Boria Majumdar
Journalist and sport historian
As PT Usha travels to Paris as the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), it is time to reflect on her feat as an athlete 40 years ago in Los Angeles, when history of sorts was made as the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) picked five women in a contingent of eight athletes.
Of the five, PT Usha had impressed the most, having won the 400 metres hurdles in a pre-Olympic meet by defeating some of the world’s best, including Debbie Flintoff of Australia and Lesley Maxie of the USA. Her timing of 55.8 seconds may have been slightly slower than her best but it would certainly be enough to get her into the Olympic final, especially with the world’s best hurdlers – all from behind the old Iron Curtain – boycotting the competition.
Expectedly, Usha sailed through to the semi-finals without trouble, finishing second behind the USA’s Judy Brown. She ran a good race in the second lane, cleared the hurdles without trouble and finished off strongly to bring cheer to the faces of the Indians in the stadium. The semi-finals saw Usha at her best. Running in the second semi, she won with a time of 55.94 seconds, beating Brown, who finished second with a timing of 55.97.
K Datta reported in the Times of India that the afternoon timing of the semi-final suited Usha, who changed her tactics and preferred not to surge ahead from the start. It was only on the home straight that Usha put in a last-ditch effort, leaving the others behind. Her timing was the fourth-best among all the finalists and she had certainly emerged a strong medal prospect by the time of the final.
The story of how Usha missed out on a bronze in the final is now part of Indian sporting lore. The melodrama of her loss ushered India into a state of mourning and it is best to describe the race as it was then reported in the press, “P T Usha came as close as one hundredth of a second to breaking India’s medal drought in the Olympic Games. The finish had to be replayed again and again on the giant screen at the Los Angeles memorial Coliseum before the results were declared…For the third place Usha was beaten by the last desperate lunge by Romania’s Cristina Cojecaru who was credited with a timing of 55.41 seconds. Usha’s timing was officially shown as 55.42.”
In fact, to make sure nothing was left to chance, the Indians lodged a formal protest claiming third place for Usha. However, the jury, justly, did not agree. The medal ceremony was delayed to make sure every doubt had been cleared. After the event, Usha retreated to her room in the Olympic village without speaking a word to anyone. Her silence said it all. It was a tragedy that continues to haunt her even today.
As she later recounted, for the first few minutes she didn’t even realize that her dream had ended. It was only when reality dawned that she felt an emptiness that she had never felt in her life. Her Olympic dream had been shattered, as it appeared, due to her own inexperience. There’s little doubt, however, that Usha had done herself and her country proud. She was only the fourth Indian athlete and the first woman from the country to have figured in an Olympic track and field final.
As one contemporary report noted, “Coming to think of it, for all the disappointment of not winning a medal, it was a most creditable performance by a girl of her limited experience. Usha took up the event six months earlier and this was her first taste of international competition. Before taking the plane to Los Angeles she had competed in only two big hurdles races in India, the Bombay Open meet and the pre-Olympic trials. Her own state, Kerala, had objected to her entry when she first wished to try her hand at the event in the Inter-State meet in New Delhi…An Olympic medal would have been a great reward for a girl who has dominated Indian athletics for half a decade…When coach Nambiar introduced her to hurdling he had predicted a place in the final for her. Perhaps Usha herself had not expected to win a medal. She may not have won the Olympic medal but she inspired an extraordinary rise of women athletes from Kerala—Shiny Wilson, M.D. Valsamma, Molly Chacko and Mercy Kuttan.”
As IOA president, she will now be in Paris and could well see India put up a best-ever Olympic performance.
Copyright © Boria Majumdar 2024
