Mary Slaney

Personal information
Birth name	Mary Teresa Decker
Nationality	American
Born	(1958-08-04) August 4, 1958 (age 53) Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Sport
Sport	Middle distance running
Retired	1999
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	800 m: 1:56.90 1500 m: 3:57.12 mile: 4:16.71 3000 m: 8:25.83
Medal record Women's Athletics Competitor for the  United States World Championships Gold 1983 Helsinki 1500 m Gold 1983 Helsinki 3000 m Pan American Games Gold 1979 San Juan 1500 m

Mary Slaney (born Mary Teresa Decker August 4, 1958, Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey) is an American former track athlete. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and set 17 official and unofficial world records and 36 US national records.^[1]

Biography[link]

Mary Decker was born in Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. A decade later her family moved to Southern California, where Decker started running. A year later, aged 11, she won her first local competition.^[2]

She joined her school athletics club and a local track club, and completely immersed herself in running, for which she would pay an injury-laden price later in her career. Aged 12, in one week she completed a marathon and four middle- and long-distance races, ending the week with an appendectomy operation.^[2]

Career[link]

In her early teens, Decker was already recognized as a world-class runner. Unable to attend the 1972 Olympics as she was too young, the pigtailed 89 pounds (40 kg) 14 year old nicknamed "Little Mary Decker," won international acclaim in 1973 with a win in the 800 meters at a US-Soviet meet in Minsk, beating the later Olympic silver medallist.^[2]

By the end of 1972, Decker was ranked first in the United States and fourth in the world in the 800 meters.^[2] In 1973 she gained her first world record, running an indoor mile in 4:40.1. By 1974, Decker was the world record holder at 2:26.7 for 1000 meters, 2:02.4 for 880 yards, and 2:01.8 for 800 meters.

But by the end of 1974, she had developed a case of the muscle condition compartment syndrome. This resulted in a series of injuries, which meant that she did not compete in the 1976 Olympics, because of stress fractures in her lower leg. In 1978 she had an operation to try to cure compartment syndrome, which kept her out of competition for a period.^[2] After recovering from surgery, she spent two seasons at the University of Colorado at Boulder on a track scholarship.^[3][4] In 1980, she broke the world record for the women's mile, running a 4:17.55 to become the first woman to break the 4:20 barrier for the mile.^[5]

Career peak[link]

In 1982 Decker set six world records, at distances ranging from the mile to 10,000 meters. The following year she achieved a "Decker Double", winning both the 1500 meters and 3000 meters events at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. In 1982, she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, and the following year she won the Jesse Owens Award from USA Track and Field and Sports Illustrated magazine named her Sportsperson of the Year.

The 1984 Olympic incident[link]

Decker was heavily favored to win a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, held at Los Angeles. In the 3000 meters final, Zola Budd, half a stride ahead of Decker, moved to the inside lane, crowding Decker, who collided with Budd and fell spectacularly to the curb. Decker's hip was injured and she was unable to resume the race. She was carried off the track in tears by her boyfriend, British discus thrower Richard Slaney. At a press conference she said that Budd was to blame for the collision. While in track races it is generally the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead, it is also an accepted convention among most distance runners that the leader be a full stride ahead before cutting in. Track officials initially disqualified Budd for obstruction, but she was reinstated just one hour later once officials had viewed films of the race.

In the August 20, 1984 edition of Sports Illustrated the commentary was the following:

Having divorced Ron Tabb in 1983 after two years of marriage, Decker married Richard Slaney on January 1, 1985. Decker returned to competition in January 1985, winning the Sunkist Invitational Indoor 2000 meters race, also in Los Angeles, and breaking the world record. Asked to apologize for her comments about Budd, she answered: "I don't feel that I have any reason to apologize. I was wronged, like anyone else in that situation."

Decker and Budd next met in July 1985, in a 3000 meters race at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, England. Decker won the race, and Budd finished in fourth place. After the race, the two women shook hands and made up. Decker later went on record as claiming that she was unfairly robbed of the LA 3000 meters gold medal by Budd, but said many years after the event "The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. 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." ^[6]

Decker had a successful 1985 season, winning twelve mile and 3000 meters races in the European athletics calendar, which included a new official world record for the women's mile of 4:16.71. She sat out the 1986 season to give birth to her only child, daughter Ashley Lynn (born May 30, 1986), but missed the 1987 season through injury, failed to medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea (though she carried the American flag at the opening ceremony) and did not qualify for the 1992 Games.

Controversy[link]

In 1996, at the age of 37, as she qualified for the 5000 meters at the Atlanta Olympics, Decker became involved in controversy. A urine test taken in June at the Olympic Trials showed a testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio greater than the allowable maximum of six to one.^[7]

Decker and her lawyers contended that the T/E ratio test is unreliable for women, especially women in their late 30s or older who are taking birth control pills. In the meantime, Decker was eliminated in the heats at the Olympics.^[3]

In June 1997, the IAAF banned Decker from competition. In September 1999, a USATF panel reinstated her.^[8][9] The IAAF cleared her to compete but took the case to arbitration. In April, 1999, the arbitration panel ruled against her, after which the IAAF – through a retroactive ban, even though she was cleared to compete – stripped her of a silver medal she had won in the 1500 meters at the 1997 World Indoor Championships.^[10]

In April 1999, Decker filed suit against both the IAAF and the U.S. Olympic Committee which administered the test, arguing that the test is flawed and cannot distinguish between androgens caused by the use of banned substances and androgens resulting from the use of birth control pills.^[11] The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction, a decision which was upheld on appeal.^{[citation needed]}

Due to its history of false positives, especially among older female athletes, the (T/E) ratio test has since been revised and laboratories now also run a carbon isotope ratio test (CIR) if the ratio is unusually high.^[12]

Later life[link]

Throughout her later career, Slaney had suffered a series of stress induced fractures. After the loss of her 1999 legal case, she agreed to have a series of 30+ orthopedic procedures. Mainly on her legs and feet, they were an attempt to enable her to run competitively in marathons. However, the surgery just increased the occurrence of the problems. As a result, she retired with her husband to a 55-acre (220,000 m²) ranch in Eugene, Oregon, where she can now jog every other day. Her other hobbies include sewing, quilting, gardening, renovating the property, and walking her three Weimaraner dogs.^[13]

See also[link]

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
• List of sportspeople cleared of doping charges

References[link]

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Mary Slaney
• USA Track and Field Hall of Fame – Mary Slaney
• Sports Reference
• California State Records before 2000

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Martina Navratilova	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Heike Drechsler
Sporting positions
Preceded by Paula Fudge	Women's 5.000m Best Year Performance 1982	Succeeded by Zola Budd
Preceded by Tatyana Kazankina	Women's 3.000m Best Year Performance 1985	Succeeded by Olga Bondarenko

Zola Pieterse

Personal information
Nationality	South African
Born	(1966-05-26) 26 May 1966 (age 46) Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa
Sport
Sport	Middle-distance running
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	1500 m: 3:59.96 1 Mile: 4:17.57 3000 m: 8:28.83 5000 m: 14:48.07
Medal record Women's Cross Country Competitor for  Great Britain World Championships Gold 1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships Individual Long Race Women Gold 1986 IAAF World Cross Country Championships Individual Long Race Women

Zola Pieterse (born Zola Budd, 26 May 1966 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa), is a former Olympic track and field competitor who, in less than three years, twice broke the world record in the women's 5000 metres and twice was the women's winner at the World Cross Country Championships.^[1][2] Budd's career was unusual in that she mainly trained and raced barefoot. Her achievements on the track were often overshadowed by the political controversy she aroused during her short stay in the United Kingdom.

Women's 5000 metres world record[link]

Budd achieved fame in 1984, at the age of 17, when she broke the women's 5000 metres world record with a time of 15:01.83.^[3] Since her performance took place in South Africa, then excluded from international athletics competition because of its apartheid policy, the International Amateur Athletic Federation refused to ratify Budd's time as an official world record.

In 1985 she claimed the world record officially while representing Great Britain, clocking 14:48.07.^[4]

Arrival in Britain[link]

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international Sporting boycott of South Africa so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the Daily Mail, British citizenship was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to the opposition of anti-apartheid campaigners.

Shortly afterwards Budd was forced to pull out of a 1,500 metre race in Crawley, Sussex, when the town council withdrew their invitation at short notice. The race was part of the inaugural event for the town's new Bewbush Leisure Centre and Mayor Alf Pegler said members of the Council had expressed misgivings that the local significance of the event would be overshadowed by "political connotations and anti-apartheid demonstrators".^[5]

She ran her first competitive race on the cinder track at Central Park in Dartford, Kent, covering 3000 metres in 9 mins. 2.6 seconds in a race shown live on the BBC's Grandstand programme.^[6] She ran in further races in Britain including the UK Championships 1,500m (won in 4m 4s) and the 3,000m in the UK Olympic trials which she won in 8 mins. 40 secs., earning a place on the British Olympic team. In the 2,000m at Crystal Palace in July 1984 she set a new world record of 5 mins. 33.15 secs.^[7] Commenting during the race for the BBC, David Coleman exclaimed, "The message will now be flashed around the world – Zola Budd is no myth."

1984 Olympic 3000 metres[link]

Media billed the race as a duel between Budd and American world champion Mary Decker, few reporting that a third contestant, Romanian Maricica Puică, had set the fastest time that year.

Decker set a fast pace from the gun with Budd in close pursuit followed by Puică and Britain's Wendy Smith-Sly. When the pace slowed, just past the midway point, Budd took the lead on the straight and ran wide of the pack around the turn. Setting the pace she took herself, Decker, Smith-Sly and Puică clear of the pack. She seemed to assume control of the race coming out of the turn on the track at 1700 metres. Half a stride behind Budd, on the inside, Mary Decker's right thigh contacted Budd's left foot, knocking Budd slightly off balance. Decker maintained her close position and again clipped Budd, striking the leader's calf with her right shoe as Budd moved towards the inside. A third collision followed and Decker stumbled and fell onto the infield. Her left hip injured, she was unable to resume the race.

Although Budd continued to lead for a while, she eventually finished 7th amid a resounding chorus of boos. Her finishing time of 8 m. 48 s. was well outside her best of 8 m. 37 s. Writing in her autobiography^[8] years later, Budd stated that she deliberately slowed down to take herself out of contention because she couldn't face collecting a medal in front of the hostile partisan crowd. Budd tried to apologize to Decker in the tunnel after the race, but Decker did not respond in the same spirit, and replied, “Don’t bother!”^[9] Puică took gold, with Sly in second, and Canada's Lynn Williams the bronze.

Although Budd was jeered by the crowd, an IAAF jury found that she was not responsible for the collision. Decker said many years after the event “The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. 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."^[10]

In general, it is the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead; whether or not Budd had sufficient control of the race to have pulled into the curve as she naturally did was hotly disputed. "This doesn't mean," track journalist Kenny Moore wrote in the aftermath, "that a leader can swerve in with impunity, but that in the give and take of pack running, athletes learn to make allowances."^[11] At first the US media sided with Decker, while the British press supported Budd.

In 2002 the moment was ranked 93rd in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

International competition[link]

Budd competed internationally for the UK in 1985 and 1986. In February 1985, she was World Cross Country Champion (beating Ingrid Kristiansen) but then went on to several track defeats. The most significant of these was her rematch with Mary Decker-Slaney at Crystal Palace in July 1985 in which she finished fourth, some 13 seconds behind Decker-Slaney.

Budd's form improved significantly after this race, however, as she then went on to break the UK and Commonwealth records for the 1500 m (in 3:59.96), the mile (4:17.57), the 3000 m (8:28.83) and the 5000m (14:48.07). This last reduced the world record by ten seconds. She was also victor in the European Cup 3000 m. Her best times in the 1500 m, mile run and 3000 m were set in races with Decker-Slaney and Maricica Puică. Budd finished third in all three races, with Decker-Slaney and Puică consistently coming first and second respectively.

1986 began with a defence of her World Cross Country title and a world indoor 3000m record of 8 m. 39.79 s. However after a couple of victories in fast early season times over 1500m (4:01:93) and 3000m (8:34:72) her outdoor track season brought several defeats by athletes she should have beaten easily. She competed in both the 1500m and 3000m at the European Championships but did not win a medal in either, finishing 9th and 4th respectively. It later emerged that Budd was suffering a painful leg injury for much of the season: she did not compete in 1987 as she sought treatment for this.

In 1988 she began to compete again with a handful of cross-country runs. However, several African nations claimed that she had competed in an event in South Africa (Budd claimed she only attended the event and did not run) and insisted she be suspended from competition. The International Amateur Athletics Federation upheld this charge and suspended her, at which point Budd returned to South Africa. She retired from international competition for several years, but returned in time to represent South Africa in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, competing in the 3000m.

Marriage and beyond[link]

In 1989 Budd married Mike Pieterse. She began racing again in South Africa. She had an excellent season in 1991 and was the second fastest woman in the world over 3,000m. Following South Africa's re-admission to international sport she competed in the 3000 metres at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona but did not qualify for the final. In 1993 she finished fourth at the World Cross Country championships but would never translate this form onto the track.

Budd remains the holder of numerous British and South African records at junior and senior levels and still holds two junior world records; the mile and the 3000 metres.

In April 2006 Budd filed for divorce after her husband allegedly moved in with a semi-finalist in the Mrs. United Nations South Africa beauty pageant.^[12][13] The couple later reconciled.^[14]

Budd and her family have been living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, since August 2008. She has a two-year visa that allows her to compete on the US masters' circuit, is a volunteer coach at Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers track team and has raced in the South Carolina division of USA Track and Field, winning the women's division of the Dasani Half-Marathon during Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon on 14 February 2009 with a time of 1:20:41.^[15][16]

Budd's children also compete: at the 2 May 2009 Orangeburg, South Carolina Festival of Roses road race, after winning the women's 12 km. event, she watched her daughter Lisa (13) win the girls 5 km. 12–19 age group at 30:17, followed by her niece Claudia (17) at 31:36.^[17]

On January 12, 2012, she announced her participation in the 2012 edition of the Comrades Marathon to be held on June 3, 2012. She would also participate in the Two Oceans Marathon during the Easter weekend of 2012 as she trains towards the Comrades Marathon. ^[18]

Cultural impact[link]

In South Africa today, township taxis are nicknamed "Zola Budd" for their speed. The singer Brenda Fassie (whom Time magazine called "the Madonna of the townships" in 2001) had a hit single in the 1980s with her track "Zola Budd".

References[link]

External links[link]

• Twitter accounted created for sharing her Comrades training experience
• IAAF profile for Zola Budd
• SAfrica.info – Sporting Greats, Athletics: Zola Budd
• SportsIllustrated.com – SI cover: Back on Track – Mary Decker-Slaney beats Zola Budd in London
• Barefoot Running Book – Publication reviewed by Zola Budd's former coach with excerpts highlighting her career
• dartfordharriersac.co.uk – Dartford Harriers website with reference to Budd's race in 1984

Sporting positions
Preceded by Mary Slaney	Women's 5.000m Best Year Performance 1983	Succeeded by Ingrid Kristiansen
Preceded by Ingrid Kristiansen	Women's 5.000m Best Year Performance 1985	Succeeded by Ingrid Kristiansen