U.S. athlete Tim Montgomery gets 5-year prison term

Tim Montgomery is pictured looking back at the scoreboard after running in a 100m quarterfinal heat at the U.S. trials in this July 10 2004 file photo. Montgomery, an Olympic gold medalist now banned from the sport, was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison on heroin charges.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. track star Tim Montgomery, an Olympic gold medalist now banned from the sport, was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison on heroin charges.

Montgomery, once known as the fastest man alive, was sentenced in Federal court in Norfolk, Virginia for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin, according to a court document. He had pleaded guilty to the charges in July.

Montgomery won an Olympic gold medal in 2000 as a member of the U.S. 4x100-meter relay team. Two years later, he set a 100-meter world record of 9.78 seconds but that was erased from the record books after the U.S. anti-doping agency found he had received steroids. He was barred from competition in 2005.

Last May, Montgomery was sentenced to 46 months in prison for a check fraud and money laundering scheme in which he tried to deposit three checks worth $775,000.

That case also ensnared his former girlfriend, the sprinter Marion Jones, who was sentenced to six months for misleading investigators about the check fraud scheme and lying about her steroid use.

Jones has been stripped of her five 2000 Olympic medals and banned from the sport.