A Pathetic Sonata
Perec Flees, 'Our Cathy' Wins

by Mark Mordue

Oh dear. Let me be the first Australian to send my sympathies to the French runner Marie-Jose Perec. Now cowering in secrecy somewhere in Paris, in her twilight years as an athlete, 'the Garbo of the track' claims she could  have defeated Cathy Freeman in the 400 metres at the Olympic Games in Sydney. If only she had run.

But of course, madame, you didn't.

The French Olympian fled Sydney without competing in the preliminary heats, or if she had qualified, the final of the 400 metres event. Why she departed so hurriedly was the Olympics front-page question of the day. It is now last week's news.

Ultimate victory in the 400 metres in Sydney went to her fellow athlete, Cathy Freeman. This triumph made the Aboriginal Australian a national heroine for race relations and an international sporting icon. Some voices are even beginning to compare the wonderfully named Freeman to Mohammed Ali.

The day after she raced, Sydney awoke to hundreds of billboards of Cathy Freeman in her Nike  'Phantom' Fastsuit, her head slightly bowed, standing steadfast in green and gold, a resolute image with the bold message, 'Change The World 400M At A Time'. This is exactly what Freeman is doing.

Perec must feel terribly left behind to be making the sour comments she is today. Could have, should have, might have, there are always possibilities in this world. Perec had a choice in Sydney, and now she has made her woeful decision, she sits back at home to sling the mud of doubt over a great athletic achievement.

Ironic when it was she who ran - the other way. Perhaps she needs a compass to help her in the future. If she has a future in anything more than fabulous hysterics.

Perec claimed that the Australian media had been harassing her. She also said that a stranger had threatened her in her hotel room. Hotel security and an examination of video surveillance footage do not verify the presence of any stranger. As for media harassment, Perec has become increasingly uneasy with her off-the-track superstardom in the past few years. In France her reactions to media interest have been erratic and extreme, even abusive. Australia was no different.

In sport, there are winners, there are champions, and then there are heroes. A champion copes with pressure, something a winner does not always do. A hero goes even another step, beyond even the issue of winning or losing. Freeman is both a champion and a woman of heroic stature.

Let us be frank here - Perec's trumpeted pressures pale into insignificance next to the demands that were made on her Australian competitor. The weight and hopes of the entire nation, black and white, were literally on Cathy Freeman's shoulders as she became a symbol for what we call 'Reconciliation'. Her victory was not just athletic, or simply political, it was deeply symbolic and necessary to the spiritual wellbeing of the country. She knew we all needed to feel good about her.

On the way to that victory Freeman endured a nasty public dispute with her former manager and  ex-boyfriend, Nick Bideau a few months prior to the beginning of the Olympics. Her more personal motivations for running include a sister who suffered from cerebral palsy. It made her feel she had to use her arms and legs to the best of her ability. Her sister died not long after her debut internationally at the Commonwealth Games in 1990. Freeman carried not only the hopes of the nation, but that of her mother and a family history blighted by racist policies earlier this century, not to mention her sister's memory.

Perec felt pressure? Whatever she felt is laughable next to Freeman's load.

That the latter found time to be sympathetic to Perec's troubles in Sydney - after a year of racing avoidances that her own team regarded as "mind games" - and to ask a media conference to leave Perec alone "if that's what she wants," only adds to Freeman's superior grace as a sportswoman.

Freeman eventually took gold in the 400 metres Olympic event at a speed of 49.11 seconds, not her fastest time, but certainly a winning one.

A few days later in an exclusive interview for the French sports daily, L'Equippe, Marie Jose Perec responded while sitting on her arse: "I think I would have run less than 49 seconds. Everything at training proved that to us. Never in my career have I taken things so seriously."

At the last Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, Perec won gold in the 400 metres with a time of 48.25. Freeman took silver with 48.63. A few months later Freeman defeated Perec. A new goddess of speed was taking over.

In the four years since that loss, the two athletes have never  competed against each other. Again and again, Freeman has established herself as the  undisputed world number one in the 400 metres race. At every major track event in the past year where Freeman and Perec might have met, could have met, should have met, the latter has pulled out, often at the last moment.

There have been many opportunities over the years to prove who  was  better. Cathy Freeman has  taken them all.

No one knows the real reasons for Perec's fearful, stupid behaviour. The immediately obvious  explanation is that she cannot face losing to a  superior athlete, that she is fading prima donna. As drug-testing becomes more rigorous, there has also been a suggestion that Perec simply cannot afford to compete. By running in the Olympics, she risked not only the ego-blow of a loss at the hands of Freeman, but the ignominy of a positive test that would discredit her entire running career.

Her behaviour in Sydney was no different to any of the previous times she and Freeman have almost met on the track. She didn't turn up again. It was just a more sensational evasion this time, with no  believable excuses to fall back on. It's doubtful she ever intended to compete, and it would be interesting to view her contracts with sponsors like Reebok as to whether a mere appearance in Sydney was enough to sustain her obligations. In other  words, was she ever in Sydney to run the race?

It's unlikely these speculations will ever be  answered. But since Perec enjoys speculation so much, she will no doubt understand why these questions are being thrown back at her.

Her comment on hypothetical running times is a cheap shot, pure sour grapes, and not even good enough to describe as the words of a sore loser. Perec knows better than anyone on this planet that Freeman is an unusually competitive athlete, a woman renowned for running as fast as she needs to win, for taking on and beating whoever challenges her.

Like Perec, Freeman can run faster too. Unlike Perec, Freeman is winning in the real world.

And when Freeman does lose, as she did yesterday in the 200 metres race against the American Marion Jones, she acknowledges a superior athlete as "awesome" and the fact "she's a nice person too." The 200 metres is not a Freeman specialty, but it was obvious she enjoyed the chance to compete in the finals. Freeman, you see, also knows how to lose.

It is interesting to go back to the luxury Grand Mercure Apartments where Marie Jose Perec was staying while in Sydney. They are owned by the French hotel chain, Accor, another Perec sponsor. She chose to stay here rather than at the Olympic Village because she wanted the privacy and security. She was well taken care of, reveling in the superb harbour views and the exclusivity.

It was perhaps unfortunate that outside her window stood a mega-image of Cathy Freeman. It filled the entire mirrored-glass side of the Maritime Towers building, located majestically on the rise to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Every day she was in Australia, Marie Jose Perec had to look out and face a colossus. In the end, she proved too small to compete with such a giant. And that is something to feel truly sorry about.

Want more Mark Mordue? Read his review of Ben Harper's "The Gift".

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