Olympic three-time gold medalist Marion Jones on Friday was sentenced to spend six months in jail for lying about using steroids and a check-fraud scam, media reports said.

Jones, the first woman to claim five medals in an Olympics, could have faced up to 10 years in jail for the offences, and even under a plea deal faced up to 37 months.

"People learn by their mistakes," she said in remarks broadcast after her sentencing by the US District Court that serves New York's southern district.

The 32-year-old sprinter had asked for mercy from the court because of her two young children, one of whom she was still nursing.

The running-great pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents about using performance-enhancing drugs. The other offence involved making false statements about her role in a multi-million- dollar check-fraud scheme involving former boyfriend and fellow sprinter Tim Montgomery.

Her lawyers begged for a probationary, or suspended sentence, saying she had "already lost everything - the only livelihood she has ever known, her professional accomplishments, her financial security and her reputation."

In a letter filed Wednesday, Jones' lawyers said it would be unjust to put Jones in jail and noted other athletes who have received home confinement sentences for similar offences.

In addition to the jail time, Jones was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and 400 hours of community service. Her prison sentence is to begin March 11, sports broadcaster ESPN reported.

The admission of guilt by Jones, whose powerful athletic performances dazzled fans and won her worldwide acclaim, came after years of denials that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs. She took the drugs before the 2000 Olympics in Australia.

She won gold medals in the 100m and 200m plus a long jump bronze at the event, as well as 4x400m gold and 4x100m bronze. She also has five world titles between 1997 and 2001.

The International Olympic Committee has stripped her of the five medals, scratched her from the results list and banned her from participating in at least the Beijing Olympics. The results have also been erased by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which banned her for two years and asked her to return all the prize money she had received since October 2000.

In her tearful public confession in October, Jones resigned from track and field sports and asked for forgiveness from her family, friends and fans.

"It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust," she said.

"Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do and I am responsible fully for my actions. I have no one to blame but myself for what i have done," she said.

Twice during her October remarks, Jones apologized to her mother, who stood by her side. She said she had let down her fans, young supporters, the track and field association, her closest friends and "the most classy family a person could ever hope for."

Jones was charged with lying to agents in 2003 about supplements that had been given to her by her coach, Trevor Graham, and which she used for about a year before the 2000 Olympics.

Graham told her it was flaxseed oil, she said in a letter to family and friends. She wrote that "red flags should have been raised" when Graham told her to keep the nutritional supplement a secret.

Though she didn't know she was using a banned substance at the time, Jones admitted she had been aware when she spoke to federal investigators in 2003, when she denied ever taking steroids.

Her admission of guilt led to the first conviction among a group of athletes and coaches connected to the San Francisco-based BALCO lab, which produced the liquid, oral steroid known as THG or "the clear." It was a new steroid that had been undetectable in doping tests.

The circle of athletes included US sprinter Kelli White, baseball slugger Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, top world shot- putter Kevin Toth and others.

When BALCO lab founder Victor Conte connected Jones to the scandal, she sued him for 25 million dollars for defamation of character and said her athletic triumphs were the result of her "God- given abilities and hard work."

In November 2006, Graham was charged with making false statements to federal agents in connection with a doping probe. A string of Graham's athletes have tested positive for doping, and in August 2006, athletes trained by him were banned from competing in the final Golden League series stop in Berlin.

Jones' former boyfriend and ex-100-metre world-record holder Tim Montgomery had to serve a two-year doping ban based on evidence from the BALCO case, without a positive test. Jones' ex-husband CJ Hunter was banned for two years over steroid use revealed at the Sydney Olympics.