Hold up your thumb and forefinger about two and a half inches across. That is what one-hundredth of a second translates into in a 100-meter race run by Olympians.
Merlene Ottey of Jamaica finished six one-hundredths of a second, six thumb-and-forefingers, behind the Winner of the women’s 100 Saturday night. For that, she only made fifth place. Gwen Torrence of Decatur, Ga., was all of four one-hundredths back, only 10 inches. Still, not even a medal. Irina Privalova of Russia was two one-hundredths back, and for all that, she got bronze. Juliet Cuthbert of Jamaica was one one-hundredth back, a thumb-and-forefinger. She got silver, and a world that never remembers runners-up, no matter how near or far.
It was the closest sprint in the history of the Olympic Games. It was won by Gail Devers of Palmdale, Calif., which was especially noteworthy because February, a year ago, Gail Devers couldn’t walk, and they were going to cut off her feet. She claims she would have lost them within 48 hours if a doctor hadn’t finally halted the radiation treatments she had been receiving for Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition which in itself had earlier resulted in the following catalog of ills before it was finally correctly diagnosed: a sudden weight gain from 115 to 139, hair and memory loss, migraine headaches, temporary loss of vision in one eye, involuntary shaking and convulsions, three menstrual cycles a month, skin so sensitive she bled when she scratched it.
Even Job was one one-hundredth of a second behind that.
“The last three years of my life have definitely been a miracle,” Devers said, thereby setting a world record, for it was the first time anybody in sports ever used the word “miracle” as an understatement.
Although races may be won by inches in track these days, it seems that they are never over. Barely had the gold medal been hung round Devers’s neck when she learned her countrywoman Torrence, the favorite in the race, had charged that three of her competitors had been on drugs-specifically two of the three who bested her. Of course, Devers, Cuthbert and Privalova all denied the charge. And Devers’s coach, Bobby Kersee, husband of track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, melodramatically yanked a microphone away from a reporter at a press conference to declare, “I’m sorry,” but anybody so defaming the new champion’s good name “can kiss my ass.” Only track can ruin the most beautiful story with a threatened drug bust.
The men’s 100 also brought a sweet, surprise victory, and, at least for the moment, no drug specter has been raised to soil the charm. The winner was Linford Christie, a Jamaica-born Englishman who walked off the track last year at the world championships in Tokyo and quit. He had run a 9.92, the fastest of any European ever, and he couldn’t even earn a medal behind Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell. What was the point?
Though a year older than Lewis, Christie had always spent his career in his lee. When the great American was winning four golds at Los Angeles, Christie couldn’t even make the British relay team. Given to often idling away time with dominoes and rum, he was 28 before he even made the Olympics at Seoul, where he finished behind the steroided Ben Johnson and Lewis. Talked into hanging on for one last year, here he was at Barcelona, 32, well older than any sprinter ever to win at the Games.
The slight favorite was Burrell, world-record holder a year ago, Lewis’s teammate and friend. Burrell was almost embarrassed that Lewis, the master, wasn’t in the race, victim of a virus during the U.S. trials. When it came time for Burrell to leave the compound he shares with Lewis and other Santa Monica Track Club runners, Burrell sort of tried to sneak away. Lewis had to call him back and hug the younger man. “You better bring it back, homes,” he said.
But Burrell false-started and was tentative thereafter, never in Christie’s race. Once he had the lead, the old man wasn’t giving up, at last, what Lewis had owned his whole generation. “Apart from Carl Lewis, of course, I’m the best second-half surger in the world,” Christie said, and he burst his last and held off the challenge, gliding tall to the finish, the world’s fastest thirtysomething.
