Marion Jones Reports to Federal Prison

Originally posted Friday March 07, 2008 04:15 PM EST

Former Olympic gold-medal winner Marion Jones began serving her six-month federal prison sentence at a facility in Texas on Friday, a prison official confirmed to PEOPLE.

Jones, 32, arrived just before noon at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth, according to Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

In January, a federal judge in White Plains, N.Y., sentenced Jones to six months in prison and two years' probation (during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service) for lying to federal investigators about her steroid use and a check-fraud scheme. Jones had until March 11 to begin her sentence.

"I think that I absolutely should have to accept responsibility for breaking the law," Jones said on The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode that aired in January. "I have no regrets for doing what I did on October the 5th and pleading guilty and admitting to the world that I lied, that I've made mistakes."

Since admitting her guilt, the three-time Olympic gold medalist has returned all five medals she won during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Jones, who used steroids distributed by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative – the same lab that supplied steroids to athletes who included New York Yankees star Jason Giambi – is the first professional sports figure to receive prison time.