Athletics: Blind runner aims for a Top 5 finish

By EUGENE BINGHAM

In Marla Runyan's eyes, the Olympic 1500m race will be nothing but a blur.

She will barely be able to make out her fellow competitors, won't see the numbers on the lap-counter, and the crowd will be a mess of shapeless colour.

Runyan is legally blind and the first paralympian to make an Olympic team but it is not an achievement you will find her bragging about.

"I'm not trying to avoid the question or get people to ignore it because obviously it's half of my story," Runyan said yesterday.

"But it should be, No 1, I made the Olympic team; No 2, oh, yeah, I'm legally blind."

The 31-year-old American middle-distance runner has Stargardts disease, a degenerative disorder that began robbing her of sight when she was nine.

Her vision is now 20/300 in her left eye and 20/400 in her right.

She can make out shapes and colours and has peripheral vision but can barely see anything looking straight ahead.

Growing up, Runyan tried to keep doing what she had been until it was no longer possible.

She kept playing soccer until high school when she could not longer see the ball.

She switched to athletics and found what she had been looking for.

"I use lots of different visual aids to get through day to day life but running on the track is one of the areas I can do independently.

"I have a sense of strength on the track that sometimes in other areas of my life I don't have. I don't consider it to be a disability on the track."

Around home, she uses magnifying glasses to see and is unable to drive, though this has not always been the case.

"I had my licence in California, if you can believe that. Pretty scary, huh."

Her sight was a little better then and she had to wear a special telescopic lens strapped to her head.

She gave up driving four years ago when she moved to Oregon.

Though Runyan is off the road, she is definitely in the fast lane on the track.

She has a personal best of 4 min 5 sec set at last year's world championships where she came 10th.

She hopes to finish in the top five of the Olympic race for which she has to prepare more than any other athlete.

Because she cannot see the faces or numbers of her competitors, Runyan has to memorise features such as body shapes or haircuts to recognise her opponents.

During a race, she listens for the other runners' breathing to judge when it is time to attack.

"In a race, I have a good sense of moving around in a pack.

"I'm not a klutz so I can move around people and there's not a danger of my bashing into anybody."

Runyan began her track career as a heptathlete - years of serious weights workouts have left her with a lean, muscular frame - but switched to middle distance running when she failed to make the 1996 Olympic team.

She competed at the 1996 paralympics and can recall sitting in a room with another member of the US team talking about Sydney.

"I remember saying, 'I'm going to Sydney, but I'm not going to the paralympics.'

"[The teammate] was really close to me because I could see her.

"I don't know if she believed me or not, but she does now."

Note: Athletics competition at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games begins on Friday.