From the Archives, 2000: Freeman rival Perec flees the Sydney Olympics – The Age

The Age's coverage of Perec's departure during the Sydney OlympicsCredit:The Age

The situation did not improve after Perec, by now hysterically sobbing, clicked off her mobile telephone to board a flight to Melbourne, where she spoke to Menant again shortly after midnight.

She seemed calmer this time and told Menant she was looking forward to seeking comfort from her family. Menant implored Perec to stay, begged her not to give up and Perec hesitated but finally boarded her Singapore flight.

But her family, in the form of boyfriend Maybanks, only served to tarnish her increasingly hysterical image upon landing in Singapore early yesterday. Maybanks and airports and TV crews have proved a lethal combination during his partners ill-fated bid for a third Olympic 400 metres title.

Arriving in Sydney, Maybanks had attempted to block a Channel 7 cameraman with his baggage trolley. The incident in Singapore created more concern.

Give me the tape, demanded Maybanks, a relay runner who did not make the US Olympic team, You do not come near me or I will hurt you.

Late yesterday, police in Singapore said they would not be pressing charges against Maybanks, after the couple had departed Singapore for Europe.

Given that Perec has been seen by Australia as the woman standing between Freeman and Australias first Olympic track gold medal since Seoul 1988, you might think that the Frenchwomans torturous and strange retreat from the Sydney Olympics proved a source of celebration yesterday in the Freeman camp.

Not so. Those close to Freeman were not saying much except that the favourite was surprised by Perecs departure. It was also pointed out that as long as Perec remained a confirmed starter in tonights heat, she would be considered a threat.

The strong French theory in several reports, however, was that it has been Freeman who unknowingly psyched out Perec with her starring role in the Olympic opening ceremony. Perec and Freeman have seen each other only on television in recent weeks but when Perec, who did not march with the French team, watched Freeman light the cauldron, she reportedly fell apart emotionally.

Loading

The story of Marie-Jose Perec, who grew up in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and became Reeboks highest-paid female athlete after her two gold medals in Atlanta and also a popular French catwalk star, appears to have ended in farce and sadness but there was little sympathy for Perec from the French contingent in Sydney yesterday.

Adam Taloni, the manager of Perecs home in Sydney, the Grand Mercure apartments, denied she had been threatened or that an intruder had banged on her door and harassed her. French chef de mission Michel Vial, who tried without success for two days to contact Perec before she departed, said Perec had made a bad decision not to stay at the village.

Asked whether Perec had arrived in Sydney and trained periodically at Narrabeen on Sydneys northern peninsula purely to satisfy sponsors, Vial replied: It would be a shame if it was (the reason). It would be detestable.

Perec had contested only one 400 metres race since losing to Freeman late in the 1996 season and has trained in secrecy all year in Rostock on the Baltic Sea under the latest in a string of coaches, Wolfgang Meier. For years, Perec had claimed Meiers wife, the 400 metres world record-holder Marita Koch, was a drug cheat. Then at the start of the year, she employed him as her coach.

In July, she agreed to a rare interview with Frances TV6 but when the crew arrived in Rostock, she said on camera: I dont give a shit with TV. I dont give a shit with the media and you cant imagine how I dont care about you. I dont need you.

She has run as determinedly from the French media as she has from the Australian she has accused of harassing her. Said Le Figaros Cedric Voisard yesterday: She built the problems in Australia for herself. The most secure place you can live in the Games is the village. She is paranoid. The real question is, did she really want to race? That is the big question for Reebok, her sponsor.

Loading

The biggest Australian winner as far as Perecs heat one tonight, however, was Nova Peris-Kneebone. Her heat remains tough, even without Perec. Now two of Freemans biggest threats for the 400 metres final are Britains Katharine Merry and Jamaicas Sandie Richards, and both will line up against Peris-Kneebone.

And Freemans response to the Perec saga? Cathy was gracious and brave in addressing the issue at the Australian news conference on Tuesday, said Athletics Australia chief executive Simon Allatson. Cathy Freeman is a class act and I think she has flourished enormously since she has been allowed and decided to front more of these things herself.

While Perecs midnight departure has caused some happiness in some areas of the Australian camp, Freeman was not celebrating.

Just as Perec watched from afar as Freeman lit the Olympic cauldron last Friday night, Freeman has been watching Perec. And for all the times she has watched the small screen shots of Perec running away, Freeman has never seen her disappear.

Read the original post:

From the Archives, 2000: Freeman rival Perec flees the Sydney Olympics - The Age