INDIANAPOLIS – Five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones will lead Team USA in the women’s 4x400m relay Saturday at USA vs. THE WORLD at the Penn Relays. The five-time Olympic medalist also will compete in four additional domestic track meets in 2001 – an unprecedented homestand for the most recognizable name in track and field – USA Track & Field announced Wednesday. Also scheduled to compete in the 4x400 relays at USA vs. THE WORLD are Olympic gold medalists Michael Johnson, Angelo Taylor, Alvin Harrison, Jearl Miles-Clark, LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Monique Hennagan and Andrea Anderson.

After USA vs. THE WORLD, Jones will compete at the GST Open at the Princeton Invitational May 12 in New Jersey, the first stop on USA Track & Field’s Golden Spike Tour. She will then compete at the U.S. Open in Palo Alto, Calif., on June 9, the third stop on the Tour, before heading to the GMC Envoy USA Outdoor Championships June 21-24 in Eugene, Ore.

Combined with her 2001 outdoor debut last Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays and her May 27 appearance at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Jones will appear at six major meets in the United States during the 2001 Outdoor season.

“Marion Jones is a great ambassador for our sport, and we are thrilled that she has chosen to support track and field in the United States by appearing in some of the best meets in the country, including USA vs. THE WORLD and the Golden Spike Tour,” USATF CEO Craig Masback said. “To have Marion competing on her home soil with such frequency is an enormous accomplishment for the sport of track and field.

“Any time she steps on a track, it helps increase America’s interest in track and field. The sport hit a high point last year with the successes of the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games, and Marion’s continued and active involvement will help build momentum for the World Championships this August in Edmonton, Canada.”

The men’s and women’s 4x100 and 4x200-meter relays also will be contested at USA vs. THE WORLD. The relays-only event will be broadcast Saturday (April 28) from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN2.

At USA vs. THE WORLD, which takes place as part of the 107th running of the Penn Relays, the USA relay squads will take on teams from Jamaica, Germany and other nations. Expanded sponsor backing has helped build upon last year’s highly successful, inaugural USA vs. THE WORLD event. In 2001, Nike, GMC Envoy, Visa, SoBe Sports System and Pontiac Grand Prix are contributing their support to the event.

The Team USA 4x400 relay pool is headlined by Jones, the 2000 Olympic 100m, 200, and 4x400m relay gold medalist, and long jump and 4x100m bronze medalist. Jones ran the fastest relay split at the Olympics in helping Team USA to gold in the 4x400 at Sydney and will be joined in the USA vs. THE WORLD relay pool by her Olympic relay teammates, Jearl Miles-Clark, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Monique Hennagan. Colander-Richardson is the Olympic Trials 400m champion and anchored Team USA to 4x400 relay Olympic gold, while Miles-Clark won her second relay gold in Sydney. Also in the 4x400 pool in Philadelphia are Michele Collins, Shanelle Porter, Youlanda Warren and Andrea Anderson. Anderson became a gold medalist at Sydney by running in the first round of the 4x400 relay in place of Jones.

Jamaica will bring three members of its 2000 Olympic team that finished second to Team USA in the 4x400-meter relay final in Sydney, including Catherine Scott-Pomales, Sandie Richards and Deon Hemmings. The Jamaican pool also includes Celena Clarke, Claudine Williams and Charmaine Howell, who won a silver medal in Sydney by running the lead leg in the opening round of the 4x400.

The USA Red Team of Suziann Reid, Michele Collins, Kim Graham and Jearl Miles-Clark won last year’s event in 3:25.96. The U.S. Blue Team of Yolanda Nelson, LaTasha Colander-Richardson, Tonja Buford-Bailey and Shanelle Porter placed second in 3:29.43. Nigeria was third in 3:30.75. Jamaica was fourth in 3:31.79. Returning to Franklin Field to lead the U.S. men’s 4x400 pool is Michael Johnson, the two-time Olympic 400m gold medalist, indoor and outdoor world record holder and four-time world 400m champion. The world record holder in the 200 meters and 4x400-meter relay, Johnson has won five Olympic gold medals, and in 2000 became the first man ever to defend the Olympic 400-meter title. His total of nine outdoor world championship gold medals is more than anyone in history.

Joining Johnson in the U.S. relay pool are Angelo Taylor, Alvin Harrison, Jerome Young, Leonard Byrd, Jerome Davis and Derrick Brew. The Olympic 400m hurdles gold medalist and overall IAAF Grand Prix champion, Taylor won a second gold medal in Sydney by running in the early rounds of the 4x400 relay. A two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 4x400 relay (’96, ’00), Harrison captured the 2000 Olympic silver medal in the 400m. Young, the 1998 and ‘99 U.S. outdoor 400m champ, also picked up a gold medal in the 4x400 at the 2000 Olympics by running the opening leg in the first round and semifinal and is a member of the world record-holding USA 4x400 relay team.

Jamaica will provide a strong challenge with three members of the 4x400-meter relay team that finished third at Sydney, including Olympic 400m bronze medalist Greg Haughton, Olympic eighth-place finisher Danny McFarland, and Michael Blackwood. The Jamaican pool also includes Davian Clarke and Michael McDonald.

Germany will also enter a team in the men’s 4x400, featuring two-time Olympian Marc Blume and his twin brother, Holger. Alexander Kosenkov, Ronny Ostwald and Sebastian Schulscheck complete the German pool.

The USA Red Team of Angelo Taylor, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington and Johnson won USA vs. THE WORLD last year in 2:56.60. The U.S. Blue Team of Milton Campbell, Calvin Harrison, Leonard Byrd and Jerome Davis finished second in 2:58.71. Jamaica was third in 2:58.92.