_ Aug. 18, 2006: Sprinter Marion Jones' ``A'' sample tested positive for the banned endurance-boosting hormone EPO at the June U.S. track and field championships in Indianapolis, people familiar with the result tell the AP. The result of the ``B'' sample is pending.

_ June 24, 2006: Jones withdraws from the 200 metres at the U.S. championships just before the preliminaries. She warms up, but decides her legs are too tired after running three rounds of the 100.

_ June 23, 2006: In a triumphant return to her sport, Jones wins the 100 metres at the national championships. It was her 14th U.S. championship but first sprint title since 2002.

_ Feb. 8, 2006: The International Olympic Committee says it will continue to investigate whether Jones was doping when she won five medals, including three gold, at the 2000 Sydney Games.

_ Feb. 5, 2006: Jones settles a $25 million US federal defamation
lawsuit against BALCO founder Victor Conte, who served a four-month
prison term for his role in the steroid scandal. Jones filed the
lawsuit in December of 2004, alleging Conte tarnished her reputation
when he said on ABC's ``20/20'' that he supplied
performance-enhancing drugs to Jones, Montgomery and Kelli White. He
also said he designed a doping regimen for her and watched her
inject herself with steroids.

_ Dec. 15, 2005: Disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery retires, two days after he was given a two-year ban for doping based on evidence gathered in the BALCO investigation. He says he and Jones have split, although they remain in regular contact. They have a 2-year-old son, Monty.

_ Dec. 7, 2004: The IOC opens an investigation into doping allegations against the track and field star after Conte alleged he supplied Jones with an array of banned drugs before and after the Sydney Olympics.

_ August 27, 2004: Jones goes home empty-handed from the Athens Olympics. She finishes fifth in the long jump, and her 4x100 relay team fails to finish after a bad handoff.

_ May 24, 2004: Jones and her lawyers meet with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Jones' lawyers say none of the evidence of possible steroid use, obtained from the federal grand jury BALCO investigation, is compelling enough to ban the star sprinter from the Athens Olympics.

_ May 16, 2004: Jones insists she is drug-free and says she will sue if USADA bars her from competing in the Athens Olympics without a positive drug test.

_ Fall 2003: Jones is among several athletes to testify before a federal grand jury in San Francisco investigating BALCO.

_ Sept. 26, 2000: The IOC and IAAF announce shot putter C.J. Hunter, then Marion Jones' husband, has tested positive four times in 2000 for the steroid nandrolone. A sobbing Hunter _ accompanied briefly by Jones _ tries to explain away his positive steroid tests at a packed news conference in Sydney. Sitting next to him is Victor Conte, identified as Hunter's nutritionist, who went into elaborate explanations of why the tests were inaccurate. Hunter, who did not compete in Sydney Games, retired and was suspended for two years in 2001.