Silver Medalist Wants a Gold One : With Health Problems Solved, El Segundo Runner Gains Confidence

Kim Gallagher is finally healthy.

And because of that, the 24-year-old is confident she’ll be in shape to win a gold medal at the Olympics in Seoul.

It’s not that she’s overconfident or cocky.

The 5-foot-5 El Segundo resident is one of America’s top middle-distance runners. She was an age-group phenomenon as a youth, a silver medalist in 800 meters at the 1984 Olympics and is constantly compared to Mary Decker Slaney,

the American record holder in virtually every middle-distance event.

The reason some may doubt Gallagher’s readiness for Seoul this summer is because illness plagued her after the ’84 Olympics and her time in the 800 and 1,500 meters deteriorated.

Rumors circulated that Gallagher was burned out, but instead she was experiencing gynecological problems. She also gained 17 pounds.

“After the Olympics,” Gallagher said, “whenever I overexerted myself my body went nuts. . . . I couldn’t train at the level necessary to be world caliber. I remember crying at the doctor’s office for hours.”

The condition lasted three years and prevented Gallagher from top performances and heavy workouts.

“It’s a combination of problems,” said Gallagher’s doctor, Andrea Rapkin. “She had menstrual irregularities. . . . We don’t know what causes it, but I did tell her the problem would probably stop if she stopped training.”

When Gallagher trained intensely she experienced severe discomfort. It started two weeks before the ’84 Olympics, which she almost pulled out of at the last minute.

“She called me before the race,” said Gallagher’s mother, Barbara, from Pennsylvania, “and said. ‘Mom, I don’t think I’m going to run. . . .’ But she just went back and got psyched up for the race. She ran on pure guts.”

Gallagher had undergone minor ovarian surgery six months before the 1984 Olympic trials and recovered to win the 800 meters with the third-fastest time ever by an American (1:58.50).

At the Olympics she finished second in 1:58.63 behind Romanian gold medalist Doina Melinte (1:57.60) and remembers thinking midway through the race that she wasn’t going to make it.

“The first quarter really hurt,” Gallagher said, “and the second round was very painful. My Adrenalin and the crowd kept me going. After the race I was deliriously in pain. My head hurt so badly I couldn’t see.”

After earning the silver medal that hangs from the neck of a large, stuffed teddy bear in her bedroom, Gallagher competed on the European circuit and kept her physical condition a secret.

She says her performances were so bad that European competitors saw her as a “fashion queen” from the United States rather than a top-notch runner.

“Last year in Zurich,” Gallagher said, “Melinte thought I was the rabbit in the race. She asked me, ‘Are you going to run one or two laps?’ I was running two minutes and sometimes more than two minutes (in the 800 meters). It was just talent coming through because I was not in shape.”

Chuck DeBus, who has coached Gallagher for five years, says it was a difficult and disappointing time for them.

“It was extremely frustrating and emotionally draining,” said DeBus, who coaches at the Los Angeles Track Club in Santa Monica and has coached 171 athletes on U.S. national teams.

“We’d increase the difficulty in her training and it would start. Once she got so sick she could run only 20 miles a week, which is ludicrous for a distance runner. It was tough seeing her incredible ability and knowing there was nothing I could do with it.”

Now Gallagher is back to 109 pounds and normal training, but there’s no guarantee that menstrual irregularity won’t recur. If she stays healthy, she’s expected to qualify in the 800 and possibly 1,500 meters at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis in July.

“She’s about 90% there,” DeBus said. “When we get to 100% she’ll definitely run faster than in ’84. All indications in training say that. She’s a thoroughbred. She has that combination of speed and endurance that is so rare.”

According to DeBus, only two American women runners, Decker and Gallagher, possess that combination. Both were top athletes at a young age.

Gallagher started running at the Ambler Olympic Club in her hometown in Pennsylvania when she was 7. At that age she won the age group nationals for the mile and a half. When she was 8 she won the 9-and-under national title with a record-breaking performance of 5:32 in the mile.

Like a fine wine, Gallagher improved with time under the coaching of older brother Bart, who trained her until DeBus took over in 1983.

At Upper Dublin High School in Ambler, she won the state meet in the 800 and 1,500 meters four times. She set national high school records in both events in her senior year and set junior national records in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 meters. At 16, she placed eighth at the 1980 Olympic trials.

“In high school,” her mother said, “Kim beat everyone till it got to be boring. Coaches would tell their girls, ‘Don’t worry about taking first. Just take second when Kim Gallagher is in the race.’ Then she started racing with the boys and they’d shake her hand after the race and thank her because they ran their absolute best so that Kim Gallagher, a girl, wouldn’t beat them.”

Gallagher was highly recruited by colleges and attended the University of Arizona on a cross-country scholarship. She left after a disastrous year.

“I was just having fun in the college party scene,” Gallagher said. “I wasn’t into running. I was like, ‘Where’s the next party?’ I’d come home 3 a.m. and had to go running at 6 a.m. I was running myself down because I just didn’t care.”

She went back to Pennsylvania for a year. Then brother Bart asked DeBus at the Track Athletic Congress championship meet to coach his sister.

“I knew when I saw her that she’s as great as there is,” DeBus said. “She couldn’t be better. She’s top of the line, and I hate to use a cliche but she runs like a man--like Decker.”

Apparently the folks in Gallagher’s small Pennsylvania community felt the same when they first saw her run. Many told her as a child that she’d be in the Olympics.

Now she wants a gold medal.