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C. (Cottrell) J. Hunter is probably more popularly remembered as the
husband of champion sprinter Marion Jones, who he married on 3 October
1998, than as a world-class athlete in his own right. Hunter's first
major shot put victory was at the World Cup in London in 1994, where he
defeated the newly-crowned European champion, Aleksandr Klimenko. In
1995, he finished second at the World Indoor Championships in Barcelona
on March 10, having a month before bettered 21 metres for the first time
indoors or out, when he threw 21.22m indoors at Colorado Springs on 5
February. Although Hunter finished 7th in the shot put at the 1996
Olympic Games in Atlanta, he is most famous for his exploits at the
World Championships. He didn't have a very auspicious start to World
Championship competition, when he failed to progress past the qualifying
round at the 1991 Championships in Tokyo.
At the 1997 World
Championships in Athens on August 2, Hunter finished fourth behind
Ukrainian Aleksandr Bagach. However, five days later, it was announced
that Bagach had tested positive for ephedrine, resulting in his
disqualification from the competition and the promotion of Hunter to
the bronze medal position. Prior to the 1999 World Championships held
in Seville, Hunter had a personal best throw outdoors of 21.41m,
achieved earlier that year. At Seville, on 21 August, Hunter was lying
second in the shot put final with a best throw of 21.09m, before he
unleashed a career-best throw of 21.79m (see photo above) on his
final attempt to win the gold medal.
On the eve of the Sydney Olympic
Games, the sensational news was announced that Hunter had failed a
doping control test at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 28 July 2000, and at
a subsequent hearing he received a two-year suspension. (Ron Casey)
He never competed thereafter. He is perhaps best known for his involvement in the BALCO scandal and as the onetime spouse of sprinter Marion Jones.
They married on October 3, 1998, only to divorce in 2002 following the publicity surrounding the BALCO scandal. He died on 28th November 2021 aged 52.
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