Jones in Games drugs threat
Referring to USADA's adoption of accepting non-analytical positives as sufficient proof of an athlete's guilt, American track star Jones said: "I can tell you this, if I make the Olympic team, which I plan to do in Sacramento at the trials, and I am held from competing at the Olympic Games because of something that somebody thought, you can pretty much bet that there will be lawsuits.
"I'm not going to sit down and let someone or a group of people or an organisation take away my livelihood because of a hunch, because of a thought, because of somebody who's trying to show a bit of power.
"I've known about this for a while and I think for someone to be found guilty or condemned without any form of investigation, because a company or group of people say 'we think, for whatever reason ' is unfair."
Jones did say she would consider the use of an admission of drug use in grand jury testimony to be sufficient to ban someone from competition, adding: "Yes, but as I've stated I'm not concerned with that at all."
Jones, speaking in New York at the US Olympic team's media summit, refused to speak directly about the federal grand jury's BALCO investigation which had requested and was given testimony from the sprint star and her partner, men's 100m world record- holder Tim Montgomery.
She said she was following the advice of her lawyer and "PR team" in remaining silent on the matter until after the conclusion of the BALCO investigation.
"I'm limited as to what I can say in terms of the BALCO investigation.
"I was asked to appear before the grand jury as I did and I spoke truthfully to the grand jury and there are certain things that I cannot talk about.
"On my relationship with BALCO, I can't comment on that, at this point at least."
When pressed on why she could not comment she said: "I've been told that I should not comment about the investigation or anything in regards to the investigation until it's over."
Asked if she believed something would be found in her case, Jones said she thought not: "At this point, no."
Nor had she been contacted by USADA, she said, although she gave them her support in their mission to rid sport of doping cheats.
"I think that USADA is trying to do the right thing and that overall they're looking out for the rights of the athletes in making sure we can compete in a drug-free sport."
She also supported USADA's new protocol of prosecuting athletes for drugs that were not on the banned list when at the time they were consumed.
"There have been athletes, as we all know, that have been ahead of the game in terms of knowing how to get around the system and what is actually on the banned list.
"So I think that is a fair judgment for them to ban athletes even though they are not technically on the banned list."
Asked if there was a better way to erase the problems hanging over sport, Jones replied: "If I had an answer to that I think we would all be extremely happy. I've been a proponent of blood testing in the past; I know a lot of athletes are uncomfortable with it, not because they are dirty athletes but because it really, really invades your privacy.
"But if we're searching for ways to find a whole-proof method to determine whether an athlete is clean or whether an athlete is taking steroids then that is a closer step. Will it totally negate everything? I don't know.
"What else do you do, take a lie detector test in the doping room? You get to a point where you ask what is too much? And how do you ensure when you go to other countries that the protocols will be followed in exactly the same way?
"I've been tested in pretty much every country that's run track and it's different in every country."
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