100 / 80 metres Hurdles (100 m), Women

Gail Devers had known only bad luck in the Olympic high hurdles. Three-times World Champion (1993, 1995, 1999), she had all but won the gold medal in 1992 when she hit the last hurdle and stumbled to the line, falling across and lying sprawled out on the track, in fifth place. In 1996, she led the final early, but had problems with technique over the hurdles, slowed, and finished fourth. In Sydney she was again favored, after her 1999 World Championship, and with her blazing sprint speed which had brought her gold medals in the 100 in both 1992 and 1996. But in the semi-finals she pulled up at the fifth hurdle, having tweaked a hamstring. Nigeria’s Glory Alozie had been runner-up to Devers at the 1999 Worlds, but had to work thru her own personal trauma in the week leading up to Sydney. One week before the Opening Ceremony, her fiancé was killed when he was struck by a car on a Sydney street. The final came down to Alozie and Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina. Alozie led from the start, ahead by one metre at the fifth hurdle, but Shishigina’s superior flat speed showed thru and she ran her down by the last hurdle.