"You run fast." A folksy way to round off the comeback story, it would have been a lot more edifying if the baby's mama and his father Tim Montgomery . . . currently serving a two-year ban from the sport . . .

hadn't spent the last couple of years at the centre of athletics' biggest drug scandal.

When she crossed the finish line at the end of the US Championships final at Carroll Stadium, Jones wore a singlet and shorts from which the Nike emblem had been carefully removed. Less than two years after her smiling face was splashed across six-page advertorials for the swoosh in every magazine from Sports Illustrated to Vanity Fair, she no longer counts Nike or Panasonic or American Express among what used to be an exclusive list of blue-chip sponsors. One more graphic indication of how far she's fallen.

"I think the word I'd use to describe it is, it's a satisfying feeling knowing I was able to endure a lot of stuff this past year and to kind of get things back together this year, " said Jones of her triumph. "I've had the highest ups and the lowest of the lows, and I feel now that I'm on my way back up. I'm definitely not all the way there yet, but it's a good start. I think my motivation is at a level I haven't seen since Sydney."

Sydney was where, in between garnering three gold medals, two bronze, and a Nike contract worth $3m per year, Jones took the stage with her then-husband CJ Hunter to vociferously defend the former world champion shot-putter against charges of steroid use. Not long after the Olympics, the couple separated and eventually divorced as she claimed he'd lied to her all along about his drug use.

When agents investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal interviewed Hunter a couple of years back, he testified to both personally injecting his ex-wife with steroids in Australia, and to witnessing her inject herself.

Around about the same time Hunter was exacting a kind of revenge, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, also claimed to have supplied Jones with steroids and Human Growth Hormone before the Sydney Olympics. Although her subsequent suit for defamation against Conte was settled out of court, new allegations on the matter surfaced earlier this year in Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams' expose Game of Shadows.The authors claim Jones' thencoach Trevor Graham invited Conte to help his athlete in the build-up to the 2000 Games. Already contracted to supply rival sprinter Chryste Gaines, Conte bizarrely got permission to assist Jones only after agreeing to pay Gaines a cut of his sales.

The fall-out from BALCO remained at its most toxic when Jones disappeared from public view around this time last year, citing a hip flexor injury that needed addressing. Those who suspected the ailment was a cover story to smooth her exit from the sport were surprised when she started a serious comeback in May.

Way off Broadway, Jones romped to victory in 11.06 seconds in Xalapa, Mexico.

Nowhere near her personal best of 10.65 set in 1998, it was however the second fastest time by a woman to that point in the year. A significant marker put down.

At her first race on American soil a couple of weeks later, she was loudly cheered when besting a quality field at the Reebok Grand Prix on Randall's Island in New York. Brazenly asserting her innocence at every turn and repeating the mantra she's never tested positive for anything, it seems there are plenty out there willing to accept her protestations.

Even if aficionados know negative tests prove nothing in the modern era, the crowds in New York and Indiana applauded and celebrated her victories in a manner that suggested she may yet persuade enough people to ignore the circumstantial evidence heaped against her.

For an athlete who even prior to BALCO had drawn flak for working with Charlie Francis, disgraced coach of Ben Johnson, the warm reception could also be down to the little matter of her impressive performances. Her present coach Steve Riddick is already predicting she can run in the 10.8s this season, the sort of pace that would certainly legitimise her ambition to compete at the Beijing Games in 2008. The only complication is Riddick may be heading to jail later this year. On Tuesday, he's in court to answer bank fraud and money laundering charges involving the sum of $5m.

Among his co-defendants in the case is Tim Montgomery, her now exboyfriend. The same day her son's father and her current coach are facing the judge in Virginia, Jones will be making her European season debut in Lausanne.

Those in charge of the biggest meets were reluctant to do business with her in the wake of BALCO but the Swiss have been quick to realise she remains a serious box office draw. Her presence at any event guarantees media interest before, during and after her race. Whether the fans there will be as willing as their American counterparts to ignore the elephant in the room remains to be seen.