Read Sonia's "My Story". The expanse of detail on this period in her career and these championships in particular shows how the experience turned around her way of thinking. It actually spurred her on to be the greatest and, sure enough, the following year she won her first major title, set a World record and a new 3,000 European record and in '95 she was unbeaten in 21 of the 22 races she ran at all distances from 1500m to 10000m. Sonia also remarkably refused to believe the Chinese were doped.
@ThePROTO1TYPE At the time Sonia refused to think they doped because to do so would be counterproductive. If you read her book properly you will notice that now, many years later, she does not believe they were clean, and she has said this on a few occasions, in newspaper interviews also, many years later.
@jimbojimjimbo With respect, I DID read her book "properly". You can't argue she was burnt out in 1996 considering her incredible achievements of 1998. My theory about Atlanta is that she was paralysed by fear - I saw it on her face at the start line and knew instinctively it would all go horribly wrong. The knock-on effect of her seriously damaged confidence was her stumbling block in Athens '97 too. In '98 her running obituary had been written. Nothing was expected. Everything was delivered.
@jimbojimjimbo I am not engaging in an argument here. I respect your obvious knowledge of athletics in general as well as your in-depth interest, knowledge and insight into Sonia's trials and tribulations. It is just my opinion about what happened in Atlanta. In fact the question of nerves was put to her in a TV interview with Pat Kenny and I must say I found her answer somewhat evasive. I recall too too that night in Atlanta she said she RAN back to her base as a "test" - and she was just fine!
@ThePROTO1TYPE One could also argue the fact that had it not been for the Chinese then she would have won gold in Atlanta. The defeats in 1993 pushed her to train so hard that it left her burnt out in 1996 and she got sick. She said that she was too focused on trying to be so much better than everybody else, and if she just concentrated on being just a little bit better than everybody else then things could have worked out differently.
My younger brother is a decent middle-distance club runner- but now plans to ‘take it to the next level’- by competing as a woman!
It’s like a great biological experiment- using hormone replacements to change gender while hoping athletic performance remains unimpaired. He’s even visited IAAF HQ in Monaco to press his case, spending hours at reception on his knees & crying in desperation. Last time he was forcibly ejected & they’ve now threatened to bar him from entering the country.
even though its history i just wanted to scream for sonia!!! i remember watching and wanting her or someone to stop the chinese! well done to all the 1500m girls who didnt let all 3 control the race they had to work as a team against the chinese team! no one enjoyed the 93 distance races, o'sullivan, wyeth, chalmers amongst those denied medles!
fuk you all who says the Chinese take drugs. CHinese althlete all train very hard to win and China do produce talented runners which Liu XIang proved. Before you have any evidence just shut the fuk up.
The Silver medal was the true gold in this race. good race having run the 3000 final earlier in d same week and had to settle for fourth with the chinese unknowns getting a clean or rather (unclean) sweep.
This athlete was capable breaking the 800m WR for sure - that her PB was 'only' 1:54 is surprising to this day. On another note, it would be Liu Dong that acted as pacemaker in Qu Yunxia's (who won the 3000m) 3:50.4 WR. She passed 800 in 1:59 and stepped off the track.
@heathcoat1 oh michelle de bruin was not sonia o'sullivan she was a cheat whatever country she was born in, she can not and should not be compared to any other athlete! she was also a nasty vile person!
yes you may think the time isnt great but for the last 2 laps to be sustained is out of this world and to never hear from them again..dey ran a tactic race dat der drugs could finish dem beter than others...but sonias sure class didnt let de 2 oder chinese get de better of her...but be sure ..time or not..tactics played well for de chinese cos of drugs..but sonia was true winner
@maguire024 Yes, she sure was the winner, small consolation but at least she got a medal. Chalmers should have had the bronze here, but she got nothing, and the race might have played out a little different if the chinese weren't in the race.
@maguire024 Sonia robbed of two gold medals in these championships and robbed of more by the other 'cheat' szabo.... take these out of thee equation and Sonia would've won far more, what a shame......
It was just disgraceful wasnt it. Except for 1 Chinese 10000/5000 metre runner you never heard of any of the others again. This was a year before the Chinese drug fested dominance of the 1994 World Swimming Championships.
@johnlvs2run absolute disgrace, sonia robbed of two gold medals in these championships....pumped to the eyes with drugs! God only knows the kind of times Sonia would of run had she been on similar substances.....
The Chinese had it all their own way in the 3000m - they ran as a team, not as individuals. There was no way the 1500m competitors were going to let this happen again. Boulmerka was absolutely within her rights to cut across that chinese girl.
Without any doubt their performances were drug-assisted. Having been beaten only by Chinese athletes - the drugged up ones - Sonia was the rightful World Champion at both the 3000m and 1500m distances. It leaves a bitter taste that this kind of thing can happen and there is no redress. They should have had their "achievements" erased from the record books and should have had to relinquish their ill-gotten medals too.
@Averagebum2 How do you explain the fact that there were 6 different female medalist from China in the middle/long distance events in 1993? That's more in one year than in all the years since, combined! It's hardly conclusive proof but it more than a little suspicious. I'm Irish so it easy to assume that I'm just bitter, but at least O'Sullivan got a medal it's the athletes that finished outside the medals that I feel sorry for.
@citizenkeane I agree that the performances were suspicious, but that doesn't prove that they were on drugs, since all testing by international drug testers never showed positive results. Just because we can't explain something, does not make it fake.
@Averagebum2 The fact that this coincided with the wins by China in female swimming events at the 1992 Olympics and 1994 World Championships, which were discredited completely in 1994 when 11 of the same swimmers tested positive for banned substance, convinces me that doping was systematic in China during the 90's. If you want to think the best and assume drug testing at the time was working then that's up to you, but there are some drugs that weren't detectable until recently, such as HGH etc.
@sallybumbas Cultural differences play a huge role in an athlete's future. In the West, if you have a good athletics career, you pursue it. In Asia, many athletes would happily give up training in order to get married and settle down. It seems that Wang Junxia married and American and settled down in the States.
Read Sonia's "My Story". The expanse of detail on this period in her career and these championships in particular shows how the experience turned around her way of thinking. It actually spurred her on to be the greatest and, sure enough, the following year she won her first major title, set a World record and a new 3,000 European record and in '95 she was unbeaten in 21 of the 22 races she ran at all distances from 1500m to 10000m. Sonia also remarkably refused to believe the Chinese were doped.
ThePROTO1TYPE 1 month ago
@ThePROTO1TYPE At the time Sonia refused to think they doped because to do so would be counterproductive. If you read her book properly you will notice that now, many years later, she does not believe they were clean, and she has said this on a few occasions, in newspaper interviews also, many years later.
jimbojimjimbo 1 month ago
@jimbojimjimbo With respect, I DID read her book "properly". You can't argue she was burnt out in 1996 considering her incredible achievements of 1998. My theory about Atlanta is that she was paralysed by fear - I saw it on her face at the start line and knew instinctively it would all go horribly wrong. The knock-on effect of her seriously damaged confidence was her stumbling block in Athens '97 too. In '98 her running obituary had been written. Nothing was expected. Everything was delivered.
ThePROTO1TYPE 1 month ago
@jimbojimjimbo I am not engaging in an argument here. I respect your obvious knowledge of athletics in general as well as your in-depth interest, knowledge and insight into Sonia's trials and tribulations. It is just my opinion about what happened in Atlanta. In fact the question of nerves was put to her in a TV interview with Pat Kenny and I must say I found her answer somewhat evasive. I recall too too that night in Atlanta she said she RAN back to her base as a "test" - and she was just fine!
ThePROTO1TYPE 1 month ago
@ThePROTO1TYPE One could also argue the fact that had it not been for the Chinese then she would have won gold in Atlanta. The defeats in 1993 pushed her to train so hard that it left her burnt out in 1996 and she got sick. She said that she was too focused on trying to be so much better than everybody else, and if she just concentrated on being just a little bit better than everybody else then things could have worked out differently.
jimbojimjimbo 1 month ago
sonia..the greatest irish PERSON of all time.
MrCloonfad 4 months ago
Yeah, only the Chinese were doping here...all of the European athletes were clean.
Lol.
beebeechitown 6 months ago
Ostrich running...it's the wave of the future.
GNoLuv 6 months ago
My younger brother is a decent middle-distance club runner- but now plans to ‘take it to the next level’- by competing as a woman!
It’s like a great biological experiment- using hormone replacements to change gender while hoping athletic performance remains unimpaired. He’s even visited IAAF HQ in Monaco to press his case, spending hours at reception on his knees & crying in desperation. Last time he was forcibly ejected & they’ve now threatened to bar him from entering the country.
SuperTruth77 6 months ago
the stutgart's 3000m is even more hilarious...
cantor0305 6 months ago
ahh, the famous 'magic soup" of the chinese trainer... hiralious, exept for the non drugs athlets of this 1500.
cantor0305 6 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
good job china
xinkaihuang97 6 months ago
algeria men do not fuck with algeria
bejakabyle 7 months ago
Thye chinese girls were on the drugs,some of them got caught down the line...
The real race was in fact between Boulmerka and O'sullivan
Riverplate111 8 months ago
I don't know how they can stand running in swimsuits.
iMaDeMoN2012 8 months ago
You wasted half the vid showing these doper lesbo hoes on the starting line.
beebeechitown 10 months ago
For anybody to say the Chinese athletes where clean is an idiot, what happened to the Chinese men, GDR programme written all over it
idontsignin 10 months ago
One two three viva l'Algérie :)
m3askri 11 months ago
sonia should have one heat cheats
divadean1 1 year ago
even though its history i just wanted to scream for sonia!!! i remember watching and wanting her or someone to stop the chinese! well done to all the 1500m girls who didnt let all 3 control the race they had to work as a team against the chinese team! no one enjoyed the 93 distance races, o'sullivan, wyeth, chalmers amongst those denied medles!
paulouk83 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
fuk you all who says the Chinese take drugs. CHinese althlete all train very hard to win and China do produce talented runners which Liu XIang proved. Before you have any evidence just shut the fuk up.
uloveit123123 1 year ago
The Silver medal was the true gold in this race. good race having run the 3000 final earlier in d same week and had to settle for fourth with the chinese unknowns getting a clean or rather (unclean) sweep.
irishguy888 1 year ago
Jimbo, do you also have the 3,000 m and 10,000m of 1993?
Averagebum2 1 year ago
1:42.93 for the 700 - say no more
runningshoe1 1 year ago
Off of a 2:17 first half, yes 4:00 for women is pretty remarkable. They were cheats.
astick1 1 year ago
This athlete was capable breaking the 800m WR for sure - that her PB was 'only' 1:54 is surprising to this day. On another note, it would be Liu Dong that acted as pacemaker in Qu Yunxia's (who won the 3000m) 3:50.4 WR. She passed 800 in 1:59 and stepped off the track.
danhar2688 1 year ago
Comment removed
frodoireland 1 year ago
Looks like a lesbian social there
metsdudenj 1 year ago 4
@metsdudenj fuck u dirty bastard
zenjabyl25 4 months ago
@zenjabyl25 eat my sperm mother fucker.
metsdudenj 4 months ago
Comment removed
danhar2688 1 year ago
The Chinese women were all doped and should have been d.q. !
Marchjoy1963 2 years ago 2
Remember the Irish swimmer who got caught doping? I sure do.
heathcoat1 2 years ago
@heathcoat1 oh michelle de bruin was not sonia o'sullivan she was a cheat whatever country she was born in, she can not and should not be compared to any other athlete! she was also a nasty vile person!
paulouk83 1 year ago
Yeah, it is very obvious that all the athletes from Great Britain and Ireland are so pure and clean that they don't even have to wash themselves.
amupala 2 years ago 2
This comment has received too many negative votes show
The Brits & Irish athletes have themost stringent drug testing regimes in the world!
aquamarineeyes 2 years ago
yes you may think the time isnt great but for the last 2 laps to be sustained is out of this world and to never hear from them again..dey ran a tactic race dat der drugs could finish dem beter than others...but sonias sure class didnt let de 2 oder chinese get de better of her...but be sure ..time or not..tactics played well for de chinese cos of drugs..but sonia was true winner
maguire024 2 years ago 3
@maguire024 Yes, she sure was the winner, small consolation but at least she got a medal. Chalmers should have had the bronze here, but she got nothing, and the race might have played out a little different if the chinese weren't in the race.
shottut 2 years ago
@maguire024 Sonia robbed of two gold medals in these championships and robbed of more by the other 'cheat' szabo.... take these out of thee equation and Sonia would've won far more, what a shame......
sallybumbas 1 year ago
CHINESE has doping
nassim21 2 years ago
Shame on Chinese.
monadomnica 2 years ago
The chinese probably did dope, but the winning time wasn't that amazing nontheless.
lucasboden 2 years ago 2
@lucasboden even still it was the speed of the last lap that enabled dong to win..... completely enhanced with turtle blood lol
sallybumbas 1 year ago
Sonia double 1500m/3000m champion of 1993- she was robbed!! showed her grit in the race!!
paulouk83 3 years ago
It was just disgraceful wasnt it. Except for 1 Chinese 10000/5000 metre runner you never heard of any of the others again. This was a year before the Chinese drug fested dominance of the 1994 World Swimming Championships.
raichmaneuvers 3 years ago 3
Gold- Sonia O Sullivan
Silver- Hassiba Boulmerka
Bronze- Angela Chalmers
The real podium of this race.
grafgirl27 3 years ago 4
i think boulmerka was doped
mc1703 3 years ago
Certainly possible but there isnt enough reasonable grounds evidence for me to feel comfortable making that accusation.
grafgirl27 3 years ago
@grafgirl27 Old comment, but just wanted to point out one thing. It is highly doubted that Boulmerka was clean.
95js95 5 months ago
I love the way she tried to slow the pace down!!
PePinmySteP 3 years ago
Excellent running, 57s last 400 after 60s third lap.
Thanks for sharing.
johnlvs2run 3 years ago 8
Nothing about those Chinese performances can be described as "Excellent".
jimbojimjimbo 3 years ago
@jimbojimjimbo excellent drug taking perhaps lol?
sallybumbas 1 year ago 2
@jimbojimjimbo how can their performance not be described as excellent. It's beyond excellent.
silverpradacab 1 year ago
yeah those drugs do the trick alright....
sallybumbas 3 years ago
@johnlvs2run absolute disgrace, sonia robbed of two gold medals in these championships....pumped to the eyes with drugs! God only knows the kind of times Sonia would of run had she been on similar substances.....
sallybumbas 1 year ago
i think the Chinese should give back their medals
funkyalbert 3 years ago
The Chinese had it all their own way in the 3000m - they ran as a team, not as individuals. There was no way the 1500m competitors were going to let this happen again. Boulmerka was absolutely within her rights to cut across that chinese girl.
gaybutsowhat 3 years ago
The Chineese didnt run as a team, they ran on performance enhancing drugs.
jimbojimjimbo 3 years ago 5
Without any doubt their performances were drug-assisted. Having been beaten only by Chinese athletes - the drugged up ones - Sonia was the rightful World Champion at both the 3000m and 1500m distances. It leaves a bitter taste that this kind of thing can happen and there is no redress. They should have had their "achievements" erased from the record books and should have had to relinquish their ill-gotten medals too.
gaybutsowhat 3 years ago
@jimbojimjimbo exactly, well said.
sallybumbas 1 year ago
@jimbojimjimbo Where is your evidence, Jimbo?
Averagebum2 1 year ago
@Averagebum2 How do you explain the fact that there were 6 different female medalist from China in the middle/long distance events in 1993? That's more in one year than in all the years since, combined! It's hardly conclusive proof but it more than a little suspicious. I'm Irish so it easy to assume that I'm just bitter, but at least O'Sullivan got a medal it's the athletes that finished outside the medals that I feel sorry for.
citizenkeane 5 months ago
@citizenkeane I agree that the performances were suspicious, but that doesn't prove that they were on drugs, since all testing by international drug testers never showed positive results. Just because we can't explain something, does not make it fake.
Averagebum2 5 months ago
@Averagebum2 The fact that this coincided with the wins by China in female swimming events at the 1992 Olympics and 1994 World Championships, which were discredited completely in 1994 when 11 of the same swimmers tested positive for banned substance, convinces me that doping was systematic in China during the 90's. If you want to think the best and assume drug testing at the time was working then that's up to you, but there are some drugs that weren't detectable until recently, such as HGH etc.
citizenkeane 5 months ago
@citizenkeane EPO maybe...hGH makes us bigger? They look so skinny. But the Chinese swimmers were coached by the East Germans...not so the runners.
Averagebum2 5 months ago
@Averagebum2 Chinese Athletes were never subjected to any kind of druug testing . Fact !
pjtufty66 2 months ago
@pjtufty66 From what I've read in the newspapers, they were even tested in their training camps so many times that they threatened to quit.
Averagebum2 2 months ago
@jimbojimjimbo bullshit, asshole
blobland19899 6 months ago
@jimbojimjimbo - complelty agree. they should throw out all the wr the chinese got in this period
rachel7000rf 3 months ago
Awesome. In the US we didn't get the whole race. Thanks!
azfeet22 3 years ago
Historical... but for all the WRONG reasons! No more comment required I think...
Ollie ;) xxx
charlie1004 3 years ago 2
I also think Boulmerka should have been DQ'ed for dilberately cutting off one of the chinese athletes.
azfeet22 3 years ago 2
I think its the chineese who should have been DQ'ed in fairness!
jimbojimjimbo 3 years ago
@azfeet22 Where did all these magnificent athletes go to? Must have run out of turtle juice lol....
sallybumbas 1 year ago
@sallybumbas Cultural differences play a huge role in an athlete's future. In the West, if you have a good athletics career, you pursue it. In Asia, many athletes would happily give up training in order to get married and settle down. It seems that Wang Junxia married and American and settled down in the States.
Averagebum2 2 months ago