Marion Jones

Marion Jones, the shamed former golden girl of athletics, has said she wants to make a comeback as a professional basketball player. The American, who was sentenced to six months in jail last year for lying to federal agents over her drug use and participation in a cheque fraud, said she hopes to play in Europe in the next few months. Her goal then is to get a contract in the Women's National Basketball Association in the United States.

It would be a return that recalls the pains of Britain's Dwain Chambers to undergo a post-drug renaissance in another sport. Chambers, who served a two year ban for doping, tried his hand at American football and rugby league before committing to a sprinting response. She returned in some style, winning the European indoor title in March, and finishing sixth at the World Championships in August.

Jones does have a basketball history and helped the University of North Carolina to the national championship in 1995. She is now 34, though, had her third child this summer and has had a torrid couple of years since making a tearful, but partial, confession on the steps of the court house in White Plains, New York in January, 2008.