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The 400: Aching to Win
Botswana’s Amantle Montsho Seeks Glory in Punishing Race
Eric Evans for The New York Times
By MARY PILON
Published: July 7, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. — Eight women lined up near the staggered starting line to run the 400 meters, known as the “long sprint” in track circles, an event whose distance is too punishing for many sprinters and whose pace is too swift for many middle-distance runners.
A Runner Rises From Botswana
This is the final article in a three-part series about Amantle Montsho, who may become the first athlete from Botswana to win an Olympic medal.
Eric Evans for The New York Times
Amantle Montsho is trying to become the first athlete from Botswana to capture an Olympic medal. More Photos »
They stretched and shook their limbs behind the starting blocks, the relaxing shimmy before the 50-second explosion. Among them: Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist; Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica, a top talent from a country that produces world-class runners the way Stanford produces computer programmers; and Amantle Montsho, the reigning world champion.
Montsho, 29, is from a rural village in Botswana, an African country not known for elite athletes. She trains in near isolation in Dakar, Senegal, working day after day to refine her technique in the name of winning races, most important the one this summer at the Olympics in London. She is the first female professional athlete in the country, which has not won an Olympic medal in any sport.
Full Hundred
Botswana’s Amantle Montsho Seeks Glory in Punishing Race
Eric Evans for The New York Times
By MARY PILON
Published: July 7, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. — Eight women lined up near the staggered starting line to run the 400 meters, known as the “long sprint” in track circles, an event whose distance is too punishing for many sprinters and whose pace is too swift for many middle-distance runners.
A Runner Rises From Botswana
This is the final article in a three-part series about Amantle Montsho, who may become the first athlete from Botswana to win an Olympic medal.
Eric Evans for The New York Times
Amantle Montsho is trying to become the first athlete from Botswana to capture an Olympic medal. More Photos »
They stretched and shook their limbs behind the starting blocks, the relaxing shimmy before the 50-second explosion. Among them: Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist; Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica, a top talent from a country that produces world-class runners the way Stanford produces computer programmers; and Amantle Montsho, the reigning world champion.
Montsho, 29, is from a rural village in Botswana, an African country not known for elite athletes. She trains in near isolation in Dakar, Senegal, working day after day to refine her technique in the name of winning races, most important the one this summer at the Olympics in London. She is the first female professional athlete in the country, which has not won an Olympic medal in any sport.
Full Hundred
