In July and August 1996, the world sent its finest athletes to Atlanta. Some athletes came as familiar names from familiar nations. Others had toiled in obscurity. Each came proudly to Atlanta, and Atlanta received them in the same manner. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of those Summer Games, the AJC offers 20 memorable athletes and performances.
The third in the series: France’s Marie-Jose Perec became the first woman to win the gold medal in both the 200- and 400-meter runs since Valerie Brisco Hooks in 1984.
On the same stage where Michael Johnson blazed to Olympic glory, Marie-Jose Perec of France accomplished the same remarkable feat.
Johnson won the improbable double at 200 and 400 meters, and Perec did the same, winning both events and becoming just the second woman in Olympic history to accomplish the feat. On July 29, 1996, Perec won the 400 in Olympic record time, 48.25 seconds, a mark that stands entering the 2016 Olympics and is the third fastest all-time.
She also became the first Olympian, man or woman, to win the 400 twice, although Johnson won his second 400 four years later in Sydney.
At least in the U.S., history doesn’t remember her as vividly as Johnson, who scorched his world-record time in the 200 to complete his double. Perec won the 200 to get her sweep on the same night, about 15 minutes before Johnson, overtaking Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey in the final 10 meters.
“I think that I’m on cloud nine,” she said after the race. “I never thought I would succeed this evening.”
Her feat in Atlanta set her apart as one of the greatest French athletes of all-time and one of track’s best. She recalled the triumph in 2015 for The Hindu newspaper in India, where she was serving as an event ambassador for a 10K road race in Bangalore.
Of the 400: “It’s difficult to win gold medals in the same event in successive Olympic Games. But I was so well-prepared that when I started that race I knew I would win. It may seem overconfident to think or say that but that day, that’s the way I felt.”
Of the 200: “It was not my specialty; I’m more a 400 runner. A lot of people thought it was impossible for me. When I look back on it, sometimes I feel: ‘This wasn’t true. This can’t be me.’ It was incredible.”
She commented also on the odd turn of events at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. With the world eagerly awaiting a 400 showdown between her and Australian Cathy Freeman, Perec pulled out at the last minute, saying she had been harassed by strangers and that an unidentified man forced his way into her hotel room and threatened her.
“It was so painful. I don’t even want to talk about it. The word ‘difficult’ is not enough to explain what I lived through.”
Perec retired from track in 2004 at the age of 36. She and her companion, a former French skier, have a young son. Since retirement, she has served in multiple functions as an ambassador for her sport. In 2013, she ran the New York City Marathon to raise money to support Haiti, a nation close to her native Guadeloupe. In 2015, she helped found a group dedicated to providing athletic opportunities to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
She also helping Paris’ bid for the 2024 Olympics. Paris last held the Games in 1924.
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