As I wrote last week, I hope people watch ESPN’s Nine for IX documentary series featuring women in sports. Tonight’s film is outstanding.
On the list of the most heartbreaking moments in sports, there’s definitely a place for Mary Decker and her dramatic collision with Zola Budd at the 1984 Olympics.
It’s all there in ESPN’s new Nine for IX: The Runner (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET). Be sure to check out the press conference video below.
Here’s the preview.
The extended clip from the documentary about Decker’s post-race press conference:
Here’s the write-up from ESPN:
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The next film in ESPN Films’ and espnW’s Nine for IX series, Runner, will premiere on Tuesday, August 13, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Shola Lynch, tells the story of American distance runner Mary Decker as she lined up to make her Olympic debut in the 3,000 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Decker had displayed unwavering dominance in every distance from the 800 to 10,000 meters. Her wholesome image graced magazine covers and adorned walls all over the world for more than a decade when she was known as “Little Mary Decker.” And at the age of 26, this was her first Olympics: she was barely too young to be eligible to compete in the 1972 Munich Games, stress fractures in her leg had kept her out of the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the U.S. boycott prevented her from competing in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. So the 3,000 was to be her coronation, the gold medal that would validate her greatness.
As fate would have it, though, there was another compelling figure in the race, a 19-year-old barefooted South African running for Great Britain, Zola Budd. Just past the midway point of the race, Budd crowded Decker on the inside lane, and in the panic and urgency of the moment, they collided. Decker fell to the track with a look of anguish. Budd would regain her stride but finish a distant seventh behind the winner, Romanian Maricica Puica. Decker initially blamed Budd, but in later years they reconciled and tried to get past the collision. Still, the one moment of heartbreak and Decker’s response to it came to define what should have been a glorious career.
Shola Lynch (Free Angela and All Political Prisoners) is a seasoned documentary filmmaker and former track star who was called “the next Mary Decker.” She holds a graduate degree in journalism from Columbia University and is working on a book based on her new film.