BIG day for Atlanta's very own girl next door. That's how the local papers like to describe Gwen Torrance, the tough talking, hard nosed queen of the sprinters.
Surprisingly, Torrance has already failed once this summer here in her home town. In May, on the final day of the US Olympic trials, the reigning Olympic 200 metre champion failed to qualify in that event for the Games. She missed out by 1000th of a second.
In the 100 metres, she is the reigning world champion of course.
However, it is for her bad days she will be remembered. She was disqualified from the world 20C metres final last summer for running out of lane. In Barcelona, in 1992, she participated in a memorable 100 metres final. The photo finish and the ugly aftermath will long be remembered.
Having finished fourth in a tremendously close race, she accused two of the three women who beat her of being "dirty". The three women Gail Devers, Julie Cuthbert and Irina Privalova took offence.
"Gwen Torrance can kiss my ass," was the on the record comment of Devers's coach, Bob Kersee.
She's the biggest bitch on the track," said Cuthbert.
She has always been a sprinter. In school she came to notice as a runner quite by accident when chasing down future football player Fred Lane in a fit of pique.
Lane stole Torrance's bag as a tease. She caught Lane 70 yards down the football pitch, slapped him and took her bag back off him. The school track coach, Ray Bonner, was watching. Torrance was a reluctant athlete and through school she used to sprint in jeans because she thought her legs were too thin. Bonner persuaded Torrance, however, that there were two enjoyable things about track.
"Running fast and kicking butt."
She's been doing that ever since. The loo metres, should she win, will be the first gold in a possible collection of three from Atlanta. Torrance runs the anchor leg in the 4x100 metres relay and will possibly compete also in the 4x400 relay.
For the past 10 days Torrance has been the high profile ambassador of her hometown, gushing excitedly about Olympic dreams and fulfilment. An entire city hopes that she will be running off with gold rather than running off at the mouth.
