The 1968 Mexico Olympics reconsidered, Day Seven: Amazing Grace, by Mike Fanelli

This is day seven in the feature series by Mike Fanelli titled, The 1968 Mexico Olympics Reconsidered. RunBlogRun reposted day 7 on the 54th anniversary of the Mexico Olympics.

This is Mike Fanelli’s column on Day 7 of the 1968 Mexico Olympics athletics schedule. The women’s 800 meters and Decathlon were two of the iconic events from Day 7.

AMAZING GRACE…The oval and infield at Estadio Olimpico Universitario was busier than a desert cobra at a mongoose convention on this seventh day of Olympic Track and Field. There’d be many relay heats qualifying for both men and women in either the 4 x 100 meters baton carry or the lengthier 4 x 400 metered version. Decathletes would pick right back up from where they’d left off on a preceding day, while the women raced around the track for an astonishing two entire laps.

The distaff 800 was first held in the 1928 Games of Amsterdam, but while a number of the competitors had collapsed upon completion, there’d be a half-mile Oly hiatus until the event was re-instituted in 1960. It was deemed “unhealthy” for women to run quite so far. Doctors agreed that endurance racing would make women “old too soon.” One of those ‘when the fact is stranger than fiction moments for sure. One might note that the 800 meters would be the furthest that women would run at the Olympic Games until the 1500 meters was added in 1972. And the addition of the marathon would take yet three more Olympiads.

Growing up in the downtrodden inner city of Cleveland, Ohio, a young Madeline Manning was diagnosed at an early age with spinal meningitis. She spent an enormous part of her upbringing being quite sickly and was awkwardly shy because of it. Not at all athletic, the young Manning’s talents were first discovered during one of President Kennedy’s Council on Youth Fitness tests. Much to her own surprise and delight, Madeline could run…really run. She’d be recruited to anchor the sprint relay for the Cleveland Rec and Park track team in 1964, where it soon became evident that she was speedy and had certain stamina too. Her first effort over 440 yards resulted in an eyebrow-raising time of 59 flat. At the ripe young age of just 16, she’d turn a full lap in 55.0 seconds…it was unheard of. Two years later, she traveled on a Greyhound bus to Nashville to attend the college originally known as the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State Normal School for Negroes, when first established…