Of course, being from California.

I went to the 1984 Olympic Games Parade and I watched that whole Olympics on television and really fell in love with it.

I was a huge Evelyn Ashford fan.

COACH: Were there any special coaches who encouraged you or worked with you at sports?

JONES: When I got to junior high there was a gentleman named Coach Jarvis who pretty much coached everything. He was the first person to teach me basketball and I really started to enjoy the game.

At my first high school, Rio Mesa in Oxnard, I learned a lot from Coach Al Walker. I also joined a club basketball team that traveled to China to play. The coach was Mel Simms and he also taught me a lot about the game.

Those three coaches were instrumental in teaching me to love the game.

COACH: After winning the Gatorade National Track Athlete of the Year award at Rio Mesa, you transferred to Thousand Oaks H.S. How did you react to the transition to a more suburban community? We know you won two more Gatorade Awards for National Female Track Athlete of the Year. Your three awards remain a high school record.

JONES: It was a bit difficult. I left behind a lot of friends at Rio Mesa. Certain circumstances made me decide to go to Thousand Oaks, but it was difficult.

When you're 13, 14 years old and you have to pack up and go to a different high school it can be difficult. But it was a good transition for me. I really learned a lot about basketball from Coach Brown. Thousand Oaks played in a lot more competitive league, and I really got my feet wet.

COACH: At the end of your junior year, you rejected a spot as an alternate on the 1992 U.S. Olympic 4x100 relay team. What was that all about?

JONES: I qualified for the 1992 Olympic Trials in New Orleans.

I finished fifth in the 100, which made me an alternate on the relay team. After I made the team, I realized that it would be difficult for the coaches to put a 15-year-old out on the Olympic stage.

Although I would have won a gold medal, I opted not to go because I wanted my first gold medal to be something that I really competed for.

COACH: At those same Olympic Trials, you also set the American Junior record in the 200 meters with a fourth-place finish in 22.58 seconds. Did you feel any pressure entering college as the best high school track athlete in recent memory? How did you decide on North Carolina?

JONES: Between my junior and senior years of high school there were just so many recruiting letters and people wanting me to go here or there. I was very excited when I made the decision to go cross-country to North Carolina.

A lot of people wondered about that move, but it made sense to me. First, I was given a basketball scholarship, and, secondly, I'd be able to play at one of the best schools in the country and also run track. I didn't really consider the pressure, I was just excited about the whole situation.

When I took my visit I really fell in love with the campus, with the community, with the people, and with the team. I really felt that I belonged at UNC, although it was a long way from home.

I received a bit of criticism, particularly from my track fans, because California is the track hotbed of the U.S. To leave all of those schools, UCLA, USC, Stanford, to go cross-country to a school like North Carolina that didn't really have a strong track program raised a few questions.

COACH: Your track career at UNC had its ups and downs. In your freshman year, you placed second at the NCAA's in the long jump (22-1.75), but placed only sixth in the 200 and failed to make the 100-meter final.

You also ran slower than your high school times. In your sophomore year, you managed just a fourth place finish in the long jump (21-0.5) and your best time all year in a 200 was a wind-aided 23.95.

What accounted for your strange slump?

JONES: It's what happens when you play an entire basketball season and have just a week of practice before you're thrown into the ACC Track Championships. Obviously, there was no way I could win. It was lack of track and field training.

Everybody needed to understand that my priorities were with basketball. I was on a basketball scholarship at North Carolina and so track had to wait until I recovered from basketball and was ready to go out there.

COACH: Though you were a center in high school, UNC Coach Sylvia Hatchell turned you into a point guard and you helped lead the team to the national championship in your freshman year. Is it fair to say that you preferred basketball over track in college?

JONES: I didn't necessarily prefer it. It's just the way things turned out. But basketball was wonderful. Gosh, my entire college career revolved around basketball. My roommate was a basketball player. All of my time -- relaxing, hanging out -- was with basketball players.

COACH: In 1997 you reemerged in track by winning the 100 meters in 10.83 seconds at the World Championships in Athens! Were you surprised that you became a world champion in your first full year back on the track?

JONES: No, not at all. After the basketball season that year, I made a decision to go ahead and graduate and get back into track.

Once, I totally re-dedicated myself to track, I began spending my time preparing for the National Championships in Indianapolis and trying to make the World Championship team.

I really took it one step at a time. I had realistic goals until I got to Indianapolis and, gosh, just blew everybody away and really made my mark. [Jones won the 1997 U.S 100-meter championship with a 10.97.]

COACH: Was it hard for you to find a coach coming out of UNC? Did a lot of people think you were already washed up?

JONES: No, most of the track people knew from my past experience in high school that I was a young lady with a lot of potential.

COACH: You chose Trevor Graham, a former Olympic 400meter runner from Jamaica, and he remains your coach today. What did he teach you?

JONES: I found out early on that Trevor was one of the most knowledgeable coaches I had ever met. He really wasn't into all of the nonsense that a lot of the coaches of the elite runners have to go through. He's really just a down-to-earth guy. I got along with him and we could talk and that's what it really comes down to.

COACH: Can you tell us about some of your workouts leading up to the Olympics?

JONES: Since 1997, I have been training three to four hours a day, six days a week. Sundays are my days off.

That didn't change even leading up to the Olympics. Why change anything that had worked for you - six days a week, three or four hours on the track and a couple hours in the weight room.

COACH: You went to the Sydney Olympics shooting for an unprecedented five gold medals. You won the 100, 200, and the 4X400-meter relay and got bronze in the long jump and the 4X100-meter relay. Looking back on the games, what is your overriding feeling?

JONES: I've had several months now to look back and try to find the word that would really encompass all of my feelings. Maybe the word is amazing, a dream come true.

A lot of people say that when they were kids they dreamed of doing this, that, and the other thing. I am one of the people who can say I had this dream and it came true and it's still with me and hopefully will extend into 2004 and 2008.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I'll never forget.

COACH: What are your goals in track from here on out? Are you determined to break Florence Griffith-Joyner's 100 and 200-meter records? How about five gold medals in 2004?

JONES: The world records are always in the back of my mind. I run pretty fast and I've won gold medals, but until I eclipse those records of 10.49 and 21.34, I won't be able to say I was the fastest ever.

That keeps me going out there every day and I still think they can be broken.

COACH: How about a career in professional basketball? Does that have any appeal to you?

JONES: Perhaps that's down the road. I still have quite a few things I want to accomplish in track and field: I want to try to break world records. I want to win more gold medals and just be consistent over the years. That will just take time.

But once I retire and if I'm not too old or beat up, I'd love to play a couple of years in the WNBA if they're willing to draft me.

COACH: What do you think can be done about increasing the popularity of track in the U.S.?

JONES: We need sponsors. We need people in the head office of USA Track & Field to make the commitment to getting our sport on television, to finding big companies that will make a commitment to the sport for a number of years.

That's really all we need. If people have access and are able to watch us on television, and not just come out when we come to their town, they could really begin to get into our sport.

I've been around the sport for a number of years and we have diehard track fans that really love the sport. And that feeling can be totally contagious. You bring your friend, you bring your daughter, whatever, and they will get hooked. It has so many different kinds of events that can grab you.

Track is a wonderful sport. It's a matter of getting the right people to do the right things in terms of promoting it.

COACH: Have you thought about focusing on the 400 meters? Sydney gold medallist Cathy Freeman recently asked you to move up to her distance to give her some competition. Your personal best of 49.59 in an event which you rarely run already puts you in striking distance of the women's world record.

JONES: Obviously, I've had people over the past couple of years throw that out at me, but everybody wants me to come to their event and nobody wants to come down to my event.

I run the one 400 every year to challenge myself and see how fast I can run it and see if I can be of help to the U.S. 4 X 400-meter relay team. But other than that, I have no desire to run it. It's a very painful event to run and my hands are quite full right now.

COACH: That's a good thing because this reporter ran a 48.54-second 400 meters in college and is thankful for being able to say, "Well, if nothing else, I could always beat Marion Jones in a quarter-mile."

JONES: Ha, ha! We'll see how long that lasts. Once I break 48.5 I'll give you a call.

COACH: Looking ahead, do you have any specific plans for the future? Anything special you would like to do?

JONES: I just want to continue to raise the level of women's sprinting around the world and I think I've done that over the last couple of years.

I've run consistent 10.9s, 10.8s, and the occasional 10.7. Over the past couple of years, the women have been starting to get faster and faster and they're beginning to challenge me a lot more. That's what I'm excited about.

This year, I'm looking forward to the World Championships in Edmonton and, of course, the Goodwill Games.

Besides that, I have so many things going on in my life right now.

I spent the winter coaching girls' basketball. We didn't do as well as we did last year, we were smaller this season. But they learned a lot and had a blast and that's what it's really about.

I'm starting the Marion Jones Foundation and it's going to help underprivileged kids compete in whatever sport they dream of and I'm really excited about that.

Otherwise, I'm just training and having a good time.

COACH: Do you have time for hobbies -- like reading, music, the movies, travel? What is your favorite TV show? Who is your favorite band or singer?

JONES: All of the above. Of course I travel a lot and I really enjoy movies. Gosh, I'm a normal 25-year-old. I like shopping, I like hanging out with my friends and my family when I'm around.

I try to get a lot of that in, but when I start traveling in April and May, I'm not home that much until October.

COACH: Has it become harder to do stuff like going out to the movies?

JONES: It has. I live in a small community in Apex, NC, outside of Raleigh, and people know I live there.

What I've seen in the last couple of months is that people see it as a treat when I come in and they try to respect my privacy. They do things like trying to usher me in quicker so I don't have to stay as long, and that's been a real treat.

The people here have just been really awesome. They're proud that I live in their neighborhood and they're happy that I give back to the community.

COACH: Here is the hardest question of all: What do you think when you wake up in the morning as the world's most famous women's track athlete -- young, beautiful, charming, idolized by many: What goes through your mind?

JONES: It doesn't happen like that at all. Usually, when I wake up, I'm like, "Gosh, another day out there on the 30-degree track."

I'm proud of my accomplishments, they're great and I really love all the memories that I have. I know when the gold medals stop coming, nothing will take away the memories. I'll always be able to look back and smile and be proud of what I've accomplished.

But I am always aware that somebody is out there trying to beat me. Somebody is out there training when I'm at home, and so I make sure to get my butt up and I go out there and train.

I leave the track every day knowing that I trained better than anyone else in the world on that particular day.