The French 4x100m realy team (© Getty Images)
It was a good day for France, and an up-and-down one for the United States. Jim Dunaway gives his insight from the Stade.
...La Marseillaise, at least twice today
Eunice Barber's superb last-round jump of 6.99 won the long jump. That, at least in part, should make up for her loss to Carolina Kluft in the heptathlon. No matter where you're from, you have to admire the athlete who wins with a come-through performance like Barber's. These are the moments you remember years later -- whether you're an athlete, a reporter, or one of the paying customers.
France also won the women's 4x100 relay, thanks perhaps not so much to superior speed as to superior baton passing. The final exchange between Sylviane Felix and Christine Arron - compared to the U.S. pass from Inger Miller to Torri Edwards - was like one of those slapstick movie bits where Fernandel goes into a revolving door behind a pretty girl and comes out ahead of her. It wasn't so much that the Americans' third exchange was bad as that Arron was at full speed when she took the stick from Felix, and that let her outrun Edwards to the line and win the gold for La Patrie.
Passing and dropping the baton
Of course, the United States has a long history of inferior baton passing in the 4x100.
Believe it or not, the U.S. has been dropping the stick or passing out of the zone since 1912, the very first year that the Olympic Games had a 4x100. In fact, counting men and women, American teams have been beaten in the short relay, despite superior individual speed, at least a dozen times in the World Championships and Olympic Games. And it might well have been more except for anchor legs by truly great sprinters like Bobby Morrow, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Hayes, Carl Lewis, Evelyn Ashford and Maurice Greene.
Along those lines, Kelli White might have made a difference if she hadn't been in limbo by the time the race was run. But that's not to take anything away from the French team's victory. They came to play, and they were the best team on the track - and tomorrow we'll hear that most stirring of national anthems, La Marseillaise, at least twice.
Skah
Looking at the men's marathon results, I came across a familiar name - Khalid Skah, of Morocco. In a very controversial 10,000 meters at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Khalid and Richard Chelimo of Kenya were engaged in a tight battle for the gold medal when they lapped Skah's fellow-Moroccan Hammou Boutaib. Boutaib then ran with the two leaders for more than a lap, occasionally appearing to impede Chelimo -- although the most visible interference took place when an official ran onto the track from the infield with the apparent objective of shooing Hammou away from Skah and Chelimo. Finally, in the last 200 meters, Skah took off and won the race by 6 metres or so with his strong finishing kick in 27:46.70.
The Spanish crowd was whistling a storm of disapproval as they finished, and the Kenyans protested, claiming interference by Hammou. The officials agreed, and Skah was disqualified.
I was working as a statistician with TV announcers Marty Liquori and Frank Shorter, when suddenly the producer, Tom Feuer, thrust a microphone into my face and said, "Jim Dunaway, our statistician, has seen a lot of Olympic races. What do you think, Jim?"
I nearly lost it, but I managed to blurt out something like, "I don't think anything Hammou did could have affected the outcome. Skah was going to win the race whether Hammou was there or not."
An hour later I ran into Skah outside the stadium, explaining to anyone who would listen that he shouldn't have been DQ'd, sort of like a street-corner preacher. I stopped and chatted with him for a moment or two and told him I agreed with him, and we shook hands and I went on my way.
Later that night, the jury of appeal reversed the disqualification. And Skah got his gold medal on the victory stand the next day, to volley after volley of whistles.
He was always a good guy, ready to talk with a reporter about his training and his races, or whatever you wanted to talk about. I wish I had realized he was in the marathon here; it would have been nice to say 'hello' in the mixed zone.
According to Dan Lilot of Track and Field News, it was Skah's debut as a marathoner. He finished 38th, in 2:16.34, and helped Morocco take fourth place in the marathon team championship.
