It was the night Evelyn Ashford made things clear.
When the sprinter from Sacramento crossed the finish line with a smooth stride in the electrifying atmosphere of the Letzigrund Stadium on the evening of August 22, 1984, no one could deny that she was the fastest woman in the world.
It took a few moments until the winning time in the 100-meter race at this year’s Zurich World Class Meeting was determined: 10.76.
Just 17 days after winning the Olympic title on her home soil at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Ashford had managed to remove the metaphorical A from the world record book next to her name – and free herself from her arch-rival who was challenging her for the title of fastest woman in the world.
When Ashford ran a time of 10.79 at the U.S. Air Force Academy Stadium in July 1983, she was helped by the high altitude of 7,000 feet (2,195 m) in Colorado Springs. “I’m so tired of seeing ‘Ashford 10.79’ with an ‘A’ after it,” she confessed.
The US star was also annoyed that some still considered Marlies Gohr to be the outstanding sprint queen of the world despite her decisive Olympic victory – she set a Games record and was 0.16 seconds ahead of her US teammate Alice Brown with 10.97 seconds.
The East German held the world record before Ashford: he ran 10.88 in Dresden in 1977 and 10.81 in East Berlin in 1983. Following Ashford’s time in Colorado, Gohr also won the first world championship title in Helsinki in 1983, when the new world record holder had to give up due to a thigh injury.
Raising the right hand of the victor
After missing the Los Angeles Olympics due to the Eastern Bloc boycott, Gohr traveled from Jena to face Ashford in Zurich. As Sports Illustrated put it, “It was the real Olympic final, just 17 days later.”
Craig Neef, the magazine’s correspondent, added: “Knowing the indomitable will of Ashford and Gohr and the bitterness of their rivalry, you can feel how much each of them wanted to win.”
The “bitter rivals” had been newly drawn against each other: Gohr in her blue East vest on lane three, Ashford in red on lane four.
With the bang of the starting gun, Gohr took the lead. Ashford remained behind in her starting blocks.
At 40 m, the Olympic champion was half a meter behind. However, she quickly caught up halfway through. In the last 20 m, she was able to pull away decisively.
Gohr finished the race with a time of 10.84 seconds, 0.08 seconds behind. The wind indicator showed a legal 1.7 m/s.
While Ashford was celebrating, Gohr sought her out and made a point of raising the winner’s right hand.
“I was under a lot of pressure before the race,” said Ashford. “It was important to beat Gohr to prove that I am the best in the world.”
“It was certainly a motivation to break the world record at sea level. It was depressing to see my world record with an ‘A’ for altitude behind it because I always felt Colorado Springs was in that world.
“In the Olympic final, I knew I could win if I was healthy. Here, I just wanted to win because it was important that I beat Gohr. The pressure on me was probably greater.”
“I knew I was better than ever. I just had to stop my body from exploding.”
Gohr complained: “I came here to win. I always come here to win – otherwise I would hang up my spikes.”
“In the last 10 meters she must have listened to a voice from above.”
At the age of 27, Ashford had reached the peak of her sprinting career.
One of the greatest runners of all time
Ashford had his early success at Roseville High School by outperforming the boys on the track team and flourished under the tutelage of Pat Connolly at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Evelyn Ashford at the 1979 World Championships in Montreal (© Getty Images)
Connolly was a three-time Olympian, having made her debut as a 16-year-old 800-meter runner in Rome in 1960. Ashford was just 19 when she was named to the U.S. team in Montreal in 1976, finishing fifth in the 100-meter final behind the German trio of Annegret Richter (West), Renate Stecher (East) and Inge Helten (West), and Australia’s Raelene Boyle.
At the 1979 IAAF World Cup in Montreal, Ashford won the 100 and 200 metres ahead of East German world record holders Gohr and Marita Koch, but the US boycott denied her the chance for Olympic glory the following year in Moscow.
In 1984, Ashford won gold in the 4×100-meter and 100-meter races in Los Angeles. At the 1988 US Olympic trials, she suffered a world-famous defeat to Florence Griffith-Joyner, who ran a breathtaking 10.49 seconds in Indianapolis. In Seoul, however, she took silver behind Flo-Jo in the 100-meter final and gold in the 4×100-meter race.
Evelyn Ashford leads the USA to Olympic gold with the 4×100 m relay in Los Angeles in 1984 (© Getty Images)
At the age of 35, Ashford won his third gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay in Barcelona in 1992, but missed the 100-meter final by 0.01 seconds.
Five years later, the former Olympic 100 m champion and world record holder was inducted into the U.S. National Track and Field Hall of Fame as “one of the greatest runners of all time.”
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage
