NEW YORK – Five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones and Olympic silver medalist Adam Nelson were among the athletes speaking Wednesday at a pre-event press conference for the 97th Verizon Millrose Games, to be held Friday, February 6 at Madison Square Garden.

Jones will compete in the Verizon women’s 60 meters, and Nelson in the men’s shot put on Friday. Also in attendance at Wednesday’s press conference at the New York Athletic Club were the 12 boys and girls who will compete in Friday’s “New York’s Fastest Kid” race, Verizon Millrose Games event director Skip Stolley, and Pro Sports Entertainment Inc., Chief Operating Officer Andy Roundtree.

The second stop on USA Track& Field’s Indoor Golden Spike Tour, the Verizon Millrose Games will be televised on NBC on Saturday, February 7, from 3 to 4:30 p.m., Eastern Time. Held annually since 1908, the Verizon Millrose Games is the nation’s longest running invitational track meet.

Below are excerpts from Wednesday’s press conference.

ADAM NELSON

“On behalf of the other shot putters, I’d like to say thanks to Skip Stolley and Andy Roundtree for doing a great job on putting together this week for us. We are so excited to be included back in the Garden, like we should be. It’s the first time in 27 years [that the shot put is contested at Madison Square Garden, rather than a remote site]. We’re thrilled to be back in the middle of the ring, putting on a great show for everybody. The Verizon Millrose Games has a special place in my heart because it was the first meet I did that had open and collegiate athletes. It was the first place I ever won anything – I won a watch. It was something that means so much to me. Maybe I’ll have another opportunity to get another watch, and I know we are looking forward to putting on a great show.”

MARION JONES

“Let me just start out by saying how very excited I am to be here. I’m trying to contain my excitement. It’s been a long time since it’s been 2 days before a track meet for me. All kinds of crazy emotions are going on for me. It’s great to be here at home in the United States. I’m extremely excited, and I’m looking forward to the competition starting so I can focus on running.”

Q: Will this be just the second indoor competition of your career?

A: Since I graduated in 1997 from the University of North Carolina, I participated in a meet in Japan in 1998. I ran two rounds, and that’s all. Prior to that, the only time I had run indoors was at the Sunkist Invitational, when I was in junior high.

Q: How hard has it been to get back in shape after your pregnancy?

A: It really hasn’t been all that difficult. I worked out throughout the entire pregnancy, up to two days before my son [Tim Montgomery Jr.] was born. I took a month off after he was born and got back into it at the end of July. It took me two to three weeks to get used to the track thing – warming up, cooling down, stretching. I think it’s made it easier that 2004 is an Olympic Year. Obviously I have a number of things to motivate me this year.

Q: What are your goals for Athens?

A: At this point, I’m looking forward to Friday. I’ve changed my focus over last year and a half, to focus more on the present. When I was younger, I would look eight, nine, 10 months ahead. But I really have to focus on the present. This is my first race in a long time. But even before the Olympic Games, a huge goal for me is our Olympic Trials, which a lot of us say is harder than the Games themselves. Sure, I want to go to Athens and do well, but I want to make the team.

Q: Are you nervous?

A: I have to admit that I’m a little nervous. I’m definitely out of my element, deciding to compete indoors. The Verizon Millrose Games, I’ve never done that. The 60 meters is not usually the strongest part of my race – I’m usually quite strong from 50 to 100. I’ve got a new coach, new baby, so there are a lot of things going on in my life right now.

As far as the competitions I’ll run this year, you won’t see me in every major country in the world. Part of that is I don’t want to travel as much as I have in the past, with a child at home. Plus, for me, although I’ve decided to do a few indoor competitions, we’ve mapped out where I need to run to get me ready for the Olympic Trials, and it won’t be in a lot of competitions.

Q: So why run indoors this year?

A: I want to compete. That’s what I’ve really been missing I want competition. I want the feeling of lining up behind the blocks with seven or eight of the other best athletes in the world …that anticipation of not really knowing what’s going to happen. I miss that. Although I’ve been training for seven or eight months, you can’t get that feeling in practice.

We had decided we would start the 2004 season very low-key and quiet. Then I decided, anywhere I go in the world, even if it’s a dual meet, everybody will be talking about it, so why not go to one of the most prestigious indoor meets in the world?

Q: Which events will you compete in this summer?

A: In Sacramento [Olympic Trials], I’ll be competing in the 100, 200 and long jump. The relays are really still up in the air. Dan [Pfaff, her coach] and I have decided we’ll make that call after the Olympic Trials.

Q: Are you working on the long jump?

A: We’ve spent so much time working on my jumping, and that’s what I’m most excited about, is getting a chance to jump again. I haven’t jumped in competition since 2000 in Sydney. My excitement for that [the long jump] is 10-fold compared to my sprints. I’m a whole new jumper. I’m looking forward to seeing what all the learning and training has done.

Q: All the drug issues of the last several months have occurred while you were out of competition and recovering from your pregnancy. Would it have been easier to deal with if you had been competing and in the public eye?

A: I think would have been easier because along the way, I would have been asked the questions about drugs and could answer them as they came up. Because I’ve been on the layoff, I haven’t been to press conferences, so people haven’t had a chance to ask me the questions.

Q: What is your opinion about the Balco controversy and other drug issues?

A: It’s nice to have an opportunity to address it. I’m for a drug-free sport. I always have been, and I always will be. That’s my position. I’ve never taken performance-enhancing drugs, and I never will. It’s as simple as that.

Q: Do you see yourself as an opportunity to bring good news back to the sport?

A: I don’t necessarily see myself as the sole athlete to bring the sport to good terms with the general public. I think the necessary steps are being taken to make sure we compete in a drug-free sport. The general public needs to recognize and see the great performances as they are. It’s a wonderful sport. People who love it, love it. People who don’t will always have a negative opinion regardless of what happens.

Q: Do you have any disillusions? A: No, I don’t. I have to focus on myself. So many people are putting all the attention on track and field and forgetting the number of other sports who have come out and said their sports are using performance enhancing-drugs.

Q: Is your son with you here in New York?

A: I’ve decided to leave Monty at home for the first few competitions, just because of the chaos surrounding my first race back. He doesn’t understand this, so I’ll leave him at home with grandma through the first through meets.

I really love being a mom. People have asked me if I would change anything, and I wouldn’t change anything. I love being a mom, it’s the most important thing in my life. Being a mom tops the list, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Q: Describe your training.

A: Dan is a wonderful coach. I’ve learned so much from him in these months. I think the biggest difference is Dan gives his athletes a lot more options in terms of our workouts. A lot of coaches say “here’s your workout, and it doesn’t matter how you fee.” Dan is a lot more open and says, this is plan B, this is plan C. And I’ve learned LOADS from him about my long jump. I’ve learned things about my start, in the first 30 meters in the race.

Q: Are you stronger?

A: I think I am stronger than before. In terms of my weight sessions, I’m stronger than I was a few years ago. I think the thing I have to incorporate in my training now is the speed. I’m now at a point in my career where I don’t make a lot of predictions. Particularly on Friday, I just want to go out there and be competitive and see where I am in terms of my training. I want to put up a good performance.

Q: What about your pregnancy training?

A: I was training at a normal level in spikes up to when I was four months pregnant. At five months, I started to feel a little more uncomfortable with the heat, so I took everything inside in a gym. I was doing intervals on a treadmill, on the bike. I was lifting light weights, and I felt perfectly fine.

Q: What advice do you have for the young kids here today?

A: My advice to the young kids here is to really enjoy yourself, and don’t feel the pressure that all of this might put on you. This is a fun sport. Enjoy it and try different things.

Q: Describe your first workout back.

A: It was very light at first – jogging and drills. I didn’t really get into spikes until mid-December.

Q: How did you choose your coach?

A: I am a bit more of a skeptic when it comes to my career. So it took me a little bit longer, with more research, to decide on a coach. Once I did the research and spoke to a number of people, and his [Pfaff’s] former athletes … in my opinion there are only a few coaches in the world that I could learn from and he was one of them.

Q: Do you have any training partners?

A: One of the most difficult parts of the last few months is all of the men in the group are elite. When I practice with them in the starting blocks, there’s not much of a challenge because they’re a few steps in front of me. When I was in the Caymans, we’d use some of the local guys and put them in the blocks. For a while there, we were trying to find a few ladies to train in the camp, but it’s been a little bit difficult.

Q: Will you run Mt. SAC again this year?

A: I still plan to keep that same schedule and will keep that schedule to the end of my career. I love Mt. SAC, it’s close to my home, and it’s close to my heart.

Q: What did you miss most about competition?

A: I’m not a huge fan of the traveling and being away from home, but 12 straight months was a bit much. When you’re taken out of your element, you realize, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? So I read a lot and spent time with my family.