MARY DECKER VS. ZOLA BUDD 1 2 3 4 5

News 4 Monday, Aug. 11, 2014
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1
1984 OLYMPICS
THE
FALL
HEARD
‘ROUND
Thirty years ago
today, two noted
long-distance
runners – one from
Garden Grove and
the other from South
Africa – competed
for an Olympic
gold medal in
Los Angeles.
THE
WORLD
Neither won.
BY CHARLES APPLE
FOCUS PAGE EDITOR
DAVID BURNETT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARY DECKER VS. ZOLA BUDD
Aug. 11, 1984: The favorite in the women’s 3,000 meters race is
America’s latest sweetheart, Mary Decker, 26. Considered by some the
world’s greatest female distance runner, Decker had been denied a
shot at Olympic glory by the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games.
1
6
Decker, right, leads
most of the first half
of the race. Just past
the 1,700-meter
mark, Budd, center,
followed closely by
England’s Wendy Sly,
left, picks up the
pace.
2
Budd passes Decker
running wide on her
right. Sly attempts to
pass, forcing Budd to
cut back to the inside.
When she does,
Decker’s right thigh
bumps into Budd’s
calf.
The challenger: 18-year-old barefoot runner Zola Budd, who
had invited controversy by accepting the London Daily Mail’s
invitation to emigrate to Great Britain in order to sidestep
Olympic sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid government.
3
Both Decker and Budd
are knocked off
balance, but both
continue to run.
Decker then clips
Budd’s bare heel with
her right spiked
running shoe. The
contact draws blood.
4
Decker instinctively
puts out her arm to
steady herself. After
a third contact,
Decker finally
tumbled to the track,
ripping the number
off of Budd’s back.
Budd deliberately slows
to let other runners pass
her. “The main concern
was if I win a medal, I’d
have to stand on the
winner’s podium. I didn’t
want to do that,” Budd
later explains.
5
Budd continues to
run but becomes
alarmed by the
loud chorus of
boos from the
crowd in Memorial
Coliseum.
Afterward, in the tunnel to the locker
rooms, Budd approaches her idol to
apologize. “Don’t bother,” Decker snaps.
In a news conference later that day,
Decker again blames Budd. So do many
of the U.S.-based commentators and
sportswriters covering the event.
By the end of the year, however, Decker
softens her feelings a bit. She writes a
letter to Budd apologizing for her
response.
Budd finishes seventh,
only to find officials have
disqualified her for
obstructing Decker. An
hour later, after reviewing videotape of the
accident, they reverse
their decision.
“The reason I fell, some people think,
she tripped me deliberately.” Decker
tells The New York Times in 2008.
“I happen to know that wasn’t the case
at all. The reason I fell is because I am
and was very inexperienced in running
in a pack.”
Decker is treated for an
injury to her thigh.
PHOTOS © BY BRUCE CHAMBERS
THIRTY YEARS LATER
Decker (now Slaney) went on to set a world
record for the women’s mile in 1985. She was
banned from competition in 1997 after testing
positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
She was stripped of a silver medal in that
year’s world indoor championships.
Now 56, Decker
lives in Eugene,
Ore. She
competes in
elliptical bicycle
races.
Budd (now Pieterse) went on
to break the world record in
the women’s 5,000 meters
and won the World Cross
Country Championship in
1985 and 1986.
ABC7 CHICAGO
Now 48, she is
a track coach at
Coastal Carolina
University near
Myrtle Beach,
S.C.
COASTAL CAROLINA
Sources: The New York Times, ESPN, Runner’s World, The London Guardian,
ABC7 Chicago, Grand Strand magazine, Coastal Carolina University, About.com
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