Plastic Brits part 2

When I read the article I posted in my previous blog ‘Losing my record to a Plastic Brit has left me devastated’ I remembered the fiasco of 1984 and how ironic that the newspaper printing the article should be responsible for one of the worst cases of ‘Plastic Brit’.
The Daily Mail persuaded Zola Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British to circumvent the international Sporting boycott of South Africa so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
1984 Olympic 3000 metres
Mary Decker crashes to the ground after she and Zola Budd (centre) collide during the Olympic 3000m final.
The media billed the race as a duel between Budd and American world champion Mary Decker, few reporting that a third contestant, Romanian Maricica Puică, had set the fastest time that year.
Decker set a fast pace from the gun with Budd in close pursuit followed by Puică and Britain's Wendy Smith-Sly. When the pace slowed, just past the midway point, Budd took the lead on the straight and ran wide of the pack around the turn. Setting the pace she took herself, Decker, Smith-Sly and Puică clear of the pack. She seemed to assume control of the race coming out of the turn on the track at 1700 metres. Half a stride behind Budd, on the inside, Mary Decker's right thigh contacted Budd's left foot, knocking Budd slightly off balance. Decker maintained her close position and again clipped Budd, striking the leader's calf with her right shoe as Budd moved towards the inside. A third collision followed and Decker stumbled and fell onto the infield. Her left hip injured, she was unable to resume the race.
Although Budd continued to lead for a while, she faded; finishing 7th amid a resounding chorus of boos. Her finishing time of 8 m. 48 s. was well outside her best of 8 m. 37 s. Budd tried to apologize to Decker in the tunnel after the race, but Decker did not respond in the same spirit, and replied, “Don’t bother!” Puică took gold, with Sly in second, and Canada's Lynn Williams the bronze.
Although Budd was booed by the crowd, an IAAF jury found that she was not responsible for the collision. Decker said many years after the event “The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. I happen to know that wasn’t the case at all. The reason I fell is because I am and was very inexperienced in running in a pack.”
In general, it is the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead; whether or not Budd had sufficient control of the race to have pulled into the curve as she naturally did was hotly disputed. "This doesn't mean," track journalist Kenny Moore wrote in the aftermath, "that a leader can swerve in with impunity, but that in the give and take of pack running, athletes learn to make allowances." At first the US media sided with Decker, while the British press supported Budd.
In 2002 the moment was ranked 93rd in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
I have never laughed or enjoyed a poetic sporting moment so much and for years my brothers and I imitated the whining voice of Decker “Zolaaa BuuuD”.