Who Is Marion Jones' Husband, Obadele Thompson?
Obadele Thompson was in the courtroom in 2008 when Marion Jones learned that she'd spend six months in prison for lying about her steroid use. However, he deserves to be remembered for so much more than being the husband of a disgraced American Olympian.
Like Jones, Thompson is a former professional athlete who excelled in multiple track and field events. However, while his wife's athletic career will forever be tarnished by her experimentation with performance-enhancing drugs, this isn't the case for Thompson. During a 2000 House of Assembly meeting in his home country of Barbados, he was honored for his talent on the track and his virtuous reputation by being named a special envoy for youth issues. "Obadele Thompson has already been a wonderful ambassador for Barbados. In spite of obvious temptations he has remained 'squeaky clean,'" said Rudolph Greenidge, the Minister of Labour, Sports and Public Sector Reform at the time.
Thompson and his wife both have long tales to tell about their triumphs at the Olympics, but neither owns a gold medal — Jones was stripped of hers amid her doping scandal, and Thompson never managed to cross the finish line first at the Games. However, in an essay for Barbados' NationNews, he posited that he would have become an Olympic champ if he'd competed for a country with better resources. Perhaps he didn't live up to his full potential, but Obadele Thompson overcame a lot of adversity to make his country and his family proud.
Obadele Thompson tried many different sports growing up
Obadele "Oba" Thompson was born in Barbados. His father, Dr. Alvin Thompson, hails from Guyana and was a history professor at the University of the West Indies. His mother, Hilda Thompson, is Bermudan and worked as a nurse. In college, Alvin was the 1963 100-yard dash champ. "As long as I have been growing the legend of my father as a sprinter has been growing. Each year, a chapter is added to the story," Obadele quipped to World Athletics in 2000.
Despite his dad's proven success on the track, running wasn't the only sport Obadele fell in love with. In a 2022 appearance on "Let's Talk with Dr. Greg," he revealed that he played cricket, table tennis, and basketball during primary and secondary school. But while attending secondary school at Harrison College, the athlete discovered that he had inherited his dad's natural speed.
One of Obadele's first major victories on the track came when he won the 100m in the under-17 age division at the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games in April 1991. This is when his father realized that the talent Obadele possessed was truly something special. "I was mowing the lawn, and my daughter ran out to me and shouted, 'Daddy, daddy Oba won the 100m,' and I said, 'Don't tell me this,' because as you know it was All Fools Day," Alvin recalled to Kaieteur News. "But then she said, 'No, he won indeed,' and it was a revelation."
He broke one of Michael Johnson's college records
When it came time for Obadele Thompson to choose a college, he wanted to go to school somewhere that would help him rapidly develop his abilities. "My goal was to win the Olympic Games and retire from athletics in 1996," he revealed to host Dr. Gregory Haughton on "Let's Talk." Despite racking up a significant number of achievements on the track, including winning the 100m at the 1993 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Championships, Thompson wasn't recruited by any colleges. So, he began researching schools and reaching out to them himself.
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) became one of Thompson's top choices because champion sprinter Olapade Adeniken was an alumnus of the school. According to Thompson, UTEP track coach Bob Kitchens didn't even know where Barbados was when they first chatted on the phone, so Thompson helped him find the country on a globe. To convince Kitchens that he was worthy of a spot on the UTEP track team, all Thompson could do was talk to him and send him race results. This proved to be enough — he was awarded an athletic scholarship and left Barbados for the Lone Star State.
Under Kitchens' instruction, Thompson won four NCAA sprint titles and was an 11-time NCAA All-American. When he became the NCAA indoor 200m champ in 1996, he also broke the record previously set by Olympian Michael Johnson, lowering it from 20.59 seconds to 20.36.
Obadele Thompson's world record that still stands
As of this writing, Obadele Thompson still holds the indoor 55m sprint record. He set it in 1997 at the Western Athletic Conference Indoor Track Championships, becoming the first sprinter to record a time under six seconds. His feat was made even more impressive because he got off to a slow start behind his main competitor and had so little distance to make up ground. But Thompson didn't want to settle for his name being etched beside the number 5.99 in the record books. On "Let's Talk," he reflected on how determined he became to shave a significant amount of time off the record at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He eventually settled on 5.94 seconds as his goal, saying, "We're talking otherworldly stuff."
Unfortunately, Thompson's chance to win the NCAA 55m sprint title and break his own world record slipped away in the starting blocks. He explained that he suffered a false start due to a cramp in his hand, which resulted in his disqualification from the event. "I could not believe it. It was so surreal," he said. But in retrospect, Thompson believes his DQ was probably for the best. "I probably would have run and shredded my body, because I was going to try to do something that was on a whole different level," he shared.
The former Olympian's world record that didn't count
In 1996, Obadele Thompson ran what was, at the time, the fastest 100m ever recorded. He had a strong West Texas wind at his back when the clock stopped at 9.69 seconds on his alma mater's track during the UTEP Invitational. It was so strong, in fact, that the time couldn't officially be considered a world record. The legal tailwind limit for records is two meters per second (mps), and it was gauged at 5.7 mps during Thompson's race. Still, his head-turning time was recorded during the leadup to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and should have cemented his place as a top contender in the Games. Unfortunately, he didn't go down to Georgia in top form.
The Olympics were just two months away when Thompson suffered a strained hamstring during the 200m semifinal at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. "It was extremely tough, brutally tough," he said on "Let's Talk." Thompson expressed regret over running in the 200m semifinal, saying he should have skipped it after previously experiencing groin discomfort during the 100m semifinal. But he didn't give up; in his Olympic debut, he finished fourth. While Thompson doesn't think he could have challenged Michael Johnson for the gold medal, he believes he possibly would have finished on the podium if that injury hadn't hindered his training.
As for Thompson's unofficial world record, Usain Bolt officially blew it away with his 9.58-second turn in 2009.
Marion Jones' husband expressed his faith through music
Obadele Thompson's faith is important to him. "I think once I remain focused in my spiritual life, other things flow," he told Caribbean Beat in 1998. The athlete also revealed that his decision to become a more dedicated Christian is why he set fire to his rap records as a teenager. However, music remained an important part of his life. Years after giving up secular hip-hop, Thompson tried his hand at producing music and completed a Christian rap record called "The Vibe" in 1996. While he might prefer songs that celebrate his faith, apparently all secular musicians aren't bad in his book; in a piece that he penned for NationNews years later, Thompson listed presenting a 2006 Barbados Music Award to his fellow Barbadian, Rihanna, as one of his many career highlights.
The career of a professional runner is usually brief, so it was important for Thompson to consider various other professions to pursue before the time came when he had to hang up his cleats for good. In addition to producing Christian music and studying for a career in economics and marketing at UTEP, he told World Athletics in 2000 that he had considered taking theology courses and becoming a missionary. "Not the kind that travels the world, because I've done enough of that," he said, "but a missionary who can transmit the right values in the society where he lives."
He had asthma and was plagued by foot problems
According to World Athletics, Obadele Thompson was born with a foot deformity that made it harder for him to learn how to walk as a child. While he didn't end up needing surgery to correct the issue, he suffered from problems with his feet later in life.
In 1999, the track and field star began training with University of Texas at Austin track coach Dan Pfaff, who made it his mission to prolong Thompson's running career. "Coach Pfaff realized that I was likely to suffer permanent injury to my legs unless I undertook major changes to my running style due to the physical configuration of my feet," Thompson wrote in a NationNews article. Pfaff's plan of action involved doing physiotherapy and consulting with specialists. Thompson also started running in custom-made shoes with orthotics. Unfortunately, he still suffered numerous injuries during his running career. Among those he mentioned on "Let's Talk" were an impinged nerve in one of his feet, a displaced pubic bone, and back issues. "I ran at every single Olympic Games injured," he said.
Thompson has also had asthma since childhood, but he still had to get a special exemption from the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) to use inhalers while competing. Per another NationNews piece, he had to undergo a test that simulated an asthma attack to get the exemption. Thompson had such an adverse reaction to it that he vowed to quit running if told to take it again.
The sprinter became Barbados' first individual Olympic medalist
It was during his second Olympics that Obadele Thompson snagged his one and only medal bearing those five iconic rings. He also became the first athlete from Barbados to win an individual Olympic medal when he finished third in the 100m dash at the 2000 Games in Sydney. As of this writing, he's still his country's only individual Olympic medalist.
In a 2021 interview with SportsMax, Thompson noted that he had just missed making the podium at several major track events before he was finally able to earn some hardware for his hard work. "Crossing third was a huge relief," the sports star recalled. "I had placed fourth at so many other championships. I came fourth at the World Youth Championships, fourth in 1996, in the 200, when Michael Johnson set his amazing world record. I came fourth the year before, in 1999, in the 100m and 200m."
Thompson also finished fourth in the 200m dash during the Sydney Games. But in one of his NationNews essays, he suggested that he should have taken home another bronze medal. He and the official third-place finisher, Ato Boldon, were both recorded as running 20.20 seconds, so Thompson believes their finish should have been considered a tie. The former Olympian accused Barbadian athletic officials of failing him by neglecting to protest the results. "Reason given — it would have cost US $100 to do it," Thompson wrote in another NationNews article.
Obadele Thompson married Marion Jones and became a father
Obadele Thompson and Marion Jones both competed at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but Jones was married to shot putter C.J. Hunter at the time. Sydney is where Jones took home her ill-fated five medals, and Hunter would later tell investigators that she had used performance-enhancing drugs before she won them, per The New York Times.
According to Totally Barbados, Thompson and Jones were training in Texas when they first met. By the time they started dating, Jones had a son named Monty from her relationship with sprinter Tim Montgomery. When Thompson and Jones tied the knot in February 2007, they had a dark cloud hanging over them: the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was investigating Jones. Perhaps this is why the couple decided to have a low-key wedding in North Carolina rather than a splashy affair. "It was very homely, very quiet and simple," Reverend Vibert Tyrrel told Reuters. "Nothing elaborate, just a quiet, very small wedding."
Thompson and Jones welcomed their son, Ahmir, five months after they walked down the aisle together, and their daughter, Eva-Marie, was born in 2009. The couple decided to raise their kids in Austin, Texas. In a 2012 interview with ESPN, Jones revealed that Thompson was mostly responsible for caring for them while she played for the WNBA team the Tulsa Shock. "My husband has been incredible through all of this. He's been there the past five years," she said. "He allowed me to fulfill my dreams."
Marion Jones' husband praised her for how she handled prison
When Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury, she and Obadele Thompson had two young sons. Jones appeared on "Oprah" before her 2008 sentence began and recalled how painful it was to see Thompson crying over her fate. She also said that she and Thompson had discussed how they were going to explain to their oldest son that mommy wasn't going to be around for a while. "It's going to be challenging," the disgraced Olympian said. The couple ultimately decided to send the kids to Barbados to stay with Thompson's mother and father. "I did not want them to be a part of the weekly process of coming to see Mom and not understanding why she's there," Jones later explained to USA Today.
Thompson could have been outraged and distressed over his wife's sentencing, just as Jones could have been. But instead, they accepted it and even managed to find a silver lining to the situation. "What transpired during the period when she was incarcerated was both a crucible but also a wonderful opportunity," Thompson told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "She's not one of these people who's bitter. ... She's just turned it into something positive. She's used it to take the next steps in life, to rebuild."
Jones also wrote numerous letters to Thompson during her incarceration, and they became the basis for her 2010 book "On the Right Track."
Obadele Thompson stayed busy after his track career ended
Obadele Thompson finished seventh in the 100m when he made his third Olympic appearance at the 2004 Games in Athens. Four years later, he was desperately trying to make it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics despite a hamstring injury. The track and field star headed to Ohio for one final opportunity to run the time he needed to qualify, but he missed it by a wide margin after suffering through his final race. "My professional career, once filled with great achievements, would end at a track meet in the middle of nowhere," he wrote in a NationNews essay.
Thompson later obtained his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2015, and he began practicing international arbitration and litigation at a Houston law firm. However, his involvement with track and field was far from over. In September 2023, Thompson became an elected member of the Barbados Olympic Association Board of Directors. The sports star also wrote a 2010 book aimed at young athletes titled "Secrets of a Champion Student-Athlete: A Reality Check," and he became a mentor for other athletes.
While speaking about his mentorship philosophy on "Let's Talk," Thompson said, "There's life and there's death, and in between that, you hopefully reach your arc. And as you're descending, you help pull someone else up to their arc, and hopefully, that's higher than you."