The Summer Olympics: Marion Jones

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Friends wonder whether her relationship with C.J. Hunter, the man she married, fills that paternal void. At the University of North Carolina, Jones was a basketball star--as a freshman point guard, she led the team to the national championship in 1994--whose track career was interrupted by a broken foot. In 1996 Hunter, a former NCAA champion shot putter from Penn State and a Carolina coach, became a friend during her rehab. Already separated from his wife, he soon separated from the university because it barred coaches from dating athletes.

Jones sees the 320-lb. Hunter as a teddy bear; the press sees him more as a grizzly. When a journalist asked Jones last year if it was true that "your mother is not happy about your wedding," Hunter, a man of few words, drew the scribe aside for a lesson in etiquette: "You are a f___ing idiot!"

Hunter, a gold-medal prospect in the shot put, is clearly reticent as he hovers around the edges of the photo shoot. He has smiles only for his wife. Jones is easygoing with him as she smooths his shirt. She teases him and hardly seems in thrall to a Svengali. His career advice to her has been sage. He counseled Jones to quit basketball for track and brought in her coach, Trevor Graham.

Nonetheless, the cloddish European press labeled the pair "Beauty and the Beast" last summer during the world championships in Seville, where Jones won the 100 m and Hunter won the shot. The Aussies will be more polite. "I don't know if it will be fun, exactly," says Jones, having told the makeup artist she'll use her scrunchy because rubber bands ruin her hair. "It won't be an easy ordeal, but it should be exciting." She's about to find out. And, luckily, so are we.