Blog: A Budding Star Resurfaces

Villains in the world of track and field are rare. Turning fans and/or competitors against you typically requires doing one thing: cheating. But for young Zola Budd at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, there was no cheating. There was no boisterous verbal sparring with her media-created rival, American Mary Decker. All it took was a racing error on Decker's part to turn Budd into one of the most despised athletes in America - at the ripe old age of 18.

In the 3,000-meter finals, Budd, the bare-footed South African runner competing for Great Britain, took the lead over Decker with less than one mile to go. Decker tripped as she clipped the back of Budd's foot and fell to the ground, earning the dreaded DNF. Budd meanwhile struggled to seventh place amidst a loud chorus of boos from the mostly American crowd. Budd was initially disqualified but that was overturned when replayed showed the contact was incidental. That one moment that became the defining moment for two of the greatest middle distance runners in the world is expertly addressed in Shola Lynch's "Nine for IX" documentary "Runner."

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