Eternal victory lap by John Akii-Bua

AOn the eve of his biggest day, John Akii-Bua receives a visit to the Olympic Village. It’s his trainer Malcolm Arnold, he has four bottles of German sparkling wine with him. And a note. Then the draw for the final over 400 meters hurdles: Lane one. “My body became very stiff, as if someone had hit me,” Akii-Bua writes in his diary. Despite the piccolos, the 22-year-old can’t sleep. Whenever he tries to visualize the run, he sees David Hemery, the Olympic champion and world record holder, from lane one. Hemery is always in front of him. “His image in my dream startled me,” he notes.

“You can’t actually win on the inside lane,” says Dieter Büttner fifty years later: “The granulate has worn off from the long-distance runners, and the lane is not without danger because of the curb. You automatically run a bit more in the middle and have two or three meters more to run.” Büttner, as the German champion, was eliminated from the Olympic semifinals when he stumbled over the falling East German runner Christian Rudolph shortly before the finish line. Rudolph scolded him: “Go away, you idiot.” He thought Büttner had kicked his calf. Rudolph had torn his Achilles tendon without outside influence.