Gabriela Szabo comes through the mixed zone waving off questions with her spindly elbows. She never stops, just grabs a tracksuit and keeps on running. What's in that head of hers is anyone's guess.
Szabo had just put some fears to rest. Like Sonia O'Sullivan, she returned from Atlanta with a hatful of ghosts. She had gone there among the favourites to win the 5,000 metres but failed to qualify for the finals. She recovered to win a silver in the 1,500 metres while O'Sullivan's woes continued. They both have points to prove on Monday, not least to each other.
Szabo is an unlikely distance runner. This woman who represents the principal threat to O'Sullivan when they meet again in the Olympic final never thought of running seriously until running came and asked her to think about it. She is short, just a little over five feet, and weighs in at 42 kg (6 1/2 st). She has a studious, intense face, and when she wears her glasses she has the worried demeanour of a harried librarian.
She was discovered when she was 13 and selected for special training in the Romanian system. That was in 1988, and Zsolt Gyongyossy the talent spotter had just graduated from the University of Bucharest as an athletics coach. He was assigned to train athletes in the tiny town of Bistrita, where Szabo lived. He spotted her in a 600 metres talent identification race. There was no hint of talent in the Szabo family.
"No. My parents are fat," she says matter-of-factly, "they never ran."
Yet here she is. She married Gyongyossy, 13 years her senior, last year. They had been plotting this for some time.
Like O'Sullivan, her memories of Atlanta are largely horrific. She has spoken obliquely about the temperature and the humidity there and the toll it extracted. Unlike O'Sullivan, she has been able to replenish her spirits with a more satisfactory explanation of what went wrong. Her coach and husband feels the preparation was just wrong.
"I shoulder the responsibility for Gabriela's under-par performance in Atlanta," says Gyongyossy. "We had never been to America before and we found Atlanta too hot and humid for our comfort. Gabriela did not have enough time to acclimatise before competing. We have learned our lesson and that is why two years ago we decided that Potchefstroom would be an ideal place to get our act together."
Potchefstroom in South Africa has become home for the couple. She trains there in seclusion and at altitude for much of the winter, before emerging for a short stab at the indoor circuit in early spring and then returning in May for the grand prix circuit. She has just enjoyed a couple of golden years, becoming the pre-eminent runner on the circuit and the first woman to win $1 million in prize money in a single season on the circuit. Yet it all seems curiously joyless, and even in her pomp there have been odd moments when her confidence has abandoned her.
Just odd moments. Szabo was undefeated in 1999, opening the year with a world 5,000 metres record (14 minutes 47.35 seconds) in Dortmund. She went on to win the 5,000 metres at the world championships in Spain. Then, last February, she won the 3,000 metres at the European Championships in Ghent, Belgium.
She has always had a brittle relationship with her rival O'Sullivan, and she was especially taken aback when O'Sullivan put Atlanta behind her to win both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres European championships in Budapest in 1998.
O'Sullivan and Szabo seldom speak, but there is a feeling on the circuit that O'Sullivan with her long stride and ability to kick from anywhere on the last lap has always spooked Szabo. Asked in Europe earlier this year if there was anyone she feared when it came to the Olympics, Szabo mentioned just one name: "Miss O'Sullivan".
Miss O'Sullivan's confidence about the 5,000 metres were boosted further when Szabo's main ally in producing quick races, the Moroccan Zahra Ouaziz, withdrew. On Monday, much of what happens to O'Sullivan and Szabo will be determined by the three Ethiopians in the race. Will they run as a team? Will they force the pace? Will Szabo and O'Sullivan still be in a position to fight it out over a sprint finish after almost 13 laps?
"This year," Szabo told the Romanian press early in the season, "my mind is focused on the Sydney Olympics, where I want to win the 5,000 metres.
"If I win the Olympics then I will have everything," she said earlier this year, expressing a frightening thought for a 24-year-old. "I would have all the medals. What else could I ask for but good health."
