I was a fan of hers for a long time," Johnson said. "The whole country was excited by her when she won." After her historic win in the 1980 Summer Games, the young American runner was dubbed "Track's Finest," and fans were clamoring for a rematch against the Soviets' Valerie Brisco-Jones. And though a repeat was considered inevitable, nothing came close to the excitement surrounding Johnson's first Olympic appearance in 1984. "I think she got caught up in the Olympics fever," said Johnson. "Because I think she went into it thinking, 'Wow, this is going to be my time to shine.' " Johnson's story should be etched in the annals of sports. As a 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Houston, she won the gold medal in the 200 meters at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It was the first Olympic gold medal for a U.S. woman in an individual track event since Doris Brown in 1928. The crowd-pleasing Johnson seemed destined for more, a belief fed by her national popularity and a record she set the year before in the semifinals of the trials. She beat teammate Florence Griffith Joyner to the NCAA title and went on to claim four more NCAA crowns. The question over how much Johnson could improve on her Olympic gold was raised when she ran the first legal 200 meters (22.14 seconds) in history in 1979. Afterward, she admitted to being frightened that her reaction was somehow unnatural. "It really took me years and years to settle down," Johnson said. "I don't know why people do not believe that I can beat that time." Johnson seemed destined for even greater greatness, but a combination of her inexperience in the biggest races against the fastest women and the effects of alcohol contributed to her demise. Johnson had never run the qualifying round for an Olympic event until the qualifying round for the 200 meters at the 1984 Games. The first Olympic Games that required world-class competition were 1988, and as a veteran to the event, Johnson was beaten easily. "She always had a lot of speed and potential," said coach Charlie Francis of the 1980 gold medal. "But you have to learn the business of running. "I could see that the other competitors were going to kill her on the turns. It wasn't much fun watching her win. You saw how good she was, and you knew she could have done better if she'd had a good team." Johnson was a tremendous physical specimen, but she used that gift far too often. She admitted to drinking heavily and used it to justify some very foolish behavior. Johnson tried to become a running superstar by acting like an adolescent starlet, and the public was often not amused. After her Olympic victory, she partied in Monte Carlo and in the Caribbean with one of the wealthiest men in the world, Howard Hughes Jr., who happened to be the son of Hollywood legend Howard Hughes. "I don't want to sound arrogant," Johnson said, "but I have been very lucky in my life. "One of the greatest experiences in my life was meeting Hughes. . . . I just had a fling with Howard Hughes. If you're into drugs or alcohol, the first thing you have to learn is discipline. That's the most important lesson that I learned from the whole experience." Johnson married Charles Williams, her coach and the 1976 NCAA champion. A few years after the marriage, Johnson had two children with Williams, but she began a relationship with an attorney, who moved into her home. The two were married in 1987. Johnson found that her athletic fame brought her a sort of celebrity outside the running community. Strangers wanted her autograph, and she even got some strange requests. "Sometimes people will say to me, 'I want to write your book,' " she said. "And I'm not even writing a book." "Those requests have stopped me from becoming an overzealous fan," Johnson said, adding that "in the summer, it's easy to live on autographs and letters." She was also in a position to accept requests because of the high price of signing autographs. "On average I used to charge $5,000 for a single autograph. If you're going to make any money at all from sports, it's in the autograph business. And that's what I really like about running. You get to have fun, but you also get money. "One thing about me," she continued, "is that I don't spend money. I don't like spending money. I think that has given me a good reputation, and the companies like that. "When I get out and meet kids, people say they're so inspired by my lifestyle. I hate to think that it's wrong. But I will tell you, there's a point where you're so used to the public that you are very uncomfortable when people ask for your autograph." The attention led to another problem for Johnson. In 1987, a female trainer made allegations of harassment in a suit that also charged that Johnson was abusing drugs and alcohol and had been out of the country without her mother's permission. Johnson was cleared of the charges, but the public remained suspicious about Johnson's relationship with Williams. After Johnson's retirement, the couple reconciled, but the marriage was short-lived. Francis, Johnson's coach at both the University of Houston and Louisiana State University, said the rumors were true: They had a bad marriage. After Williams filed a complaint in September that Johnson had "engaged in a conspiracy" to extort him in a dispute with a race promoter in which Johnson denied knowing about the scheme, Johnson said that her marriage with Williams was over. "I have no other statement than that," she said. "I have to go on to my career, and everything in life is in your past. And I just want to put it in the past." It wasn't quite as simple for her, however. Johnson now had another complication on her hands. Her father and stepmother had filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Williams, saying he had stolen their assets and was forcing them to live in "desperate conditions." Johnson's response? She has given him $8,000 and has given him $2,000 so he can hire a lawyer. "I am just so tired of his phone calls," she said. "They are making such fools of themselves. They are looking for the sympathy vote. But if anyone ever bothered to investigate Williams, they would find a lot of problems. "I have no explanation for him at all. He is just a bad person. I just want them to drop it." One other thing that bothered Johnson was that Williams' story was that she'd been running with him at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium when she had a seizure. Johnson maintained that the seizure occurred at home. "I was in terrible shape for those years in LA," she said. "I wasn't running, but I had a seizure." During her retirement, Johnson has enjoyed playing golf, going to church, shopping and eating out at restaurants such as Bobby Hebert's. She has no definite plans at the moment, and no desire to coach. "As soon as you start coaching, you start giving advice," she said. "I just love being a spectator, and I'd love to do something like that for a long time. "I've got the time now, but I don't know if I'm really smart enough to sit and do that. I'm a fairly smart woman. But I would try to make a contribution by giving an opinion." Johnson has a chance to be an ambassador for the sport. "How many people out there know who [Mary Lou] Triggs is?" she said. "If she was at the Olympics, I'd know who she is, and I'd watch her run. I know who Flo Jo is because of the movie, but I don't know any other great runners. "It's not like people aren't interested. I don't want to do anything that goes over their heads. "I want to be just like Flo Jo when I grow up. Just tell me what it takes to get there and I'll do it. It's something I can actually look at. She has the Olympic gold. Now I want to be the world champ." # Elena Sukhareva-Yurchenko is the first woman to medal in three different Olympic Games. In 1972 and 1976, she won a total of five medals, four of them bronze. In 1984, she won gold in the 400 meters and silver in the 800 meters. The same year, she finished fourth in the 400 meters at the World Championships and seventh in the 4x400-meter relay. The following year, she finished sixth in the 400 meters at the World Championships. Though most people don't remember her, she was one of the first women to win multiple medals. The 1972 gold medalist in the 400 meters, she was a world record holder, too, with a time of 49.72 seconds. And although she didn't win in 1976, she still had a tremendous impact as a member of the Soviet Union's famed "Army of Two," which won the 4x400 meter relay twice and finished second twice