(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-05 11:02

WASHINGTON -- Sprint superstar Marion Jones, who has dodged doping allegations for years, has admitted using steroids before the 2000 Olympics, a US newspaper reported on Thursday.

American athlete Marion Jones holds up her five Olympic medals for track and field events in central Sydney, Australia, in this Oct. 1, 2000 photo. [Agencies]

The Washington Post, in a story posted on its website, said Jones had written to family and friends to tell them she would plead guilty on Friday to lying to federal agents about her drug use.

The New York Daily News, citing law enforcement sources, said Jones would appear in federal court in White Plains, New York, on Friday and plead guilty to two counts of lying to a federal agent.

The Post, citing a letter Jones had sent to "close family and friends," said the 31-year-old athlete admitted using a steroid in the build-up to the Sydney Games, where her five medals included three golds.

The Post reported that in the letter, Jones said she took the steroid produced by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999.

Jones, once hailed as the greatest woman athlete in the world, was one of many high-profile athletes who testified before the federal grand jury investigating BALCO, a probe that has resulted in five convictions for illegal steroid distribution.

Federal authorities fingered BALCO, supposedly a nutritional supplement laboratory, as the source of the designer steroid THG, which was known by the lab as "the clear."

Jones' former partner Tim Montgomery, with whom she has a son, was banished and his world 100m record run erased based on evidence collected in the BALCO probe.

Jones herself had steadfastly denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs, even while the BALCO-spawned suspicions swirled around her.

She struggled through doping accusations at the 2004 Olympic trials and flopped in Athens.

According to the Post, Jones says in her letter that her former coach Trevor Graham gave her the banned drug, telling her it was flaxseed oil.

"Red flags should have been raised when he told me not to tell anyone" Jones wrote.

Jones said that when federal investigators asked her if she had used "the clear" and shown her a sample of it, she panicked and said she hadn't, even though she recognized the product.

The maximum penalty for lying to a federal agent is five years in jail and a 250,000-dollar fine. The Post said Jones told friends she expected a sentence of up to six months, and the Daily News said Jones is not expected to serve more than a few months and could escape jail altogether.

The Post said Jones would also plead guilty to lying in an unrelated case involving a 25,000-dollar check given to her by Montgomery - who pleaded guilty in New York this year in a bank fraud and money laundering case.