WHITE PLAINS (New York), Oct 6: US track superstar Marion Jones pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators and admitted to using steroids, which could cost her the five medals she won in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In a sober court hearing and a teary appearance before reporters, she reversed years of denials and admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.

“It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust,” Jones told reporters outside court, addressing her fans and family. “I want you to know that I have been dishonest and you have the right to be angry with me,” she said, breaking down in tears. “I have let my country down and I have let myself down.”

Jones, 31, told the court she swallowed tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, also known as “the clear,” which she said had been given to her by her former coach Trevor Graham.

“I consumed the substance several times before the Sydney Games,” Jones told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, just north of New York City. “He (Graham) told me to put it under my tongue and to swallow it.”

She pleaded guilty to two felonies -- lying to federal investigators about her steroid use and lying to them about a separate check fraud case.

Jones faces up to six months in jail under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. She was released on bail, surrendered her passport, and will be sentenced on Jan. 11.

She later told reporters she was retiring from track and field, ending a spectacular career in which she became the first woman to win five medals at a single Olympics.

She captured the gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x400m relay, and won the bronze in the long jump and 4x100m relay at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Jones became the first athlete convicted in connection with the probe into the San Francisco-area laboratory BALCO, the center of a doping scandal that has tarnished the reputations of leading athletes in baseball, American football and athletics.

In 2004, she came under investigation by the International Olympic Committee for suspicion of using performance-enhancing drugs, but told reporters she had “never, never” used them and that “I have accomplished what I have accomplished because of my God-given abilities and hard work.”—Reuters