No Serious Running
After the Final, Goldine treated reporters to an impromptu press conference in the center of Hayward Field, casually throwing out the incredible fact that she did no serious running before this season. Her father, Dr. William Serafin, 59, a former professor at the California Institute of Human Science, persuaded her to try track as a recreation, recognised that she had extraordinary sprint potential, and arranged for her to be privately coached by Pete Klugman, former track coach to the Cornell and U.S. Olympic teams. ‘Pete advised me to concentrate on technique through the first few months,’ said Goldine, ‘so I didn’t get my feet wet competitively before June, when I reached the qualifying standards in a San Diego club meet. This is only my second meet, and now I guess Moscow will be my third.’ Asked if she had expected this afternoon’s victory, she commented, ‘In some ways it’s a dream, it’s all happened so soon, but I came to win, yes. It’s no use mentally settling for a minor placing, or you get nowhere.’
Triple Aim
Goldine’s 10.81 clocking makes her a clear challenger to East Berliner Ursula Krüll for the Olympic title, but before that she has more business to attend to in Eugene. ‘I enjoyed my run over 400 metres, and I’m definitely going for that as well as the 200,’ she told me. ‘If I could make the U.S. team in all three events, that would be nice. It means a lot of running, but I don’t give up easy.’ Goldine, 6’2’ and 163 lbs., looks to have the strength to get through the seven races remaining on her schedule here. If so, she could emerge as the first U.S. girl to represent the nation over 100, 200 and 400 metres at one Olympic Games. Whether it would be wise to attempt this ambitious triple on so little experience is an open question. Commented Jake McMurty, an AAU officiaclass="underline" ‘After her running in San Diego we guessed this girl was saving something special for Eugene. She’s proved us right today. Maybe she would be wise to settle for two events, but it’s not for us to interfere.’
Meanwhile, Goldine is quickly learning what is involved in becoming an instant Olympic hope. ‘Next time I come out, I’ll make sure I have my comb in my sweatsuit pocket,’ she quipped as photographers closed in.
‘Campari?’
‘Uh?’ Melody groped for the fastener on her bikini top and snapped it shut. ‘Say, that’s a nice surprise.’ She rolled over on the tiled surface of the patio and squeaked at the contact. ‘Jeez, it’s hotter than I thought out here!’ Sitting up, she massaged the backs of her thighs before accepting the glass. ‘How did you know?’
‘About Campari?’ said Dryden. ‘A whisper I heard somewhere. You don’t mind me interrupting the cooking? I allowed twenty minutes each side.’
‘You’ve been here that long?’
‘At the table there, across the pool. I was reading the paper besides admiring the view.’
Her free hand slid behind her back to the waistband of her white bikini pants. The upward tug she gave the elastic didn’t quite obscure the peach effect.
‘You have Sunday morning free, then?’ said Dryden. ‘You seem to have been kept busy since you got here.’
‘I finished collating my notes at ten last evening,’ said Melody. ‘They have to be ready for Dr. Serafin to look over before the action in the stadium this afternoon. It was a lot of work. What a way to spend a Saturday night!’
‘I could say the same,’ said Dryden. ‘I was in a poker game. Lost twenty-three bucks. Oliver Sternberg knows how to call a hand.’
‘You don’t look too dejected.’
‘How could I be after yesterday? Moscow’s still a long way off, but that U.S. record was good for my anxiety neurosis. So was that four-hundred heat. She made it look so easy, like tumbleweed blown by the wind.’
Melody chipped some varnish from a toenail. ‘You make it sound positively lyrical. To me it was fifty-three point forty-two. Track’s a drag.’
‘What brought you into the job, then?’
She shrugged. ‘I had some complications in my personal life. Needed to get out of Bakersfield for a while.’
Dryden had the tact to leave it there. ‘It can’t all be work. You’ve managed to get a gorgeous tan up in the mountains.’
‘Ultraviolet,’ said Melody. ‘Why should she have it all to herself?’
‘Fair point.’
‘It wasn’t so bad in the mountains,’ Melody admitted.
‘I second that.’
They exchanged smiles.
‘But now you’re moving camp,’ said Dryden as casually as he could.
‘Uhuh.’
‘Change of air?’
‘I guess so.’
‘An undisclosed location?’
‘That’s the ticket.’
‘Wild horses wouldn’t drag it from you?’
‘One Campari wouldn’t.’
‘You’d like another?’
‘Jack Dryden, I’m suspicious of your motives.’
‘Melody Fryer, you have reason to be. The entertainment page of the Oregonian lists all of three nightclubs. I don’t know what passes for an All-Star Revue in swinging Eugene, but I’m fumbling toward a proposition. Think about it while I fetch that drink.’
‘Hi. I’m Janie Canute.’
Goldine looked up from the bench where she was untying the laces of her spikes after her 400-metre Quarter-Final. The girl who had spoken looked frail for a runner. Her fine black hair was parted at the center like a squaw and clasped at the back with a leather thong. She had a thin row of beads around her neck.
‘If I may say so, you have a beautiful style,’ said Janie. ‘You don’t mind me speaking?’
‘That’s kind of you,’ said Goldine. ‘I believe I should know your name. You won the second heat, is that right?’
Janie nodded. ‘Not so fast as yours. You were really motoring over the first half. Someone over there took a split at just on twenty-four. Do you always start fast?’
‘It’s inexperience, I guess,’ said Goldine. ‘I was too anxious to make up the stagger. By the end, I was short of breath.’
Janie handed her a training shoe that was out of reach. ‘I read about you in the paper. You must have a lot of talent, Goldine, going for three events.’
Goldine smiled. ‘Or a lot of cheek.’
‘Don’t say that. If you have a talent, don’t bury it. Unto every one that hath shall be given.’ She stopped and smiled. ‘You guessed it. I’m the one they call the Jesus freak. I run because I believe it’s God’s divine plan for me. You have to have something to run for, don’t you, or it’s meaningless? I’m always asking people why they run. I mean, a girl has to have a good reason to stand the guys teasing her about being a jock. You don’t mind me talking? I don’t embarrass you?’
‘I like to talk,’ said Goldine. ‘I don’t know many people in track.’
‘I’ll introduce you to a few. They all think I’m a nut, but they’re okay really. Mind if I ask you my question?’
‘About why I run?’ said Goldine. ‘I’m not religious, Janie, but it’s a kind of compulsion, like yours, I guess.’
‘Mine’s more of a conviction. Does it come from within?’
‘I couldn’t exactly say. I find it difficult to analyze like that. It’s not a thing I have much control over, but the more I go on, the more committed I become.’
Janie nodded earnestly. ‘I understand exactly. Goldine, wouldn’t it be great if we both got to Moscow?’