AGE: 31 COUNTRY: Mozambique EVENT: Women's 800m THE DRAMA: A rare loss last month may spur on her rivals and push Mutola to raise her game THE COMPETITION: Russia's Andrianova has run faster than Mutola in 2004. Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak is a perennial rival
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004; 11.13BST
Mozambique owes its entire olympic medal haul — a bronze in 1996 and a gold in 2000 — to the powerfully muscled legs of Maria Mutola. In 1988, those legs were kicking around the dusty streets of a shantytown in Maputo, Mozambique's capital, when a track coach was tipped off that a 15-year-old girl who liked to play football with the boys might have the makings of something special.
In the years since, the world has seen just how special Mutola's gift is. She has been at or near the top of the 800-m rankings for the past 13 years. Last year, the three-time world champion was the only athlete to sweep all six Golden League races, and took home a $1 million bonus. Now 31 and headed to her fifth — and possibly last — Games, Mutola is still strong. "I have this fire within that continues to burn brightly year after year," she said earlier this year, "my desire to win."
Mutola carried a two-year unbeaten run into the summer, but lost in July at a meet in Switzerland. She's still the favorite in a packed Olympic field. Three women, including Russian champion Tatyana Andrianova, have posted times faster than Mutola's 1 min. 57.47 sec. this season; 30 women have run under the magic 2-min. mark in 2004. But her rivals shouldn't read too much into her lapse in Switzerland. It may have given them new hope, but it no doubt also stoked Mutola's competitive fires.
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