Phoenix Road Race Draws Top Field, but Budd Draws the Media

It was supposed to be Zola Budd’s coming-out party.

The guest list included journalists from across Europe and North America. CBS television got an engraved invitation. Reporters from major news magazines flashed their credentials. They were here.

Everyone came. What an event. What a success.

Except that the hostess--who was supposed to sweep down a curved staircase resplendent in satin and smiles--sneaked in through the kitchen.

“Ahem,” she said, standing very small in the back of the room. “I’m here.”

It’s balmy and clear in Phoenix, only slightly cooler than it is in South Africa at this time of year. An international field of elite runners has assembled for the rich purse offered in Saturday morning’s Continental Homes 10-kilometer road race.

Reporters have gathered to see the reclusive Zola Budd.

There is to be a press conference, where, it is promised, Zola Budd will answer any and all questions. By herself, alone.

Zola Budd does not walk alone. At 18, she travels with a group of adult males. They watch her, they glare at reporters for her, they shield her.

The flying wedge of Budd’s group is here, at her first press conference since the week before she ran in the Olympic Games.

That was a time when she was simply known as the barefoot runner from South Africa who had fled to Great Britain seeking athletic asylum.

That was a time when she was hated by some simply because, in their eyes, she symbolized the South African government’s policy of racial separation. Every public appearance was met with protests and demonstrations. “White trash,” they called her.

Then Budd crashed into American sweetheart Mary Decker Slaney in the Olympic 3,000-meter final and finished the race amid a chorus of boos. She was spirited out of Los Angeles.

Budd returned to South Africa, briefly flirted with chucking her international running career to compete in the land of her birth, then changed her mind.

Then, it was announced that Budd would return to the United States to run. She would run in the Continental Homes 10K.

Some public figures are revered more for their style than their substance. Other stars are skillful in their field but not gifted as communicators.

Then there are some people who, by sidestepping the spotlight, make us strain even harder to see them. There are people about whom so little is known that even the most innocuous detail is held up as a prized revelation.

Zola Budd is such a person.

Consider her press conference last Wednesday. Elite runners such as Alberto Salazar and marathon world record-holder Steve Jones were ignored in favor of Budd.

Budd was ushered into the crowded press room by Frank Shorter, the former Olympic marathon champion whose Boulder, Colo., company, Personal Services Inc., represents Budd in the U.S.

Budd has changed, almost imperceptibly. She said she has grown two inches and gained four pounds in the last year. Still, she seems but a wisp as she stands stiffly, hands clasped behind her back. Her light brown hair is short and wavy. She wears glasses. Her new denim pants bag on her slender frame and gap where her hips should be.

Budd makes a brief statement before answering questions, but, even though she uses a microphone, no one in the room can hear her.

Despite its lack of volume, her voice is surprisingly husky. There is a slight accent. It is hard to remember that Budd’s first language is Afrikaans.

She is asked: “How have you handled the publicity after the Olympics?”

She answers: “I think you get used to it. You have to get used to it if you want to run well. I take it as part of athletics.

“At the moment, I’m trying to forget about the Olympics and concentrate on the future because that’s more important than what happened in the past. I didn’t really read the newspapers after the Olympics but I think I have been treated fairly. I don’t have any resentment to anyone. The whole incident is part of the past and the sooner the press and people forget about it, the better for everybody.”

Budd didn’t flinch when she was asked why she has never made public her opinion of the South African government’s racial policy.

“I am a runner, not a politician,” she said. “I don’t want to speak about politics. I want to run and not talk about politics. I think (the controversy) will die down in the future and I will be considered as just a runner. I think people will accept me as a runner.”

Budd was expressionless and nearly motionless throughout the 20-minute press conference. There was one light moment, however. When asked if a poster of Slaney was still above her bed, Budd deadpanned, “I’ve moved.”