Controversy Stands Out More Than Budd Does

Soap operas were on television monitors, murals of baseball, football and soccer players were on the walls and raindrops were on the windows.

This was Friday afternoon in a San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium dining room, where assorted athletes were meeting the media and casting anxious eyes on the downpour outside.

One of these athletes was among the most celebrated and controversial, not to mention best, to hit the international scene in some time.

However, you could put this bunch in a lineup and I would defy you to pick the athlete in question. Controversy generally comes in more predictable packages.

Gruff George Steinbrenner, for example, looks controversial. So does fiery John McEnroe, brash Billy Martin and iconoclastic Al Davis. There is that look about them.

Zola Budd does not have that look. She would have to stand on her tiptoes to drop a letter into a mailbox, and she weighs about as much as the Sunday paper. She speaks as softly and quietly as she might run through a field of dichondra, and she runs barefoot.

Here she was in San Diego, looking more like a babysitter than a world-class athlete who spent an uncomfortable 1984 in the glare of one unwanted spotlight after another.

Budd, here to run in the Heart of San Diego 10K Sunday, first generated controversy when she moved from South Africa to England, and quickly became a citizen. This maneuver enabled her to participate in the Olympic Games, since South Africa is excluded because of its apartheid policies. Her move was decried in many quarters as being more opportunistic than nationalistic.

Thus qualified for the Olympics, by talent and citizenship, she positioned herself for another controversy. This, of course, was the famous collision with Mary Decker in the 3,000-meter final. Decker behaved as though Budd had intentionally shoved her onto a bed of hot coals.

Replays of that incident were played and replayed, and Decker’s anguished face was splashed on the pages of magazines and newspapers worldwide.

Figuring it would take a Mark Gastineau to wreak such havoc on Decker, I was not prepared for Budd. She could use one leg of Gastineau’s uniform pants for a sleeping bag.

Budd was wearing a team jacket for a shoe company, and presumably her shoes were from the same company. It is interesting to note that a runner known for competing without shoes should represent a shoe company. It’s a little bit like having John Madden represent an airline.

However, one of those dumb writers who ask dumb questions was informed that Budd would indeed wear shoes--or galoshes--come Sunday.

“I only run barefoot on the track,� she said.

Barefoot or not, Budd has come a long way in six years. When she started running at age 14, she knew she enjoyed it and sensed she had some natural talent--but never thought it would take her far from the agricultural homeland near Bloenfontein.

“I thought of being a good runner, but not an international runner,� she said.

Or celebrity.

She already had established herself as an international caliber runner at the age of 17, but her 18th year put her on center stage. That would have been 1984, the year she became the most reluctant of celebrities.

“Last year, there were so many problems it was almost as if running was secondary,� she said. “It was a very difficult time, all the problems before and during the Olympics. I couldn’t enjoy the Olympics as much as I would have.�

Alas, that trying year is behind her and Budd, 19, is fresh and relaxed. And she is learning to cope with some of the responsibilities of being The Main Attraction. The promoters always want Zola Budd to meet the press, which also wants to meet Zola Budd.

“It’s just as important as dealing with all of the other things,� she said. “You have to learn to cope. The running itself is not so difficult, but the travel--hotels, waiting, airports--take getting used to.�

Part of learning to cope is learning to escape. After perhaps 15 minutes of conversation Friday, the subject turned to Mary Decker. She said she thought no hard feelings remained. Moments later, she looked across the room, nodded and excused herself.

I turned to see who had beckoned, and no one was there.

However, before she departed, she had been talking about the joys of going places--and how running had allowed her to get out of Bloenfontein as surely as she had escaped the inquisitive media.

“If I wasn’t a runner I don’t think I ever would have gone to Europe or America,� she said. “It’s nice to see a lot of different places. It was nice to go to Rome and see the Colosseum and all the other historical monuments.�

Ah, this world traveler would surely have some impressions on what she likes best about the United States. I wondered if it would be something inspiring such as the Statue of Liberty or Washington Monument, or breathtaking as the Grand Canyon or Rocky Mountains or merely fun like Disneyland or Sea World.

She answered without a second of hesitation.

“McDonald’s,� she said.

She smiled slightly, as if she had divulged her innermost secret, and confessed an affection for Chicken McNuggets.

I shook my head. So this was the Zola Budd, Little Ms. Controversy of 1984? This was certainly not my idea of a controversial figure. I expect my controversial figures to be chewing cigars or chewing out people.

Somehow a munchkin munching Chicken McNuggets does not fit the profile.