Slaney Falls Short in 1,500 in Trials

Mary Slaney’s Olympic dreams die hard -- and slowly.

Slaney, who missed qualifying in the 3,000 last week, finished fourth Sunday in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in the 1,500 at 4 minutes, 5.43 seconds, to rule out a fourth chance at an Olympic medal.

“I tried, I really tried,” a tearful Slaney said after the race. “I really wanted to run in Barcelona.”

Slaney made the Olympic team in 1980, 1984 and 1988. She has been to the trials since 1976, but so far all she’s collected is heartbreak.

She was sidelined by severe leg pain in 1976, which kept her from qualifying for the Montreal Olympics. In 1980 the U.S. boycott stopped her from competing. In 1984 a collision with Zola Budd in the 3,000 meters sent her crashig to the turf and in 1988 a virus left her weak and among the late finishers.

You can’t blame her for feeling jinxed.

“But I’ll still try again,” Slaney said. “If not at the shorter distances, at the longer ones.”

The frequently ailing Slaney came to the trials 14 weeks after surgery on her left foot for a partially torn tendon. She had been sidelined for two months prior to that because of the injury. At the trials, Slaney, who has had 14 operations, developed an infection.

“I just didn’t have the kind of lead up to the trial I needed, but I was trying. If I’d just felt better,” she said. “I just know I’m on the borderline of being ready to race well.”

Slaney, 33, is not on the verge of relinquishing her chase for an Olympic medal, though. If she’s unable to compete in the 1,500 and 3,000 in 1996, she will still be able to race she said. She would like to see the 5,000 meters for women added to the Olympic events, but if it isn’t, she said she will run the 10,000.

And she feels there is still a chance she can add an Olympic medal to the U.S. records she now has.

“I wouldn’t count on it but I think there’s a small glimmer of hope,” she said. “I still plan to try.”