The Way It Might Have Been

By Richard Zoglin

The last time the world paid any special heed to Mary Decker and Zola Budd, the two women were leaving Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, both in obvious emotional pain, both hounded by the press, both with tears streaking their faces. Halfway through the Olympic 3,000-meter final, Budd, the barefoot sensation from South Africa, went a half-stride ahead and cut in slightly on Decker, the U.S. champion competing in her first Games. In one heart-stopping instant, Decker got tangled up in Budd's feet and crashed. As she cried out with the pain of a torn muscle and the sight of her Olympic dreams sprinting away, boos were showered on Budd, who wound up seventh.

Ever since, track promoters have sought a rematch, and when it was finally set for London's Crystal Palace last week (with each woman receiving a reported $25,000 to appear), the entire schedule of the Peugeot-Talbot Games was rejiggered so that the confrontation could be seen live on American TV. For those who wondered how the Olympic race would have turned out, last Saturday's race seemed for its first half an eerie replay. Slaney (Decker married British Discus Thrower Richard Slaney on New Year's Day) took the lead from the start, as she likes to do. Budd, now 19, still barefoot and 10 lbs. heavier than in Los Angeles, remained close behind in second, often just a nerve-racking whisper away from Slaney's shoulder. But their feet stayed apart, and with two laps to go, the younger runner started to fade as Slaney pulled away from the pack. There were no doubts or tears this time as Slaney, 26, scored a convincing victory in the best time posted this year (8:32.91) and Budd fell back to fourth.

The race climaxed a year of hurt, bitterness and self-examination for both runners. Immediately after their Los Angeles mishap, Budd had approached Decker, her childhood idol, to apologize, but the frustrated U.S. star dismissed her with a curt "Don't bother." For Budd, the waiflike wonder whose shoeless style and record-smashing times had drawn worldwide attention in the months before the Summer Games, the accident was a traumatic blow to an already turbulent career. She had come under fire for obtaining last-minute British citizenship in order to race in the Olympics and evade the antiapartheid ban on South African athletes. Now she seemed an overreaching child who damaged things, perhaps including herself. "My world was shattered," she said later.

Budd returned home to South Africa, where her parents were in the process of separating. She announced she was giving up international competition, but soon changed her mind and in December returned to the European circuit. Some old foes were waiting. In the midst of a February cross-country race in Birkenhead, England, two antiapartheid demonstrators rushed into her path, forcing her to drop out. A month later she won the world cross-country championship in Lisbon by a stunning 23 sec. but raced erratically after that.

The Olympic accident had been anequally crushing blow to Decker, who missed the 1976 Olympics because of an injury and the 1980 Games because of the U.S. boycott. Her snappish treatment of Budd and "bad loser" TV interviews cost her public sympathy and probably a good deal of money in endorsement contracts. But during five months of recuperation and renewed training, she refueled her competitive fires. In January, in her first race after the Olympics, Slaney set a new world's indoor record for the women's 2,000 (5:34.52), and she turned in several other impressive performances this year.

Meanwhile, she moved quietly to assuage the bad feelings of last summer. In March she wrote a private note to Budd, saying, "I apologize for hurting your feelings." Though still insisting that Budd was in the wrong for cutting in, Slaney, in a TV interview earlier this month, accepted some of the blame for "not knowing how to handle the situation ... I should have let her know she was cutting in." For her part, Budd acknowledged that she may have cut in too quickly and made the startling assertion that she purposely lost the race after the collision because she feared "the people would have booed again."

By race time last Saturday, the tentative efforts at reconciliation had put most of the bitterness behind them. Slaney wished Budd luck before the race, and afterward complimented her young opponent: "I think Zola ran a good race tonight. I'm glad that she was competitive." But tougher competition may still be waiting down the road. Among the top runners missing from Saturday's race was Rumania's Maricica Puica, who won the Olympic Gold Medal in 8:35.96, 3 sec. slower than Slaney's time last week. Budd, who had predicted before the race that she would lose, was glad to see the rematch over. "It has taken a lot of pressure off both of us," she said, adding that it would be at least a year before she could legitimately challenge Slaney again. But by then, the U.S. champion hinted after the race, it might be too late. After this year's racing season, Slaney said, "Richard and I are thinking of starting a family." --By Richard Zoglin. Reported by Steven Holmes/London

With reporting by Reported by Steven Holmes/London