discus and javelin throwers in the weight room.

Hunter was separated from his first wife and two children and the pair soon became close. Jones was a student, Hunter a coach. University rules madeit clear no personal relationships could be allowed.

Hunter was given an ultimatum stop seeing Jones or give up coaching. Within minutes Hunter was out of the job. Jones was concerned about Hunter's prospects but was still not thinking in terms of marriage.

''I stepped back a little bit and thought about how it would affect me,'' she said. ''But I wasn't thinking about marrying him. I thought, this is just a guy I'm dating and we're having fun together.''

As Jones' career developed, the pair became closer, sparking speculation among the amateur psychiatrists who abound in the journalism trade that Hunter was filling the gap left by the father, who had deserted Jones and her mother when she was an infant.

Jones and Hunter were married on October 3, 1998, and the relationship between the pair, crassly dubbed ''beauty and the beast'' by some European reporters, has remained strong.

''You guys just don't understand,'' one US coach said in exasperation. ''They're in love.'' Hunter, who withdrew from the Sydney Olympics citing a knee injury, has supported Jones emotionally as she set off in search of her five golds.

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee medical chief Prince Alexandre de Merode confirmed that an athlete had tested positive for the steroid nandrolone at the Bislett Games in Oslo on July 28.

IOC vice-president Dick Pound said he understood from ''a reliable source'' that it was C J Hunter. IOC director general Francois Carrard said the matter was not an IOC issue.

''The test was done elsewhere. There is no C J Hunter case in Sydney,'' he said. Hunter's agent Charles Wells told Reuters, ''I don't know anything about it. It's a bunch of bullshit.''

Now, in his darkest hour, Hunter may need all the help his wife can give.



(c) Reuters Limited.