Marion Jones at the federal court in New York on Friday. (AP)

White Plains (US): Marion Jones was sentenced on Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a cheque-fraud scam, despite her plea that she not be separated from her two young children even for a short period of time.

“I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be,” said Jones, who cried on her husband's shoulder after she was sentenced.

The disgraced former Olympic champion was ordered to surrender on March 11 to begin her term.

US district judge Kenneth Karas said he gave her the maximum under her plea deal to send a message to athletes who have abused drugs and overlooked the values of “hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship.

“Athletes in society have an elevated status, they entertain, they inspire, and perhaps, most important, they serve as role models,” Karas said.

The 31-year-old Jones also was given two years’ probation and supervised release, during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service.

The judge said this would take advantage of Jones’s “eloquence, strength and her ability to work with kids.”

It was her children that worried Jones most as she beseeched the judge for a lighter sentence, talking at length about her two boys, including the infant son she’s still nursing.

“My passion in life has always been my family,” Jones said. “I know the day is quickly approaching when my boys ask me about these current events. I intend to be honest and forthright... and guide them into not making the same mistakes.”

The sentence completes a stunning fall for the woman who was once the most celebrated female athlete in the world. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

After long denying she ever had used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted last October she lied to federal investigators in November 2003, acknowledging she took the designer steroid (the clear) from September 2000 to July 2001. It (the clear) has been linked to Balco, the lab at the centre of the steroids scandal in professional sports.

She also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery — the father of her older son Monty — in a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks.

Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam. They include Jones’s former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick.