Marie-Jose PEREC

Marie-Jose Perec was a highly talented athlete, whose brilliant achievements on the track were sometimes given less prominence than the controversy that often surrounded her. Although Perec commenced her career as a 200m runner, she won the 400m at the 1988 French national championships in the season in which she seriously contested the event. However, at the Olympic Games held in Seoul later that year, she only competed in the 200m, in which she was eliminated in the quarter-finals. The following year, Perec won the 200m at the European Indoor Championships in The Hague, and then finished 6th at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest. Still a relative newcomer to the 400m, Perec produced a sensational performance at the 1989 World Cup in Barcleona by crossing the line first in 50.30sec. Unfortunately, her victory was denied, as she was disqualified for running inside her lane on the final bend.

At the 1990 European Championships in Split, on 29 August, Marie-Jose won her first medal in a major competition when she finished 3rd in the 400m in 50.84sec. Two days later, Perec ran a speedy anchor leg of 49.69sec for France in the 4 x 400m relay, but her efforts were to no avail, as the French team finished in fifth place. Perec made a major breakthrough in 1991, breaking the 50 seconds barrier for 400m for the first time, with a brilliant time of 49.32sec, which she recorded when winning the European Cup on 29 June. Later that year, on 27 August, Perec improved that time even further, when she won the 400m at the World Championships in Tokyo in 49.13sec, and was obviously delighted with her performance (see photo above). Five days later, Marie-Jose anchored the French team to a fifth place finish in the 4 x 100m relay.   (Ron Casey)

In 1991, Marie-Jose Perec had established herself as the world's premier 400m runner, when she easily won the gold medal at the World Championships in Tokyo. Perec continued this dominance in 1992, although she raced sparingly at that distance. Prior to the Olympic Games that year in Barcelona, Perec had clocked the year's fastest time of 49.50sec at the Nikaia meet in Nice. At Barcelona, Marie-Jose won her semi-final in a seasonal best time 49.48sec, and the gold medal seemed a mere formality, although she was made to fight for it in the final. Defending Olympic champion Olga Bryzgina (Ukraine) had temporarily retired after her Olympic victory and had only returned to competition in 1991.

In the final at Barcelona on 5 August, Bryzgina made a very fast start and led through the halfway mark in 23.7sec. However, at that point Perec started to close the gap, and although Bryzgina still led at 300m, she was quickly passed by the long striding Perec, who raced away (see photo above) to win the gold medal in a new personal best of 48.83sec, moving her to 6th on the all-time world list. Unfortunately, Perec somewhat soured the moment by stating that she considered her run to be the world record, and that she had not needed any 'biological preparation', making a pointed accusation at the other five athletes (including Bryzgina) above her on the all-time list. In the 4 x 100m relay final held three days later, Perec anchored France to a 4th place finish, only 0.04sec behind the bronze medallists. In the 200m during the 1992 season, Perec produced a personal best of 22.20sec at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on 19 August, and then was victorious in that event in 23.07sec at the World Cup held in Havana on 25 September. (Ron Casey)

Although Marie-Jose Perec had firmly established herself as the world's best 400m runner by winning the World title in 1991 and the Olympic title in 1992, she chose in 1993 to compete only at the shorter distances of 100m and 200m. At the European Cup in Rome on 26 and 27 June, Perec won silver medals in three events, the 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m relay. On 2 July, she lowered her 200m personal best to 21.99sec, and then came 4th in that event at the World Championships in Stuttgart on August 19. Perec also just missed a medal in the 4 x 100m relay at Stuttgart, when she anchored the French team to a fourth place finish. Perec returned to 400m competition in 1994, where she was unbeaten across the line during the whole season, although she was disqualified at the Monaco Grand Prix for stepping out of her lane on the final turn. Perec competed in the USA during the early part of the season, recording victories at New York on 22 May and San Jose on 28 May.

The major event of the year was the European Championships in Helsinki, where, on 11 August, Perec sprinted away at the start of the 400m final, winning the gold medal easily in 50.33sec. That gold medal was fairly predictable and expected, but three days later, the French 4 x 400m relay team, with a brilliant anchor leg of 49.36sec by Perec, upset the favoured Russian and German teams to win the gold medal. The French team were obviously delighted by their victory (see photo above, Perec 2nd from left:  photo Stuart Franklin 14th August 1994), and their winning time of 3min 22.34sec established a new national record. This same foursome represented Europe in the 4 x 400m relay at the World Cup in London on 9 September, but there they were only able to finish in 4th place. (Ron Casey)

In 1994, Marie-Jose Perec, had re-established herself as the world's top 400m runner, remaining undefeated throughout the season, except for a disqualification due to a lane violation, and winning the gold medal at the European Championships in Helsinki. In 1995, Perec concentrated a lot of her efforts on the 400m Hurdles, which she had not contested since 1989 when she won the French national title. Prior to the World Championships held that year in Gothenburg, Perec had improved her personal best in the 400m Hurdles to 54.48sec at Paris on 3 July, and then further lowered that time to 53.92sec when she won at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 21 July. She did not neglect the 400m while perfecting her hurdling technique, recording the fastest time for the year before the World Championships of 50.02sec at Nice on 12 July.

The timetable at Gothenburg had been rescheduled to accommodate Perec's wish to attempt the 400m/400m Hurdles double, but she eventually withdrew from the hurdles due to a sore hamstring. Perec took it easy in the preliminaries of the 400m, finishing 2nd in her semi-final on 6 August (see photo above: taken by G. Herringshaw ©) in 50.42sec. However, Marie-Jose stamped her authority on the field in the final two days later, winning easily in the season's best time of 49.28sec. In the semi-final of the 4 x 400 relay held on August 12, the French foursome, boasting three of the four members who had won the gold medal for France at the previous year's European Championships, finished a disappointing 5th, despite a 50.30sec anchor leg by Perec, and failed to advance to the final. Following the World Championships, Perec slashed her personal best in the 400m hurdles to 53.21sec, at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on 16 August. (Ron Casey)

Seemingly not content with just being the best female athlete in the world over 400m, Marie-Jose Perec was always seeking new challenges for herself. These included concentrating on the shorter sprint distances in 1993, when she finished 4th in the 200m at the World Championships, and a brief flirtation with the 400m Hurdles in 1995. Marie-Jose set herself the daunting task in 1996 of winning both the 200m and 400m at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, to try to emulate the feat achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks at Los Angeles in 1984.

In Atlanta, Perec seemed set to easily defend her 400m title when she won her semi-final in 49.19sec, well inside the personal best of Cathy Freeman (Australia) who had won the other semi-final in 50.32sec, and was considered Perec's main threat. In the final on 29 July, Freeman gave Perec the race of her life as she came up to the shoulder of Marie-Jose as they entered the straight. These two great athletes battled each other down the straight, with Perec finally proving too strong. Perec became the first athlete, male or female, to win a gold medal (see photo above: 29th July 1996 photo G. Herringshaw. ©) in the 400m at two successive Olympic Games. Her time of 48.25sec smashed the Olympic record, and moved her to third on the all-time world list.

It seemed that Perec would have more formidable opposition in the 200m, after Merlene Ottey had won the second semi-final in 22.08sec, to almost match the 22.07sec recorded by Perec in winning the first semi-final. In the final on 1 August, Perec caught the faster starting Ottey with 15m to go to win her second gold medal in 22.12sec. Despite her heavy race schedule, Perec had enough energy left to anchor the French 4 x 100m relay team to a 6th place finish two days later. (Ron Casey)

Marie-Jose Perec had a phenomenal year in 1996, in which she became only the second woman to win both the 200m and 400m at the same Olympic Games, and the first athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic 400m title. However, Perec was never a serious contender in major competitions after that, as the rest of her career was plagued by injury and illness. In 1997, Marie-Jose concentrated on the 200m, and contested that event at the World Championships in Athens. It had been uncertain as to whether Perec would even compete at Athens following a stress fracture she had suffered to her shin, but she looked reasonably comfortable when she won both her heat in 22.87sec, and her quarter-final in 22.69sec on 6 August (see photo above). However, Perec withdrew from her semi-final two days later after she pulled a muscle warming up.

Unfortunately, worse was to follow, as Marie-Jose did not compete at all in 1998, due to contracting Epstein-Barr Syndrome, a form of mononucleosis, and suffering from resultant cardiac problems. Perec made a cautious return to competition in 1999, but her best performance of 23.25sec over 200m was well below her best, and she subsequently abandoned her plans to compete at the World Championships in Seville. Her performances in the early part of the 2000 season were somewhat better, clocking 22.71sec over 200m at Lausanne on 5 July, and 50.32sec over 400m at Nice three days later. She travelled to Sydney later that year with the announced intention of competing at her fourth Olympics, but was immediately besieged by the media eager to hype up her intended clash with local heroine Cathy Freeman. After withstanding the pressure for a few days, Perec fled back to France before the heats of the 400m. (Ron Casey)