SONIA O'SULLIVAN gets back to the business of being an athlete this afternoon; when she attempts to rebuild an Olympic challenge which has floundered in controversy and disappointment for the past three days.
After consulting the Irishteam doctor and spending 24 hours settling her thoughts and gathering her strength, O'Sullivan begins her assault on the Olympic 1,500 metre crown today with a first round heat in the Olympic stadium.
The chance to put 1,500 metres of rusty red track between herself and the past couple of days' events will surely be welcome for the Cobh runner. She can seldom have prepared for a major task with such a cacophony of petty argument in her ears.
Having been sucked into the moil of the press centre and pushed into the tangle of sports politics, the straightforward simplicity of today's task should refresh O'Sullivan.
The process of thinning down the sprawling 1,500 metres field begins this morning and continues tomorrow with the semi final stages of the competition. The final is scheduled for Saturday night. Sinead Delahunty, the Boston based athlete originally from Kilkenny, is also an entrant in today's heats.
Yesterday was a day of rest for the track and field athletes and the big, brooding stadium remained empty and silent. The mood was reflected by a relative lull in hostilities between the two parties to the running gear dispute. There was confirmation of the allegation by Irish athletics sources that Mr Guy McCallum, a representative of Reebok USA, has been officially accredited as part of the Irish party in Atlanta with access to the Olympic village. Kim McDonald, Sonia O'Sullivan's agent and coach, also has an Irish accreditation.
Erik de Bruin, Michelle Smith's coach and husband, was also given an Irish accreditation despite being currently under IAAF suspension for drug offences and having bee refused accreditation to the 199 world swimming championship.
In the current instance, officials of BLED - the Irish amateur athletics body - are aggrieved because there are insufficient accreditations available to them to bring in their own medical personnel or coaches to other leading athletes.
Mr Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, countered that the Reebok agent's accreditation had been supplied by as part of a quota of four guests his position entitles him tub accredit. Reebok also sponsors the Olympic Council of Ireland and is an official sponsor of the Atlanta Games.
In Ireland, meanwhile, Mr Tommy Sheridan, an executive and spokesman for Asics, one of the companies at the centre of the sports gear row, said yesterday he found the spectacle of the feuding sports organisations embarrassing.
"I was embarrassed by the whole situation and I didn't want to go back and tell Asics international about all of this because they wouldn't believe you. They would just tell you to get someone to go in there and knock their heads together. It's such a petty thing."
BLE has a deal with Asics which it signed in December, 1992. The deal concludes with these Games and is worth about £100,000 a year to the athletics body. It provides £75,000 a year in the form of free gear and equipment and £25,000 in cash.
The genesis of the current dispute dates back to July, 1993, when Mr Hickey wrote to BLE saying it was beyond its rights to have included the Olympics in the current deal.
Meanwhile, back in the sporting arena, Brian Magee, the Irish middleweight boxer, made an exit from the Games last night. He was defeated by the Algerian contender, Mohamed Bahami. Magee was a point down after the first round and the deficit grew. The bout was scored 12-8 in favour of the Algerian. A win for Magee would have guaranteed him a medal.