10,000 metres, Women

In 1991, Liz McColgan had won the World Championship by going to the front early and simply breaking down the rest of the field. At Barcelona, she tried the same tactic in the final, but this time the field did not go away. At the halfway point, most of the field was still in contact, and, at 6,000 metres, South Africa’s Elana Meyer moved to the front. She quickly opened a gap, but was then chased down by Ethiopia’s Derartu Tulu. Together, they had broken the field and ran together until the bell. Then, Tulu pulled away and Meyer could not respond, Tulu winning by almost six seconds. American Lynn Jennings ran a huge PR to get the bronze medal, while McColgan finished in fifth place.

The gold and silver medal won by Tulu and Meyer had special sociologic implications. Tulu was a black African, while Meyer was a white South African. South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964 because of the treatment of blacks in that nation, and Meyer’s silver medal was the first for her nation since 1960. They did not know each other well. However, at the finish line, Tulu waited for Meyer to trail in behind her and they then ran together, hand-in-hand, on a victory lap. David Wallechinsky has written that this “seemed to symbolize hope for a new Africa”.