World Championships 1993 Women's 1500m

Sonia O'Sullivan wins silver for Ireland, behind a Chineese Athlete.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• World
• Championships
• 1993
• Stuttgart
• Athletics
• Sonia
• O'Sullivan
• 1500m
• Ireland

[ThePROTO1TYPE]

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.

[jimbojimjimbo]

@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]

@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.

[johnlvs2run]

Excellent running, 57s last 400 after 60s third lap.

Thanks for sharing.

[jimbojimjimbo]

Nothing about those Chinese performances can be described as "Excellent".

[gaybutsowhat]

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.

[jimbojimjimbo]

The Chineese didnt run as a team, they ran on performance enhancing drugs.

[metsdudenj]

Looks like a lesbian social there

[ThePROTO1TYPE]

@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]

@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.

[Averagebum2]

@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]

@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.

[pjtufty66]

@Averagebum2 Chinese Athletes were never subjected to any kind of druug testing . Fact !

[rachel7000rf]

@jimbojimjimbo - complelty agree. they should throw out all the wr the chinese got in this period

[MrCloonfad]

sonia..the greatest irish PERSON of all time.