Goldengirl

How do track experts rate Goldine’s chances? ‘She’s unquestionably a brilliant talent,’ says Dale Dennigan of Track and Field News. ‘She made a lot of mistakes in Eugene through inexperience, and still did more than any girl in U.S. track history. If you analyze her best clockings of 10.8, 22.7 and 50.52, they indicate that she has a great chance of Olympic medals in all three events, but let’s remember that her best running in the 200 was achieved in the Quarter-Final, and her personal best in the 400 was made a month back in San Diego. She must learn to spread her effort more judiciously. She’s short on experience, of course, but that could mean she’s capable of improvement. It’s not unknown for a sprinter to take the Olympic title on a slender competitive record. Helen Stephens is an outstanding example, coming from a farm in Missouri in 1935 to set world records and then win two gold medals the next year, but it’s right to point out that she had a lot of intensive coaching before the Olympics. By any criterion, Ursula Krüll remains clear favorite for the 100 and 200 metres with her personal bests of 10.78 and 22.0 in the German trials. Remember, she hasn’t lost a race in two years. Taking the events in isolation, I’d put Goldine’s chances highest in the 400, but I’m afraid the short sprints will take a lot of her steam, as they did in Eugene. I’m picking her for silver in the 100 and 200 and hoping she can surprise me.’

Goldine accepts this estimate as a reasonable summation of the evidence available. ‘I’d rather not go to Moscow as favorite for anything. I’ll take it as it comes. Of course, I have my ideas of what I can do, but they won’t be helped by speculation in the papers.’

Ursula, too, is reluctant to make predictions on the outcome of her clash with Goldine. ‘I don’t know much about this girl, but her times I must respect. Do you have a picture of her? I send her my good wishes and I look forward to meeting her in Moscow.’

Ursula now possesses a photo of her U.S. challenger in action. ‘I’d like to send Goldine one of my pictures, so we’ll know each other in Moscow,’ she says, ‘but the only ones I have just now are taken from the back. Well, I’ll send her one,’ she adds with a mischievous smile. ‘Maybe she ought to get used to seeing me from that position.’

Smiling, though not at the wit of Fraulein Krüll, Dryden treated himself to another look at the cover picture. He was pleased because the Sportscene article chimed in well with the chorus of publicity Goldine was getting from the media. The rivalry with Krüll could become a highlight of the Games — the souped-up jogger versus the peerless product of the German machine. He liked that.