Zola Budd getting foot in door of masters track?
The Telegraph newspaper in Britain concludes its Zola-Budd-at-IAAF-Gala story with an intriguing tidbit: “In addition to studying for a Master’s degree in pastoral therapy, she is running again. The aim is to compete on the masters’ circuit. ‘I’m trying to train once a day, every day of the week. It’s a bit like old times,’ she said.” A South African paper reported: “Having been reconciled with her husband, she is aiming for a comeback on the Masters circuit for over-40s. ‘I’d like to think I could be competitive,’ she said.” Yowza!
The former barefoot wonder, whose South Africa-to-England switch and Mary Decker trip-up made her name a household word, would be a welcome addition to our set.
Zola (whose name I heard prounounced Zah-la at the LA Games by some South African fans sitting behind me) turned 40 this year.
One Response
Any former Olympian that is willing to come back after years off deserves a tremendous amount of support from the Global Masters Community. A great percentage of these athletes don’t have the desire after running at the Olympic level and it takes putting the ego on the shelf and comming to terms with the possibility of defeat after being famous–also the pressure of the expectations the public tends to put on them–I think it would be great just to have Zola or Henry comeback Rono in the race–forget about placing pressure on them to be at their best–I hope as more and more of these athletes come out and stay out as Masters that this trend will snowball–what a wonderful thing that would be for the sport.
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