Winning a medal in the Olympics has a special aura about it. An Olympic honour is the ultimate goal of any sportsperson.
And yet why do Olympic dreams of champions of various hue in the world die as they often do?
Some have earned a medal to show but few are able to endorse their supremacy with an Olympic gold. Again some like Beth Tweddle, a British gymnast who has many world and European titles to her credit, or Paula Radcliffe, another British athlete, world record holder in marathon, still see London 2012 as a possible opportunity to win a medal. Such is the yearning for recognition in the Olympics.
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Sad stories
Not all are as fortunate as Tweddle or Radcliffe. Olympic history is stringed with any number of sad tales of missed opportunities by leading athletes of various eras. Some explain it to the periodicity of the Olympics.
The once-in-four-year programme allows little room for an ‘off-colour’ day. An opportunity thus lost seldom returns four years later or if it does, the form would have deserted the champion. Injuries can be another curse and then of course the imponderables of politics.
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Boycotts for instance have spoiled careers as it did for Henry Rono, acknowledged as one of the finest long-distance runners from Kenya. He was peaking in the mid seventies and seemed ready for the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Sadly for Rono, Kenya was part of the 25 African countries which boycotted the Games protesting over New Zealand’s sporting links with South Africa.
Classy Rono
Such was Rono’s calibre that he came up with an unprecedented effort of four world records in distance running in the space of 81 days in 1978.
The feat came in 10,000m, 5000m, 3000m steeplechase and 3000m. More glory was to follow in the Commonwealth and All African Games and yet when he was ready for Olympic honours in the 1980 Moscow Games, came another boycott!
By 1984 poor Rono was not even competing and he was destined to go without an Olympic tag to his career.
Equally poignant is the story of American Mary Decker.
A one-time 1500m and 3000m world champion and record holder Decker was felled by injury in 1976, then the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic dented her hopes.
Disaster
In 1984 when everyone believed she finally was ready for the big occasion, disaster struck midway in the 3000m race when South Africa-born British bare-footed runner Zola Budd reportedly came in the way of her stride. Mary took a tumble and with that ended her Olympic dream.
Such ill-luck tales are plenty, champions missing the gold or settling for just a medal like Mike Powell, the eraser of Bob Beamon’s gigantic Olympic jump mark.
The world record (8.95 mts) still stands, but the American’s best in the Olympics remained two silvers (1988 and 1992).
Not very different was the experience of seven-time Olympic participant Merlene Ottey from Jamaica and now Slovenia.
Ottey shone everywhere in the 100m and 200m, with 14 medals in World championship (the most by any athlete) and yet an Olympic gold has eluded her.
Just bronze for Clarke
Going further back in history is the instance of Australian Ron Clarke best known for the 17 world records he set in long distance running. Here was a man who was the first to run three miles under 13 minutes and had clipped 39 seconds from his own 10,000m world record. For all this Clarke had only an Olympic bronze, won in 1964 Tokyo in 10,000m to show!
Frankie Fredericks, one the best in the world in 200m had to remain content of being the only Namibian to win Olympic medals (four silvers in all, 1992 and 1996). For one who has won golds in the world, indoor world, commonwealth and all-African Games, the Olympic hoodoo was something he could not break.
List goes on…
The list could go on. Briton Colin Jackson, three-time world champion in 110m hurdles, could never justify his supremacy in Olympics, settling for silver in the 1988 Seoul Games.
Similar were the experiences of Moses Kiptanui, a champion steeplechaser from Kenya and one of the world’s best athletes from 1991 to 95, and Wilson Kipketer, former 800m world record holder, who remained undefeated for three years.
If Kiptanui’s Olympic achievement was a silver in Atlanta (1996) then the Kenya-born Dane Kipketer could manage a silver and a bronze in Sydney and Athens. The saga of great champions missing Olympic gold continues.