Mary Slaney

Personal information
Birth name	Mary Teresa Decker
Nationality	American
Born	(1958-08-04) August 4, 1958 (age 54) Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Sport
Sport	Middle distance running
Retired	1999
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	800 m: 1:56.90 1500 m: 3:57.12 mile: 4:16.71 3000 m: 8:25.83
Medal record Women's Athletics Competitor for the  United States World Championships Gold 1983 Helsinki 1500 m Gold 1983 Helsinki 3000 m Pan American Games Gold 1979 San Juan 1500 m

Mary Slaney (born August 4, 1958), neé Mary Teresa Decker, is an American former track athlete. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and set 17 official and unofficial world records and 36 US national records.^[1]

Biography [edit]

Mary Decker was born in Bunnvale, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. A decade later her family moved to Garden Grove in Southern California, where Decker started running. A year later, aged 11, she won her first local competition.^[2]

She joined her school athletics club and a local track club, and completely immersed herself in running, for which she would pay an injury-laden price later in her career. Aged 12, in one week she completed a marathon and four middle- and long-distance races, ending the week with an appendectomy operation.^[2]

Career [edit]

In her early teens, Decker was already recognized as a world-class runner. Unable to attend the 1972 Olympics as she was too young, the pigtailed 89 pounds (40 kg) 14 year old nicknamed "Little Mary Decker," won international acclaim in 1973 with a win in the 800 meters at a US-Soviet meet in Minsk, beating the later Olympic silver medallist.^[2]

By the end of 1972, Decker was ranked first in the United States and fourth in the world in the 800 meters.^[2] In 1973 she gained her first world record, running an indoor mile in 4:40.1. By 1974, Decker was the world record holder at 2:26.7 for 1000 meters^{[dubious – discuss]}, 2:02.4 for 880 yards, and 2:01.8 for 800 meters.

But by the end of 1974, she had developed a case of the muscle condition compartment syndrome. This resulted in a series of injuries, which meant that she did not compete in the 1976 Olympics, because of stress fractures in her lower leg. In 1978 she had an operation to try to cure compartment syndrome, which kept her out of competition for a period.^[2] After recovering from surgery, she spent two seasons at the University of Colorado at Boulder on a track scholarship.^[3][4]In 1979, she became the second American woman to break the 4:30 mile in American record time.^[5] In 1980, she broke the world record for the women's mile, running a 4:17.55 to become the first woman to break the 4:20 barrier for the mile.^[6]

Career peak [edit]

In 1982 Decker set six world records, at distances ranging from the mile run to 10,000 meters. The following year she achieved a "Decker Double", winning both the 1500 meters and 3000 meters events at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. In 1982, she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, and the following year she won the Jesse Owens Award from USA Track and Field and Sports Illustrated magazine named her Sportsperson of the Year.

The 1984 Olympic incident [edit]

Decker was heavily favored to win a gold medal in the 3000 meters run at the 1984 Summer Olympics, held at Los Angeles. In the final, Zola Budd, representing Great Britain, had been running barefoot side by side with Decker for 3 laps and moved ahead. In an attempt to put pressure on Budd, Decker remained close by in a crowded space. Decker stood on Budd, then shortly after, collided with the barefoot runner and fell spectacularly to the curb. As a result, Mary Decker did not finish the race, which was won by Maricica Puica of Romania (Budd finished seventh). Decker was carried off the track at the end in tears by her boyfriend (and later, husband), British discus thrower Richard Slaney. At a press conference she said that Budd was to blame for the collision. While in track races it is generally the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead, it is also an accepted convention among most distance runners that the leader be a full stride ahead before cutting in. Track officials initially disqualified Budd for obstruction, but she was reinstated just one hour later once officials had viewed films of the race. Despite being behind Budd, Decker's claim that Budd had bumped into her leg was supported by a number of U.S. sports journalists and Budd was hounded constantly in the press as a result, receiving a number of death threats. The claim was never accepted by the director of the games or the IAAF.

Decker and Budd next met in July 1985, in a 3000 meters race at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, England. Decker won the race, and Budd finished in fourth place. After the race, the two women shook hands and made up. Decker later went on record as claiming that she was unfairly robbed of the LA 3000 meters gold medal by Budd, but said many years after the event "The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. I happen to know that wasn’t the case at all. The reason I fell is because I am and was very inexperienced in running in a pack."^[7]

Decker had a successful 1985 season, winning twelve mile and 3000 meters races in the European athletics calendar, which included a new official world record for the women's mile of 4:16.71. She sat out the 1986 season to give birth to her only child, daughter Ashley Lynn (born May 30, 1986), but missed the 1987 season through injury, failed to win a medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea (though she carried the American flag at the opening ceremony) and did not qualify for the 1992 Games.

Doping controversy [edit]

In 1996, at the age of 37, as she qualified for the 5000 meters at the Atlanta Olympics, Decker became involved in controversy. A urine test taken in June at the Olympic Trials showed a testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio greater than the allowable maximum of six to one.^[8] At the time of the positive test Decker was being coached by Alberto Salazar.^[9]

Decker and her lawyers contended that the T/E ratio test is unreliable for women, especially women in their late 30s or older who are taking birth control pills. In the meantime, Decker was eliminated in the heats at the Olympics.^[3]

In June 1997, the IAAF banned Decker from competition. In September 1999, a USATF panel reinstated her.^[10][11] The IAAF cleared her to compete but took the case to arbitration. In April, 1999, the arbitration panel ruled against her, after which the IAAF – through a retroactive ban, even though she was cleared to compete – stripped her of a silver medal she had won in the 1500 meters at the 1997 World Indoor Championships.^[12]

In April 1999, Decker filed suit against both the IAAF and the U.S. Olympic Committee which administered the test, arguing that the test is flawed and cannot distinguish between androgens caused by the use of banned substances and androgens resulting from the use of birth control pills.^[13] The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction, a decision which was upheld on appeal.^{[citation needed]}

The (T/E) ratio test has since been revised and laboratories now also run a carbon isotope ratio test (CIR) if the ratio is unusually high.^[14]

Later life [edit]

Throughout her later career, Decker had suffered a series of stress induced fractures. After the loss of her 1999 legal case, she agreed to have a series of 30+ orthopedic procedures. Mainly on her legs and feet, they were an attempt to enable her to run competitively in marathons. However, the surgery just increased the occurrence of the problems. As a result, she retired with her husband to a 55-acre (220,000 m²) ranch in Eugene, Oregon, where she can now jog every other day. Her other hobbies include sewing, quilting, gardening, renovating the property, and walking her three Weimaraner dogs.^[15]

See also [edit]

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• IAAF profile for Mary Slaney
• USA Track and Field Hall of Fame – Mary Slaney
• Sports Reference
• California State Records before 2000

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Martina Navratilova	United Press International Athlete of the Year 1985	Succeeded by Heike Drechsler
Sporting positions
Preceded by Paula Fudge	Women's 5.000m Best Year Performance 1982	Succeeded by Zola Budd
Preceded by Tatyana Kazankina	Women's 3.000m Best Year Performance 1985	Succeeded by Olga Bondarenko

v t e 1984 USA Olympic Track & Field Team Qualification 1984 United States Olympic Trials (track and field) Men's track & road athletes Ray Armstead Alonzo Babers Kirk Baptiste Ron Brown Tonie Campbell Don Clary Paul Cummings Brian Diemer Marco Evoniuk Greg Foster Sam Graddy Johnny Gray John Gregorek Danny Harris Tranel Hawkins Jim Heiring Thomas Jefferson Earl Jones Roger Kingdom Steve Lacy Carl Lewis Henry Marsh John Marshall Antonio McKay Walter McCoy Edwin Moses Sunder Nix Daniel O'Connor Vince O'Sullivan Doug Padilla Pete Pfitzinger Pat Porter Alberto Salazar Carl Schueler Steve Scott Calvin Smith Willie Smith Jim Spivey John Tuttle Craig Virgin Men's field athletes Duncan Atwood Willie Banks Earl Bell Tim Bright Edward Burke Art Burns Michael Carter Mike Conley, Sr. John Crist Milton Goode Bill Green Al Joyner Dave Laut Carl Lewis Jud Logan Doug Lytle Mike McRae Larry Myricks Doug Nordquist Tom Petranoff John Powell Steve Roller Dwight Stones Mike Tully Mac Wilkins Augie Wolf Jim Wooding Women's track & road athletes Evelyn Ashford Sharieffa Barksdale Joan Benoit Jeanette Bolden Cindy Bremser Valerie Brisco-Hooks Alice Brown Judi Brown Julie Brown Robin Campbell Chandra Cheeseborough Mary Decker Diane Dixon Benita Fitzgerald-Brown Kim Gallagher Randy Givens Florence Griffith-Joyner Joan Hansen Denean Howard Sherri Howard Julie Isphording Missy Kane Lillie Leatherwood Pam Page Diana Richburg Kim Turner Angela Wright-Scott Ruth Wysocki Women's field athletes Jodi Anderson Carol Cady Laura De Snoo Leslie Deniz Cindy Greiner Lorna Griffin Joni Huntley Jackie Joyner Carol Lewis Ramona Pagel Louise Ritter Karin Smith Pamela Spencer Lynda Suffin Cathy Sulinski Angela Thacker Coaches —

v t e 1996 USA Olympic Track & Field Team Qualification 1996 United States Olympic Trials (track and field) Men's track & road athletes Derrick Adkins Brad Barquis Keith Brantly Bryan Bronson Andrzej Chylinski Curt Clausen Mark Coogan Mark Crear Mark Croghan Calvin Davis Marc Davis Bruce Deacon Jon Drummond Robert Gary Johnny Gray Matt Giusto Tim Harden Alvin Harrison Brian Hyde Allen James Allen Johnson Michael Johnson Bob Kempainen Bob Kennedy Michael Marsh Anthuan Maybank Dan Middleman Derek Mills Dennis Mitchell Tim Montgomery Herman Nelson José Parrilla Jason Pyrah Butch Reynolds Brandon Rock Jason Rouser Lamont Smith Jim Spivey Eugene Swift Jeff Williams Todd Williams Men's field athletes Charles Austin Randy Barnes Ed Broxterman Mike Conley, Sr. Lance Deal Steve Fritz John Godina Joe Greene Kenny Harrison Jeff Hartwig Robert Howard Chris Huffins Scott Huffman C. J. Hunter Lawrence Johnson Carl Lewis Kevin McMahon Dan O'Brien Ken Popejoy Mike Powell Tom Pukstys Todd Riech Adam Setliff Dave Stephens Anthony Washington Cameron Wright Women's track & road athletes Olga Appell Kim Batten Tonja Buford-Bailey Joetta Clark Gail Devers Sandra Farmer-Patrick Suzy Favor-Hamilton Kate Fonshell Chryste Gaines Kim Graham Carlette Guidry Juli Henner D'Andre Hill Vicki Huber Regina Jacobs Lynn Jennings Maicel Malone Jearl Miles Inger Miller Joan Nesbit Meredith Rainey Amy Rudolph Mary Slaney Rochelle Stevens Lynda Tolbert-Goode Gwen Torrence Linetta Wilson Dannette Young Women's field athletes Amy Acuff Valeyta Althouse Lacy Barnes Mileham Kelly Blair Nicole Carroll Sharon Hanson Aretha Hill Sheila Hudson Jackie Joyner-Kersee Diana Orrange Ramona Pagel Suzy Powell Connie Price-Smith Cynthea Rhodes Connie Teaberry Marieke Veltman Tisha Waller Erica Wheeler Shana Williams Coaches —