Before the Games that made her daughter golden, Marion Jones’ mother told a story about a young girl who always knew that some day she was going to be someone special.

Her daughter was 5 at the time, watching the marriage of Diana and Charles on TV, and captivated by the red carpet rolled out in front of the royal couple.

“Well, when I go places,” Marion asked her mother that night, “why don’t they roll it out for me?”

They eventually did, and the world was almost as taken as much with this athletic wonder as they were with the royal couple. Jones was everything wrapped into one speeding blur, a charming, confident and self-assured woman who was perhaps the greatest female athlete ever.

The smile dazzled, and so did the athlete. Jones did things no woman had ever done before, and she did them with the ease of someone who stood at the starting line knowing that the women lining up alongside her had no chance of winning.

We wanted to believe she did it naturally, just like we wanted to believe in fairytale marriages. And Jones kept giving us reasons to believe, denying any suggestion otherwise with the kind of righteous indignation usually reserved for those who are innocent or so arrogant they believe they can never be caught.

“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN UNEQUIVOCAL IN MY OPINION: I AM AGAINST PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING DRUGS,” she wrote in oversized red letters in her 2004 autobiography. “I HAVE NEVER TAKEN THEM AND I NEVER WILL TAKE THEM.”

Jones, it turns out, lied almost as easily as she ran. She lied to federal investigators, lied to Olympic officials and lied to inquiring reporters. She lied in declaring her innocence by suing BALCO founder Victor Conte for $25 million after he said he saw her inject herself with steroids.

She was innocent, innocent, innocent.

And now she’s guilty, guilty, guilty.

Jones said so herself Friday, admitting for the first time that she was juiced when she won five medals in Sydney in 2000.

There was no red carpet rolled out when Jones appeared at a federal courthouse Friday to plead guilty to lying to federal investigators about steroid use, no adoring fans waiting to get her autograph. The megawatt smile was gone, replaced by tears that flowed as she told everyone she was sorry for disgracing not only herself but her country.

The endorsements are history, as is the cash. The medals soon will be gone, too. Jones has long been ostracized from the sport she once dominated, and the only thing certain in her future is that she’ll be spending some time in prison.

“It’s funky, because you wanted to believe she was clean,” said Jon Drummond, a gold medalist in the 400 relay in Sydney.

The most disappointing thing is Jones could have gone down in history as the greatest female athlete ever by doing it naturally. She was so good even before using steroids that she didn’t need them to win far more than her fair share of fortune and fame.

That wasn’t good enough. Jones got greedy.

She cheated, and she lied. She still might be lying about how much she knew and when she knew it.

It won’t be any fun watching her go to prison. But I’d be lying if I didn’t think she was getting what she deserves.