Goldengirl

She didn’t falter. ‘I know my limitations. There’s a technique to be learned in baton-changing that I simply haven’t acquired. In the short time I’ve had in competitive running it seemed best to concentrate on individual events. I made that clear to the U.S. Olympic Committee just as soon as I qualified for the team.’

‘Why didn’t you compete before this year? Did you know you were so superior, you had no need?’

‘I didn’t know that at all. I’m nineteen years old, and this is my first season in track. The coaches tell me it couldn’t happen in any other event to get to the Olympics so soon, but sprinting is natural. Sure, I’ve run before, and I knew I could inject a little speed when I wanted, but I never tried it on a track. I was more interested in swimming. My mother died in a drowning accident when I was a small girl, and I guess I wanted to make sure I could hold myself up in the water.’

‘Didn’t you do any running in high school?’

‘If I may put in a word here,’ said Dr. Serafin. ‘My wife and I adopted Goldine when she was four, in the tragic circumstances she has mentioned. At that time, our major consideration was that she should begin to identify with her new home and family. We judged it right to have her educated in the environment we wanted her to accept. I still believe this was the right thing to do, but it may be that later, if she had gone into the state school system, her potential as an athlete would have come to light before this year. Once she had started studying at home, it seemed inappropriate to switch.’

‘How do you feel about her achievements, sir?’ Lee’s voice.

‘As proud as any parent can.’

‘Justifiably, if I may say so. Another question for Goldine,’ said Lee.

‘Are you superstitious? Do you have a mascot, or some lucky charm?’

What a merchandising opportunity! Dryden thought: Only my custom-made Adidas track shoes.

‘I don’t think I am.’ She touched the medals so that they chinked against each other. ‘From now on, these are my charms.’

She had already fed the empty seats enough quotes to fill a full-page spread. They came without apparent effort, as if they were scripted, but she delivered them with a verve that projected spontaneity. It seemed she was one of those rare individuals who could appear before the press and scintillate. Or was it the result of months of drilling in sessions like this? The only way to find out was to take Lee at his word and slip in a question she couldn’t have had before from the machine.

Already it was feeding the next one to her. ‘Now that you’ve had this success, do you plan to stay in track, or will you take advantage of the commercial opportunities open to you?’

‘Are those things mutually exclusive?’ said Goldine innocently. ‘I’d like to keep running, for sure. I can’t say I know much about commerce. If it means reading the Wall Street Journal, I don’t think it’s my scene.’ She put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh my God, which journal do you represent?’

Before the laughter died, Dryden pitched in. ‘There’s a story that you trained in the Sierra Nevada. Did altitude training contribute to your success?’

There was a momentary hesitation which might have been a reaction to the different acoustic quality of Dryden’s voice, but no doubt about the crispness of the response. ‘At six foot two, you could say all my running is at altitude. Yes, I did some running in the mountains. The air’s a little sweeter there than it is in oily old Bakersfield, where I live.’

‘What do you think of Moscow?’ Valenti asked, getting in on the act.

‘At this moment, there’s no place I’d rather be.’

‘How about the Russian people?’

‘Everyone I’ve met has treated me kindly, and I’d like to tell them how much I appreciate that,’ she answered. ‘Unfortunately, I know just three words in Russian: Na Mesta and Gotovo.’

‘“On your marks” and “Set,”’ Melody translated for Dryden. ‘She’s holding up pretty good, wouldn’t you say?’

‘She rates a gold medal for PR,’ Dryden answered.

‘Have you ever raced against men, Goldine?’ the machine resumed.

‘Every day this week against you guys holding the cameras. I don’t mean that unkindly, but when you’re engaged in two semis and a final in one afternoon, you simply don’t have time to stand and be photographed. No, sir, the answer to your question is that I haven’t, to my knowledge.’

‘What do you feel about the sex tests for women athletes?’

She appeared to give it a moment’s thought. ‘I recognize that a test is necessary. It’s not embarrassing. They take a smear from inside your mouth and check your chromosomes. How do I feel? Just sad for the people who get rejected. A gene count might establish that the person concerned is not a 100 per cent normal woman, but it doesn’t make them a man either.’

‘Do you consider yourself completely feminine?’

That one. The machine wasn’t sparing her. It was programed so that anything with controversial possibilities was taken up.