2000 Olympics: Blind Marla Runyan competes in the 1,500-meter final

She seems to be staring determinedly at the finish line, and yet she can’t see it. On September 30, 2000, Marla Runyan, a 31-year-old American, took the start line in the 1,500-meter final at the Sydney Games. An achievement for someone who, struck down at the age of 9 with Stargardt disease, suffers from a spot that obscures the center of her retina and leaves her with only blurred peripheral vision.

In the starting blocks, the athlete can just see the start of the ochre track and the flags of the nations fluttering in the wind. This deficiency officially places her in the blind category, but in the Australian arena filled with 110,000 spectators, the champion is measuring herself against rivals who do not have a disability.

After a flying start, the race settled into a false rhythm, with the favourites saving their strength for the decisive sprint. At the back of the pack, Marla was subject to this strategy. She then decided to overtake everyone on the outside and set her own pace. Never had a visually impaired person led an able-bodied competition.

On the penultimate lap, her opponents accelerated and Marla fought not to drop out. Finally, after a series of falls in front of her, the American snatched 8th place (out of 12) in the event won by Algerian Nouria Benida-Merah in 4 minutes 5 seconds and 10 hundredths.

Before this historic race, Marla Runyan could have continued her harvest of success at the Paralympic Games. Gold medalist in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and high jump in Barcelona in 1992, winner of the heptathlon in Atlanta in 1996, she finally decided, in Sydney, to change society’s view: “I am an athlete with a disability, not a blind person who runs.”

In his autobiography No Finish Line (2001), she describes the Olympics as “a competition apart”, totally unpredictable, “the equivalent of riding a boa constrictor”. Her performance also allows her to get closer to her idol, the gymnast Nadia Comăneci, in the Olympic pantheon.

A philosophy of life

By pushing the boundaries of what is possible, Marla embodied the Olympic spirit, which is also her philosophy of life. The one transmitted by her mother Valerie, a music teacher. From the 1980s, the little Californian, prevented from reading or watching TV like other children, made “the joy of the body in movement” the fuel of her dreams.

Driven by this flame, she passed her driver’s license, became a teacher at the Perkins School for the Blind, the oldest school for the blind in the United States, and established herself as a reference in endurance disciplines. Since Sydney and her notable participation in the 2002 New York marathon, Marla has entered the National Women’s History Museum, which lists female figures who have changed the face of the world.