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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Olympic track star Marion Jones filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against BALCO head Victor Conte, who told a national TV audience that he gave her steroids and watched her inject herself with them.

Jones is seeking $25 million in the suit, alleging Conte tarnished her reputation when he made the statement Dec. 3 on ABC's ''20/20.''

Conte and three others connected to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for a variety of alleged offenses, including illegally distributing steroids.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said Jones passed a lie detector test and includes a statement from her doctor saying she never used steroids. Jones won three gold medals and two bronzes during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

Conte's statements, the suit said, ''are false and malicious.''

A telephone call placed Wednesday to Conte's lawyer, Robert Holley, was not immediately returned.

Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for baseball slugger Barry Bonds, face federal indictment on a range of accusations.

The federal charges include distributing steroids, possession of human growth hormone, money laundering and misbranding drugs with intent to defraud. All have pleaded not guilty.

Conte told ABC: ''I think she made her decision, and she's going to have to be accountable to the consequences of her decision. If she said she didn't use drugs, then she lied.''

Jones' lawsuit says she has passed 160 drug tests, including five at the 2000 Olympics, and ''has never taken banned performance-enhancing drugs.''

It claims that Conte's motive to concede steroid distribution ahead of his criminal prosecution ''appears motivated by a desire to curry favor with prosecutors, garner sensation-alized media attention, bolster Conte's own financial and other self interests and harm an individual against whom Conte has a long-standing grudge.''

The five attorneys representing Jones in the lawsuit wrote that Conte ''seeks to take full credit for all of her past successes, falsely asserting that Jones' five Olympic medals in 2000 were the product of his illegal drug regimen instead of Jones' true talent.''

Jones failed to win any medals at last summer's Athens Olympics. She has been under investigation for months by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which has said it will take Conte's allegations into account.

The founder of Burlingame-based BALCO, Conte said he worked with Jones from August 2000 to September 2001.