Added Perspective wrote:
Wow There wrote:Slaney ran up right onto Zola Budd. It was not the first time she did that. Budd's culpability was zero. Looking at the tape now, that's quite clear.
Garbage. I have seen the race tape dozens of times. Budd was running in a horrendous position, not going fast enough to move all the way into lane one. If anything, she is lucky that Mary (or someone else) didn't accidentally spike her where she was running. Either pass and take the lead, or not. Don't choose something in between or something bad can potentially happen, and it did.
Budd's inexperience racing in a crowd essentially cost Mary an Olympic medal, probably the gold.
In fact, both were frontrunners, by experience and inclination, and neither had as much experience as they should have running in packs. If that had happened in a mens' race, there would not have been tears and sympathy for the follower who went down. Granted, in passing you are supposed to be clear of the runners you have passed before cutting in, but in practice, it is pretty hard to know whether you are clear and by how much, and Zola did not cut in dramatically. It is the following runner who is in a position to tell whether she is in a box and runnining into the back of it, which is exactly what happened. Zola took the lead as they came around the curve, and Mary, though on the rail, was into the space where she was up against Zola's left leg as it extended back. Anyone experienced in pack running, a man, for instance, would have put a hand out to Zola's back to establish space, to let Zola know she had a runner right there, and to keep from losing balance. The bottom line is, unless you are prepared to run from the front, you must learn to run behind others, and accept that a fact of life back in the pack is to be alert, and prepared to adjust your stride to the changing available running room.
Yes, Mary was in those days a nutjob, known to assault boyfriends, and her tearful network pouts revealed her for who she was at the time, a very talented, but neurotic prima donna whose whole notion of self-worth was tied up in her current running success or lack thereof. Her behavior in public was frankly embarrassing for its utter lack of graciousness. How much respect would Jim Ryun have lost had he'd thrown tearful tantrums in '72, where there was an clear available remedy, and it was denied him?
BTW, by all accounts, Richard has had a very beneficial effect on Mary, who appears to be remarkably at peace with her life. She had her share of exploitive relationships early on.