"I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me," she said, her voice cracking as her mother stood behind her with a supportive hand on her shoulder. "I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down."

The owner of three Olympic golds and two bronze medals pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs. In a teary apology afterward outside the U.S. District Court, the 31-year-old also said she was retiring.

Jones also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme.

"You're vindicated, but it doesn't make you feel any happier this is going on," said Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "The fact that she was using the performance-enhancing drugs is not a surprise. People suspected strongly or knew, but couldn't prove the use.

"When something seems too good to be true, it probably is."

Jones is the biggest name to be brought down so far in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal. But home run king Barry Bonds also has been linked to BALCO, and a grand jury is still investigating whether he lied to federal investigators.

Bonds denied ever knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs. In testimony before a grand jury in 2003, Bonds said he believed a clear substance and a cream given to him by his trainer were flaxseed oil and an arthritis balm.

"The federal government will vigorously prosecute individuals who provide false statements to its agents," said Scott N. Schools, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.

Jones had been dogged by suspicions and doping allegations for years. Her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, was busted for doping, and Tim Montgomery, the father of her son Monty, was stripped of his world record in the 100 meters in connection with the BALCO case.

Jones herself was one of the athletes who testified before a grand jury in 2003 in the BALCO investigation. In August 2006, one of her urine samples tested positive for EPO, but she was cleared when a backup sample tested negative.

But Jones vehemently denied all doping allegations, even issuing this emphatic declaration in 2004: "I have never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs." She also sued BALCO founder Victor Conte after he repeatedly accused Jones of using performance-enhancing drugs and said he watched her inject herself.

No longer.

On Friday, Jones sat perfectly still, detailing her crimes in a clear, loud voice. Speaking into a microphone, her eyes on the judge above her, she admitted lying to a federal investigator in November 2003 when he asked if she had used performance-enhancing drugs.

"I answered that I had not. This was a lie, your honor," she said.

Jones said she took steroids from September 2000 to July 2001 and said she was told by her then-coach Trevor Graham that she was taking flaxseed oil when it was actually "the clear." That's a performance-enhancing drug linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports.

"I consumed this substance several times before the Sydney Olympics and continued using it after," Jones told the judge. "By November 2003, I realized he was giving me performance-enhancing drugs."

She said she "felt different, trained more intensely" and experienced "faster recovery and better times" while using the substance.

"He told me to put it under my tongue for a few seconds and swallow it," she said. "He told me not to tell anyone."

A Sept. 3, 2003, search warrant at BALCO uncovered ledgers, purchases, doping calendars, and various blood-test results connected to Jones and Graham, said Matt Parrella, a federal prosecutor in Northern California.