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Sunday, October 1
Powerful women might expand track programs
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The biggest track stars at the Sydney
Games had names such as Marion, Cathy, Stacy and Heike.
After years of runners named Michael or Carl or Ben dominating
Olympic headlines, these were the women's games in track and field.
From Marion Jones' unprecedented five medals to Cathy Freeman's
dramatic run for aboriginal pride, from Stacy Dragila's victory in
the inaugural Olympic women's pole vault to 35-year-old Heike
Drechsler's long jump win, women were the big track winners at the
2000 Summer Games.
And those performances are helping persuade world track
officials to keep increasing the women's program. Three events --
the pole vault, hammer throw and 20,000-meter walk -- were added to
the women's program this time.
"I was against the new events. But the women's pole vault was
great. I'm still not crazy about the hammer," Lamine Diack,
president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, said
Sunday. "They're even talking about having a women's decathlon
event. I think we are headed to having an identical program for men
and women."
A Romanian woman managed another Olympic first. Mihaela Melinte,
the women's hammer throw world champion and world record-holder,
was escorted off the field in front of tens of thousands of
spectators because she had tested positive for the steroid
nandrolone.
The 2000 Olympics produced no track and field world record. The
only other time that happened was at the 1948 London Games, when
the Olympics resumed after an absence of 12 years during World War
II.
Part of the reason for the dearth of records may have been the
track at the 110,000-seat Olympic Stadium -- it was not the
rock-hard surface that led to several marks in Atlanta. Or maybe it
was the cool, often muggy spring weather that left neither
sprinters nor distance runners entirely happy, and winds that made
the field events difficult.
Diack said he believes the fight against drugs also has affected
the number of records.
"What has been done in the anti-doping controls may have had an
influence on certain disciplines," he said. "In the throwing
events, especially the hammer, we still have old records. It's like
in weightlifting, where you need strength."
The U.S. men did match a record -- for futility. Though they
finished strong, placing 1-2 in the pole vault on Friday and
winning both the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relays on Saturday,
their six gold medals in track tied the lowest by U.S. men in
Olympic history.
They were shut out of medals in the long jump, an event an
American man had won in every non-boycotted Olympics since 1964,
and also in the 200 -- the first time no U.S. man got a medal in
that event since 1928.
Jones won three of the four golds attained by U.S. women. She
won the 100 and 200, and her third-leg run in the 1,600-meter relay
was the key in that squad's win. The only other gold by a U.S.
woman was by Dragila, who has dominated the women's pole vault
since its inception.
Caribbean women also had some big successes, including victory
by the Bahamas in the 400-meter relay and four silver medals by
Jamaicans.
Merlene Ottey, who at the age of 40 was the anchor runner for
the Jamaican 400-meter relay team that took silver behind the
Bahamas, said changing attitudes are giving women in most parts of
the world unprecedented opportunities.
"I've seen a lot of change in my career. Twenty years ago, when
I started, we didn't have a lot of Caribbean athletes on the
podium. What's changed is the women are doing better than the
men," said Ottey, who has won eight medals in six Olympics.
"People are now believing in us. They believe we can also
perform well and they're giving us a chance. In the past, we've
never had a chance."
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