Barcelona ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 13 : Torrence Is Talk of 200 : Track and field: She makes up for her fourth-place finish in 100 with gold medal in 21.81.

America’s Gwen Torrence battled her way down the homestretch to win the gold medal in the 200 meters Thursday night, then battled her way through a contentious news conference.

In between, she sobbed on the victory stand as they played the national anthem and a crowd of 65,000 in Olympic Stadium saluted her with a rousing cheer.

Clearly, for the 27-year-old mother of one from Decatur, Ga., these 25th Olympic Games have been the best of times and the worst of times.

Her 21.81 time gave her a two-step victory over silver medalist Juliet Cuthbert of Jamaica and bronze medalist Merlene Ottey, also of Jamaica. Cuthbert’s time was 22.02, Ottey’s 22.09. Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record is 21.34.

The two other American runners in the final, Carlette Guidry and Michelle Finn, both of Houston, were fifth and seventh, respectively.

“People say I don’t run the curve, but it isn’t that I don’t try. I really do.” Torrence said. “But when I got out about 170 (meters), I can see Juliet coming and I start to look for Merlene. And my arms got wild, and my legs got wild, and I pumped as hard as I could. Then I got to the finish line, and I looked around and I said, ‘Oh, Lord! There’s nobody there!’ ”

Torrence had finished fourth in the 100 meters Saturday and after that race had made some general statements about other runners in the race using performance-enhancing drugs. The ruckus that caused, especially when one of those who seemed to be on Torrence’s accused list was teammate Gail Devers, the 100-meter winner, carried over into the 200-meter news conference.

Cuthbert and Ottey, sitting on either side of Torrence and still not sure if they were among those she had accused, bantered back and forth but quite a bit of anger came through.

Among the few things all three seemed to agree on was that the absence here of Germany’s Katrin Krabbe, who reportedly tested positive for drugs recently, was a good thing. Torrence, who finished fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200 in Seoul in 1988, was second to Krabbe in both the 100 and 200 in the World Championships last August in Tokyo.

“I don’t have the gold medal (from Tokyo) and I’ve worked very hard to get to this today,” Torrence said. “You get tired of running and seeing nothing but a bunch of butts in front of you. And some of them are cheating their asses off to get there. That’s why this is so sweet tonight.”

Track and Field

Medalists

* WOMEN’S 200 METERS

GOLD: Gwen Torrence (United States)

SILVER: Juliet Cuthbert (Jamaica)

BRONZE: Merlene Ottey (Jamaica)