Disgraced former Olympic track star Tim Montgomery, once dubbed “the world’s fastest man,” was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for dealing heroin to an informant.
“I was blind — I never had a job in my life,” Montgomery told US District Judge Jerome Friedman. “I did the wrong thing.”
Montgomery, 33, will serve the five-year sentence after he completes a 46-month prison term for an unrelated conviction in New York.
Under an agreement with the government, he pleaded guilty in July to possession and distribution of more than 100g of heroin. He received the minimum term under federal sentencing guidelines.
A prosecutor described Montgomery’s athletic skills as “super-human,” but said he had squandered his talent and the acclaim and the money that came with it. Montgomery won an Olympic gold medal in the 400m relay at the 2000 Games and a silver in the same event four years earlier. A doping scandal wiped his achievements from the books.
In a nearly empty courtroom, Montgomery accepted his sentence accompanied only by his lawyer, James Broccoletti. His parents and siblings traveled in a van from South Carolina for the sentencing, but did not arrive before the 20-minute hearing ended, Broccoletti said.
“What we find here is someone who has wrecked his life,” the prosecutor, Eric Hurt, told the court.
He said Montgomery’s heroin arrest came as he awaited sentencing on a check-fraud scheme that ultimately sent him to prison.
Montgomery, hands clasped behind his back, softly addressed Friedman.
“I just want to say I’ve very sorry for what I’ve done,” he told the judge. “I’m sorry to my community and my family.”
Friedman ordered five years of supervised release and drug testing after Montgomery serves his heroin sentence.
He also called Montgomery “totally irresponsible” for fathering four children with four different women, including fellow disgraced Olympian Marion Jones.
Montgomery’s heroin prosecution is based on four drug sales he made last year and this year in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
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