Word: benoit
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...delicate they all really are, and how fragile their dream. For every flying Carl Lewis there is a fallen Mary Decker, and the fullest appreciation of sport requires both. Joan Benoit breezes in gracefully from her marathon, while Gabriela Andersen-Schiess lurches along grotesquely behind, and the picture-memory of the spectators develops into a composite of both images-the terrific and the terrible-much more touching as an entry than either could be individually. The happiest circumstance, of course, is when they take turns. First U.S. Gymnast Mary Lou Retton rejoiced as Rumania's Ecaterina Szabo sighed, then...
...Olympics, where femininity is literally put to the test, the right to trudge 26-plus miles had been withheld from women until this year, when unsinkable Benoit, 27, of Maine and Andersen-Schiess, 39, of Switzerland came to opposite conclusions in the marathon. "I was extremely comfortable the entire way. It was a very smooth, happy, training-run atmosphere," said Benoit, whose 2-hr. 24-min. 52-sec. frolic was dramatic only in light of the arthroscopic knee surgery she underwent 17 days prior to winning...
...compact track of Santa Monica City College, where the mood was suitable for a high school pep rally, and so few tickets were sold at just $4 a head that the gates eventually were thrown open to all. Being a 5-ft. 3-in. feather in the wind, Benoit found that just 50 jostling women caused a terrific congestion. She hurried into the clear under a delightful painter's hat with the bill brushed back. About three miles out, Benoit ran away completely and was astonished when no one kept up. "I didn't complain," she said...
...other side of vainglory, Benoit is so down-home she picks blueberries and puts them up in preserves. Responding to a question about fame, she referred to her impending marriage: "People have wondered whether I'm going to keep my maiden name. Well, I'm going to drop it as quickly as I can." It even crossed her mind that rushing out so far ahead might be "showboating," but only if she faded along the way. A banner from Bowdoin College (her alma mater) made Benoit grin, and a mural of herself on a building prompted...
...Benoit took to running eleven years ago, at 16, as therapy after a skiing accident. Where most world-class runners gravitate to shinier training sites, Benoit remains partial to Portland, Me., even in the icy winter. "People in Maine respect me for who I am, not for what I've accomplished," she says. "I have no hassles out on the roads. I'm just another Mainer." Norway's Grete Waitz, 30, whom Benoit has never beaten, is favored to take the gold medal. But Benoit arrives at the Games with a sense of having already won something...