Talk:Mary Decker/Archive 1

'''Slaney was heavily favored to win a medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, held at Los Angeles. In the 3000 meters final, Zola Budd, an inexperienced 17-year old phenom from South Africa, running barefoot, passed Slaney and moved to the inside lane, crowding Slaney, who tripped and fell to the curb.'''

This is outrageously inaccurate...did you actually see the race ? Zola Budd was ahead of the american athlete for the 5 laps leading up to the accident, in fact it was not the first incident on the track between them as Decker-Slaney had run into the back of Budd two laps earlier. Just how can you say she "passed and crowded" Slaney, when the accident was caused by Slaney spiking the barefooted Budd's heel, causing her to lose her footing ?

The incident and the subsequent decision by the american officials to disqualify Budd (hastily changed to reinstatement when the British team pointed out the ilegality of what they were doing viz a viz the video evidence)was further embittered by Slaney's histrionic daytime soap opera drama queen portrayal as she was carried into the press conference by her husband hours later.

Her refusal to accept her own mistakes as being the cause of the accident and lifetime obsession with blaming an entirely innocent and inexperienced seventeen year old girl, revealed the poisonous core that eats away at the so called "american dream" and the resentment she felt at missing out on cashing in on a gold medal win no doubt lead to her involvement in drug-taking years later, as a final attempt to gain what she considered was "rightfully hers"

We can only hope that her daughter has not had to endure years of the embittered old woman's invented stories as the rest of us have.


 * That is extremely biased, and quite simply not true.

Most track experts believe that both Mary Decker and Zola Budd made mistakes that led to their collision. While it's true that Decker could have tapped Budd on the shoulder to let her know she was there, or slowed down rather than remain so close up behind her, it's equally true that Budd helped precipitate the crash by cutting in too sharply.

The notion that Mary Decker harboured a lifelong obsession with blaming Zola Budd for the collision is just nonsense. She did not talk about the crash in public again after 1984. When she next raced against Budd, in July 1985, at the end of the race she shook hands and made up with her.

Far from being an embittered old woman, she seems perfectly happy today - see this article:

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/07/11/c1.sp.maryslaney.0711.html

- Jess Cully, November 2004


 * Since this entry seems to read like a message board, I'll add my two cents in as well. I saw Mary Decker up close at a track meet in 1977, we were both running, but in different events. To make the story very short: Mary was a Prima Donna even back then. So the fact that she turned drama queen after the 1984 race was no suprise to either me, or anyone else, who had run track in California in the late 70's and early 80's. It's just the kind of woman she was and many, many people knew it.

- Anon, July 2005