Athletics at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games:

Between 1992 and 1996 the Chinese and African women moved onto the world marathon scene. African men had been world-class distance runners since the early 1960s, but women were only becoming liberated enough to compete internationally. At the Tianjin marathon in April 1993, Chinese women finished in the eight places, all under 2-26, and four of them moved in to the world top 10 list. This followed several other stunning times by Chinese female distance runners, but many of these were later discredited when systematic doping regimens were revealed in the Chinese athletics hierarchy.

Portugal had a new women’s marathon star in Manuela Machado, who won the 1994 European Championships and the 1995 World Championships. Germany’s Uta Pippig had won the Boston Marathon in 1994-96 and was highly considered. The top African woman was likely Kenya’s Tegla Leroupe, who won the 1994 New York Marathon.

To avoid the summer heat of Atlanta, the race started at 7:05 AM, the morning after the bombing at the Centennial Olympic Park. Pippig took the early lead and led by 13 seconds at five kilometers, and she increased this to 28 second at 10 km. At 20 km. she was caught by Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba and Pippig was also overtaken by defending champion Valentina Yegorova, Machado, Japan’s silver medalist from 1992, Yuko Arimori, and Romania’s Lidia Şimon. Pippig would eventually drop out. Roba powered ahead and held a 28-second lead at 25 km. She ran unchallenged to a 2-minute victory in a time of 2-26:05, considered very fast on the hilly course, in the Southern summer weather. Yegorova won the silver medal, and Arimori the bronze medal. Machado faded to seventh place, trailing Simon by one spot.