Rebirth of a fallen angel

Each of the competitors in the Olympic women's 100 metres hurdles final thought the "hold" was long as they waited to burst off the blocks. Not much longer than usual, perhaps only two seconds, but for Gail Devers it was time enough to remember a few seconds in her life she had been determined to forget.

"I'd told myself that I wouldn't think about Barcelona," she said. "The only time I had seen the videos had been when I had been invited to television studios to do interviews." That had been often. This week in Atlanta she could hardly ever turn on the television without seeing the stumble over the last hurdle that had cost her a second gold medal four years before. As soon as she had won the 100m against her old rivals Merlene Ottey, with whom she shared the same time, and Gwen Torrence, she could not get away from those pictures of her dragging herself along the track as if in some dreadful nightmare.

It was assumed that all she had on her mind as she went to the start of her second final last week was finally achieving a remarkable double. This time she completed the race, but finished out of the medals in fourth. "Oh, no," she said later. "I knew it would be difficult to get another medal. My rhythm over the hurdles hasn't been good enough and I hadn't had enough races over them this season. My only thought was that this time I had to clear all of them and not fall over."

She did that well enough, achieving one more personal success in a life that has had more than its share of obstacles. "The fall wasn't something that had played on my mind over four years," she said. "I've let it become part of my motivation. I kept thinking about it, but positively. In 1993 my only aim was to race without that happening again. I had to remember all the time that there were 10 hurdles, not nine."

Speaking before the hurdles event, she said: "I've now got it on my mind that there are 11 hurdles today to make sure I get over the last one." She did that well enough, but not sufficiently smoothly to beat the specialist hurdler Ludmila Enquist. Even so, she could say: "I'm happy - I couldn't expect more."

But Devers' record shows she has always expected more. To say that she was a surprise winner in the 100m in Barcelona would be to understate the determination that went into that effort. Her preparations in 1989- 90 were completely lost when she was desperately ill with a thyroid disorder. "For a while I was being told that I might have to have a foot amputated," she said. "Sometimes I got so depressed I couldn't even laugh at I Love Lucy, which I have always loved." Nevertheless, she is proud of her reputation for never crying.

Once the disease had cleared, she resumed training even more energetically to become the fastest sprinter-hurdler in the world. A hurdles gold medal in the 1991 world championships suggested that she had a chance of a double in Barcelona, but that fall ended the dream of something that only Fanny Blankers-Koen, of Holland, had achieved back in London in 1948.

She is 29-years-old and only 5ft 4in tall, but her strength is daunting. Her coach, Bobby Kersee, into whose arms she leapt after her 100m win, said: "I always say she has legs like spaghetti, but her lower body is the clue. She can squat lift 450lb. Even so, her comparative slightness has left her with a succession of injuries including a hamstring problem that has lasted for two years. Her boyfriend, the triple jump gold medal winner Kenny Harrison, said: "One of us always seems to be injured, but it helps to be with someone who understands your problems." Devers missed most of 1994 ("that's when I had nothing better to do than grow my nails") and last year would not even risk attempting a 100m in case the hamstring snapped.

The daughter of a Baptist minister, she went to Sweetwater High in California where she ran in cross-country and the 800m before turning to sprinting, hurdling and the long-jump. "I tried everything anyone suggested," she said. "But when someone mentioned the hurdles, everyone else said you can't do that you're too little."

She tends to be cautious with the press, but invariably charming. "I was unhappy about the talk in Barcelona about me and Gwen Torrence having fights. It wasn't like that. But I didn't want to start making statements about it because once you do that you feed the rumours and screw yourself up." The rumours of a bust-up still grew. "My concern was that they were ruining our [Gwen and my] attempts to improve the status of track and field in our country. It wasn't easy - it still isn't - and those rumours just made it more difficult. I don't even really know Gwen that well - we usually meet for about 10 seconds," she said.

Bob Kersee has seen a significant difference in Devers's form and style this year. "She's not just improved as a runner, she's become a real sprinter. She's become sharper." But he accepted that he was wrong to think that this sharpness would overcome any technical faults in the hurdles event. In fact these days she often runs so fast between the hurdles that she gets too close to them. Ironically, so fast that she has become only the second woman in history after Wyomia Tyus (1964-68) to defend the 100m title successfully.