Merlene Ottey at the Olympic Games  -  Sydney 2000

klikni>

100 m

After all the stress she must have felt due to the discussions surrounding her selection to run the 100 metres, Merlene Ottey impressed heavily in the first races at her 6th Olympic participation. She won her preliminary and quarterfinal heats in 11.24 sec. and 11.08 sec. respectively. Up against strong medal contenders in the semi-final she amazed everyone again by winning in 11.22 sec. and thereby making it to yet another Olympic final at the age of 40 - simply fantastic!!! Merlene herself said after the race: "One or two races are enough for me. Doing four rounds is definitely a killer. I tried. I was really going forward. I would have loved to have moved up one or two spots. It just didn't happen. But to finish fourth in the Olympics is a fantastic result considering everything. I missed one year of competition, and coming back here and running against these people, much faster than I am, for me it was a challenge. I did my very best". She continued "Two-and-a-half months ago, I didn't think I would race in these Olympics. I didn't think I would race again. So I was glad I had the opportunity to come back out here. At one point I thought 'Wow, to get into the final would be nearly impossible". On her selection to run the 100 metres Ottey said "I'm sure by now they (her critics) realize they are wrong. It was the right selection. In the end, Jamaica saw the three best run". As for Marion Jones, Ottey said she is in a class by herself: "Unfortunately there's nobody to challenge her".

In the final Tanya Lawrence was the first to react to the starter's gun. She was eventually passed by Marion Jones and Ekaterini Thanou, but held on to third place (11.18 sec.) 0.01 sec. ahead of Ottey. Marion Jones cruised to victory in an impressive 10.75 sec. ahead of Thanou (11.12 sec.). The first to congratulate Lawrence was Ottey: "She came over, shook my hands and said good job", said the beaming Lawrence.

200 m

In spite of her earlier success with participation 5 Olympic finals in a row (1980-1996), Merlene Ottey chose not to run this distance. Instead the 200 metre final was won by Marion Jones ahead of two girls receiving their first individual Olympic medals ever, Pauline Davis-Thompson (Bahamas) and Susanthika Jayesinghe (Sri Lanka).

200 m final (wind speed )
1. Marion Jones 21.85 sec.
2. Pauline Davis-Thompson 22.27 sec.
3. Susanthika Jayesinghe 22.28 sec.
4. Beverly McDonald 22.35 sec.
5. Debbie Ferguson 22.37 sec.
6. Melinda Gainsford-Taylor 22.42 sec.
7. Cathy Freeman 22.53 sec.
8. Zhanna Pintusevich 22.66 sec.

4 x 100 metres

In her last Olympic race Merlene managed to bring home a silver medal to Jamaica. McDonald handed Ottey the baton in second position behind the Bahamas and Ottey held on to the silver in spite of a strong finish by Marion Jones (USA), who's dream of a third Olympic gold medal was changed into yet another bronze medal. Had the Jamaican hand-over functioned as well as that of the Bahamian girls, the gold medal might be hanging around the neck of Merlene Ottey and the three other Jamaican girls. After 20 years of Olympic competitions Merlene Ottey now alone holds the medal record for female athletes with 8 medals (3 silver and 5 bronze).