BARCELONA, (Reuters) – Three decades after winning the first of nine Olympic medals, the remarkably youthful-looking Merlene Ottey has no intention of discarding her running shoes.
The graceful, Jamaican-born 50-year-old, who has been sprinting for adopted country Slovenia since 2002, took bronze in the 200 metres at the 1980 Moscow Games; three decades and 33 more major medals later she is at the European championships in Barcelona to take part in the 4×100 metres relay.
“I think as long as I can still run I will run,” Ottey, clad in blue jeans, a white shirt and sparkly sandals, told Reuters yesterday in the lobby of her hotel in the Catalan capital.
“There are masters competitions going on so it’s not like I’m the oldest person out there,” she added.
“The problem is that competing with people my age doesn’t do me any good at the moment as I am a few metres faster than them, so what can I do?”
Ottey’s haul of nine Olympic medals is more than any other woman’s in track and field, although she never won gold, missing out on the 100 metres title in Atlanta in 1996 to American Gail Devers by 0.005 seconds.
Known as “the Queen of the Track”, she will be the oldest athlete to compete at a European championships if, as expected, she is deployed in the relay later in the week.
“It’s good that at my age I can still make a relay team,” she said. “And I know I’m not the slowest out there so that gives me some pleasure.”
OUTSTANDING CROP
Ottey conceded that the Barcelona event, held at the stadium where she won bronze in the 200 metres at the 1992 Olympics, may be her last major competition given that 2011 is a world championships year.
“Unless I get a huge miracle it’s possible (this will be my last) but we will see,” she said. “Over the years I’ve learned a lot about myself and about others and what I can do.
“For me there is no pressure now. I enjoy what I do. I can afford to train three days a week.
“If I want to do less I can do less. My priority now is to be healthy and see what I can do. If it’s good enough to be at a championships then I will go.”
Jamaica has produced an outstanding crop of sprinters in recent years, with triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt sweeping all before him in the men’s events and Shelly-Ann Fraser (100), Veronica Campbell-Brown (200) and Melanie Walker (400 hurdles) also taking Olympic gold in Beijing two years ago. Ottey, whose relationship with Jamaica soured after she was told to make way for younger talent, said the country’s sports infrastructure was much more developed now. “I think it’s excellent because when I was running it was just me alone,” she said. “Now we are proving that we can produce more than one and dominate. The country is behind them and there’s a lot more money in sports. “They are getting the money and the support and people can afford to focus on the sport in school and train and they get the results. It looks good for the future because the younger athletes are more motivated.”
RARE OPPORTUNITY
Ottey, who ran 11.67 seconds this month compared with a personal best of 10.74 set in Milan in 1996, was realistic about Slovenia’s chances of making Sunday’s relay final.
“This is a rare opportunity for us because normally Slovenia doesn’t have a team,” she said. “Unless people mess up it’s going to be a challenge for us to advance but we’re going to go out there and try.
“To get there I think we’d have to run 43 seconds and that would be a national record by far for us but we’re not going to give up.”
Slovenian sprinter Kristina Zumer was with Ottey in the hotel lobby and her admiration for her illustrious team mate, with whom she has been training for 10 years, was obvious.
“She’s an amazing talent and also her approach to training and competition is extremely professional and dedicated so it’s an amazing thing to observe and to be able to learn from,” Zumer told Reuters.
