Jean Driscoll, the eminent wheelchair racer from Champaign, already had her silver medal. She won it back in Barcelona in the 800 meters.
Now, awaiting that race at the Olympic Games of Atlanta, she wanted more.
“I’m looking for gold here,” she declared, not surprisingly. “Gold goes better with my eyes.”
She possessed the best qualifying time in the field, so she clearly had reason to believe she could get it. But on a wet Thursday morning she had to settle for silver again, her effort of 1 minute 55.19 seconds leaving her .29 seconds behind winner Louise Sauvage of Austria.
Still, this was not a devastating loss for Driscoll, better known as a distance racer and the winner of seven straight Boston Marathons. That April marathon, in fact, was the focus of her training this year, and she did not turn her attention to her short Olympic event until she had won it once again.
“It’s my race,” she said. “It has been real good to me.”
This also explains why she wasn’t devastated by failing to get that medal that matches her eyes, and why she said Thursday, “Coming in second in an event that’s not my strength, I’m tickled. I’m a long-distance person. I hold the world record in the 10,000 meters and the marathon, so it’s God’s miracle I was even in this event, and even a bigger miracle that I won another silver.
“The only thing I regret is not being able to sing along with my national anthem on the medal platform. But I’ll be singing the anthem in my head with my silver medal.”
Derrick Adkins of the U.S., the world champion in 400-meter hurdles, ran away with his event, winning the gold in 47.54 seconds. Zambia’s Samuel Matete took the silver in 47.78, and Adkins’ U.S. teammate Calvin Davis caught Sweden’s Sven Nylander at the finish to grab the bronze in 47.96.
This was a sweet victory for Adkins, whose rivalry with Matete goes back to 1991.
Although Adkins had been closing the gap, Matete held a 22-15 lead in their series and a 4-1 edge in their meetings this year. But Adkins controlled this race from the start and as he entered the final straight, he was 3 meters up. Matete did not threaten.
“In most races,” Adkins said, “I have to psych myself up. For this one, I had to psych myself down. When I knew I’d won, it was a big weight off my shoulders.”
