Embassy Highlight

Everything Else Stops
by Gabriela Szabo

Gabriela Szabo bursts across the finish line for a victory in the 5,000-meter race at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She writes of the moment, "The sound of your breath is competing with the sound of your steps." (© AP Images/Doug Mills)

- RELATED INFO -

Press release: Romanian Olympic Gold Medalist Featured in eJournal USA eJournal USA: The Olympic Experience [ .PDF 9,001 Kb, April 2008, Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader ]

As an olympic competi¬tor in 1996 and 2000, Romanian runner Gabriela Szabo won a bronze, a silver, and a gold medal — the whole collection, as one of our contribu¬tors calls it. the final moments of a winning race remain clear in her memory.

In a 5,000-meters race, it’s only in the last 200 meters that you start to count your steps. It’s like everything else stops, and you’re the only one who is moving. The sound of your breath is compet¬ing with the sound of your steps, and you don’t see all the people around you anymore. Suddenly, the crowd becomes unclear in your vision. It is like taking a picture and focusing only on a single object and nothing else. In those final moments of the race, the only object in focus is the finish line.

The last steps of a race are not part of a normal run¬ning move. You run for victory and that gives you strength and speed to reach your goal.

I wish I could say that you don’t feel any pain. I can’t. Still, it’s a mixed pain. Your muscles hurt, but your mind is focused on victory. You struggle between both those forces pulsing through you. Suddenly, the training makes sense. Those times when you pushed your body to the utmost don’t seem meaningless anymore. It prepared your body for winning!

When someone asks me to describe the feelings I had in a race, I remember Sydney and my story becomes the story of that 5,000 meters race. It was a tough race, even though I can’t say that it was tougher than other races. Maybe the fact that it was an event in the Olympic Games made it special and, consequently, the vic¬tory was fantastic. I don’t know if I was ever so proud to be an athlete and to represent Romania. I loved that honor tour around the course with the flag on my shoulders! And suddenly the pain of those last 100 meters wasn’t there anymore.

I have been running since I was 13 years old. I was lucky to meet Zsolt, my coach, who would later become my husband, and we shared the effort of all the races. So, through all the difficult training and pushing my body further and further, I wasn’t alone and I knew that down to my soul.

I retired from the sport in 2004 because I felt I couldn’t push my body any longer. Still, I knew I had a responsibility toward the people who enjoyed my victories as an ath- lete. Now, I’m the vice president of the Romanian Athletic Federation and I initiated a social campaign, “Sport for Life,” through which I try to spread awareness and get people out on the streets and tracks to run.

At the 2001 World Track and Field Championships, Szabo takes a victory lap with her national flag in hand after winning the gold medal in the 1,500 meters. (© AP Images/Amy Sancetta)

I also spend a lot of time visiting schools. I tell kids how good it is to practice sport and that running can be a lot of fun. I tell them what I learned in all those years of athlet- ics. Sport taught me to establish goals and to work hard to achieve them. Running taught me what success looked like, and Sydney was a part of that lesson. I also found out what failure is. Still, luckily, I knew that after both you have to work harder than before. I hope to share my passion for sport with all the people I meet and talk to. It’s very good to see how they discover sport and the pleasure of it. I especially love children and how they see sport as play. I want to make sure they hold on to the belief that sport is fun, so that when they grow up, they don’t quit athletics.

And if only one child will become a champion, I’ll know that my effort was worth it!

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