Adkins vs. Matete in 1996

by Steve McGill

This month’s featured great race is another 400h race. This one takes us back to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. For the second year in a row, Derrick Adkins of the United Stated and Samuel Matete of Zambia were going at it head to head for the gold medal. In the 1995 World Championships in Sweden, Adkins had squeaked out a victory over Matete in an electrifying race. Adkins finished in 47.99 to Matete’s 48.03, with Matete’s mad rush off the last hurdle falling just short of victory.

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So in ’96, it was time for the big meet rematch. Adkins and Matete had raced each other dozens of time, dating back to college. In the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Matete had finished second in 47.60 behind the great Kevin Young’s dominant 47.18 performance. Adkins, in that race, finished a distant seventh in 49.07. Collegiately, Adkins had attended Georgia Tech while Matete had competed for Auburn. In their head-to-head meetings, Adkins had a slight edge, but the two of them together were clearly the two best male 400m hurdlers in the world by the time the 1996 Olympic Games rolled around. With the Games being in Adkins’ backyard in Atlanta, it represented his opportunity reach the pinnacle of the sport in his adopted hometown.

In the final, Adkins was lined up in lane six, while Matete was in lane one. As we all know, the 400 hurdles out of lane one is a very difficult race to run. The curves are super-tight and it’s hard to negotiate the barriers without swerving in the lane. But back in 1972, another Zambian, John Aki-Bua, had won a gold medal out of lane one.

Adkins and Matete were the perfect opposites as rivals. Adkins was known as a hurdler who took off fast and gained an early control of the race, while Matete was known as a hurdler who came on strong late. Adkins was lean with an open, fluid gait, while Matete was shorter, more muscular, and more powerful.

The race played out as expected. Adkins shot out of the blocks and took an early commanding lead,while Matete bided his time and just kept coming. Very good at alternating, Adkins switched from 13-stepping through the first six hurdles to 14-stepping over the last four. Matete, meanwhile, 13-stepped through eight hurdles, then 15-stepped the last two. Despite dropping down to fifteen on the final straight-away, Matete made a big charge, closing the gap on Adkins. But Adkins had a good rhythm coming of the last hurdle, and was able to hold off Matete to the finish line.

A very powerful personal element for Adkins leading up to this race that no one in the public was aware of was the fact that he was battling depression, and was taking medication for it. In a New York Times article by Jere Longman that came out in 2000 (as Adkins was attempting a comeback after disappearing from the track scene for a few years), the author writes that “What no one but his parents and coach knew … was that Adkins was suffering from severe depression. He had been diagnosed three months earlier, unable to sleep, feeling an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and thinking suicidal thoughts…”[i]

The author goes on to explain that, prior to the Games, Adkins had briefly stopped taking the medication he had been prescribed because it was making him feel lethargic. The article makes it clear that, in the long run, depression pretty much derailed Adkins’ career, as he couldn’t train at a high level while medicated, but he risked his very life if he were to shun taking them. It’s just a riveting story because it reminds us of how much real life intrudes on the fantasy world of sports. And when you watch footage of that 1996 Olympic final, you see it in a new light, realizing all that Adkins was going through.

[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/20/sports/olympics-adkins-s-tough-choice-speed-or-stable-moods.html

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