"God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure."
Collision course
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Jason Henderson, Edinburgh Arena Sport, 2016. ISBN: 9781909715363
The sub-title is “The Olympic tragedy of Mary Decker and Zola Budd”. A well researched book tells the story of each athlete in the build-up to 1984, the tragic race itself and what happened to each of them afterwards.
The account of Budd’s early running in South Africa, the process of her coming to UK, getting a British passport and competing for GB in 1984 is one of the strongest parts of the book.
Zola is quoted giving a clear rejection of apartheid: “You only have to study the Bible to recognise the injustice of apartheid. The Bible tells me all men are born equal and that we will all be equal before God. I can’t reconcile segregation along racial lines with the teaching of the Bible and as a Christian I find apartheid intolerable.”
Henderson’s ironic summary of the Olympic final is that Mary and Zola “achieved more fame and fortune for their collision in the Coliseum than the athletes who made the actual podium in the women’ 3000m at the 1984 Games. It is ironic. Some would go as far as to call it an injustice.
The one-two-three of Maricica Puica, Wendy Sly and Lynn Williams were largely ignored by the media”. Silver medallist Wendy Sly, is quoted: “The most hurtful thing at the time was when I came off the track in LA and the first question was, ‘did you see what happened?’ No one said ‘well done’ after I’d run 8:39 to win silver.”
The author’s assessment of the two athletes is fascinating: “As for their relative running abilities, Zola was undoubtedly a fantastic runner who won two world cross country titles and set world records during her prodigious and primarily teenage years. She hit her peak aged eighteen and arguably never fulfilled her true potential…Mary, though, was a class apart and is, in my view, quite simply the most talented female middle-distance runner who has ever lived. It is hard to think of a more injury-prone athlete than the American, but she built up an incredible collection of national and world records, won world titles in memorable style and it is a travesty she did not win Olympic gold”.
An excellent book offering real insights into an iconic race in Olympic track history.