Flash Forward to Mexico

As she turned the final corner for the home stretch, the dull roar of suspense, once as thick as the smog in the crowded Mexican capital, turned into a wail of nationalistic pride.

Olympic Stadium, site of the 1968 Summer Olympic Games that produced several world records as well as the black-gloved, one-fisted salute, shook at its foundation, a crowd exceeding 50,000 whipping itself into a flag-waving, chest-thumping frenzy in anticipation of another revolutionary event.

It was May 3 and Ana Guevara, whose rock-star status as Mexico’s latest sporting hero is as improbable as it is huge, had paced herself through the first two turns of the women’s 300-meter race, the marquee event of the inaugural Banamex Grand Prix.

Until the home stretch.

Feeding off of the energy, Guevara, with her magnificent kick, blew by the field, while the red, white and green-clad spectators witnessed a world record when she crossed the finish line in 35.30 seconds.

That Guevara shattered an 18-year-old mark by 0.16 of a second was indeed cause for celebration. More impressive is that she has shifted the social climate of a nation’s sporting public. Mexico has fallen in love with an athlete who is neither a soccer player nor a man.

“Everything begins and ends with the national team and soccer,” Guevara said two days after the meet, which resulted in front-page coverage for her in newspapers across the country. “There has never been a meet like this. Things are starting to even out, and I’m very happy and content about that. It was difficult because it’s never been [considered] a sport in Mexico. Now, I can’t even explain the mania. You have to be here to understand it.”

*

Ana-mania, which has won over the hearts and minds of her people in astonishingly quick fashion, bears an uncanny resemblance to the cultural phenomenon that overtook the Southland in the early 1980s, when thousands of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans celebrated the exploits of Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

But while Fernandomania knew no borders and was just as big a fiesta in Mexico as it was at Dodger Stadium, Guevara’s popularity is still a curiosity in the United States.

That’s why Guevara, 26, who grew up the eldest of five children in the border town of Nogales, makes no apologies for declaring that she is looking forward to spreading the gospel of track, as well as her growing legend.

“It’s the fame, not only here in Mexico but in other places that makes this so fun and worthwhile,” said Guevara, who now lives in Hermosillo. “It’s very important for the people in the United States, for the Latino people there to see what this all means.”

They’ll get their chance Sunday as Guevara runs in the women’s 400 in the Home Depot Track & Field Invitational in Carson.

The 400 is Guevara’s signature event -- she won all 11 races in which competed last year -- and she made her U.S. debut on Saturday in Eugene, Ore., winning the race in a Prefontaine Classic meet-record 49.34.

Among those left in her wake was Australian Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman, who was running in her first international 400 since the Sydney Games in 2000 and also was beaten three weeks earlier in Mexico City in the seldom-run 300.

Guevara’s popularity -- she has had numerous audiences with Mexico President Vicente Fox -- has caused the normally staid Mexican sports media -- all men, all soccer, all the time -- to take notice.

“In amateur sports, we also have good athletes in diving and taekwondo,” said Ivis Aburto Lopez, a sportswriter for the Mexico City daily, Reforma. “But Ana is the only one with the potential of filling a stadium. Not being related to soccer is a big thing for us. It’s starting to develop other sporting tastes for Mexico, and it’s good for the minor sports because Ana is seen as an inspiration.”

Guevara burst onto the track scene at the 2000 Olympics, the unknown sprinter from a country known in track circles primarily for its race walkers, finishing fifth in the 400.

“That’s what got everyone’s attention,” Lopez said.

Her subsequent winning streak and No. 1 world ranking has given Mexican women something Guevara missed while growing up in a male-dominated society -- a female sporting hero. Now, thousands, if not millions, of girls look up to her.

“The process has changed, a role reversal is going on,” said Guevara, whose childhood idols were Valenzuela and soccer star Hugo Sanchez. “I’m a role model and people admire me. That is very satisfying. I like it. I like it very much.”

But isn’t the pressure of being a trailblazer overwhelming?

“No, not at all,” she said. “There’s pressure when you do bad things. When you do good things, there’s no pressure.”

*

A decidedly Forrest Gump moment jump-started Guevara’s career on the track.

Growing up, her first love was basketball and she contemplated playing junior college ball in the United States. But the bitterness that arose from her inability to earn a berth on the Mexican women’s national basketball team was too much to overcome, so she traded in her high-tops for sprinter’s shoes in 1996.

“All of my effort was for that team,” said Guevara, who also has studied industrial engineering at the university in Juarez. “I was disgruntled that I was never chosen so I just started to run. What I couldn’t achieve in six years [in basketball] I was able to achieve in a new sport. That changed everything.”

Already in decent shape from years of basketball, she was deemed a natural, setting state records in both the 400 and 800 in her first meet. But meeting the man who would become her trainer, Cuban expatriate Raul Barreda, would seal the deal.

“I taught her the proper form how to run,” said Barreda, who has helped Guevara shave six seconds off her early times in the 400 and coached her to a personal best of 49.16, last year in Zurich. “She was good, but she really didn’t know how to run. We’ve strengthened her and by the time we’re finished, she can take 10 seconds off her time from the first time I met her.”

Her star rising, she had offers to train in the United States, but an image-conscious Guevara shunned the propositions.

“It’s possible the training conditions would have been better there, but I wouldn’t have a lot of what I have now,” she said. “If I had been [training] in the U.S., there would have been no [fans] there at the meet on May 3.

“I didn’t want to go. The people of Mexico would have forgotten about me. I know there are Latino communities there, but it’s not the same.”

Guevara said that there is a stigma attached to many Mexicans who leave their homeland for supposed greener pastures but still drape themselves in Mexico’s flag.

“If you’re gone, the people are not close,” she said. “There’s a backlash because you’re Mexican but in the United States. They don’t feel a bond because you’re far away.”

*

There’s a wall deep in the compound of the Mexican Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Mexico City with a list of all of the country’s Olympic medalists.

It’s a modest list, one that has but three individual women -- Maria Teresa Ramirez (bronze in swimming), Pilar Roldan (silver in fencing) and Soraya Jimenez (gold in weightlifting).

And “Himno Nacional Mexicano,” the Mexican national anthem, was not played for a woman on the podium until 2000 in Australia.

But with the way Guevara has dominated the 400 over the past year, it seems that next year’s Athens Games would be a mere formality en route to hearing the song and having her name etched on the wall, so long as she doesn’t peak too soon.

Yet Guevara is mindful of the pitfalls associated with looking too far ahead. Her immediate goal is to break 49 seconds (the world record of 47.60 was set by East Germany’s Marita Koch on June 10, 1985), which has been accomplished just three times in the past 18 years, but none since 1996.

A fast surface in Carson could propel her past Valerie Brisco’s U.S. track mark of 48.83, which she ran at the Coliseum in winning gold at the 1984 Olympics.

That would solidify Guevara’s standing in Mexico’s sporting pantheon.

“It’s a sport that’s been dominated by Europe and the United States for many years,” Guevara said. “It was difficult convincing the people here [in Mexico] of the possibilities. But I feel very happy because of the fame I’ve gained from the hard work and creating a good image, creating interest in my sport.”