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Marie-Jose
Perec
Like Michael Johnson in men, Marie-Jose Perec in women became in the Atlanta Olympics the first female athlete in the history of the Olympics to  win a gold medal in the 400m in two consecutive Olympic organizations. However, Johnson would have to wait four more years until the Sydney Olympics, in order to become the first athlete in the history of the Olympics with two consecutive victories in the 400m event. Marie-Jose Perec was the Olympic winner of the event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a victory which she repeated in 1996.
Marie-Jose Perec was born on 9 May 1968 in Guadeloupe, a small island society in the Caribbean under French suzerainty. In 1984, Perec settled with her family in Paris and from that time her potential in the sprints started to show. Four years later, in 1988, she participated for the first time in the Olympic Games without getting any distinction. Her first important distinction was in the world championship of 1991, where she won the 400m. The following year, in the Barcelona Olympics, she was considered the most likely winner of that event and she made certain to confirm these estimations leaving Olga Bryzgina, winner in Seoul, in the second place.
Over the following years she continued to dominate the 400m and repeated her victory in Atlanta in 1996. This time the second place was won by Cathy Freeman, the athlete from Australia, who would win the gold medal in the Olympic Games of 2000. A few days later, Marie-Jose Perec won the 200m final as well, depriving the Jamaican Ìerlene Ottey of her last chance to win a gold Olympic medal. Four years later in Sydney she intended to contend for the third consecutive gold medal in the 400m, her biggest opponent being Cathy Freeman once again.
The tension created a few days before the beginning of the Games due to the confrontation of the two athletes and the apparently hostile climate she was faced with during her stay at Sydney led her to cancel her participation and leave Australia taking by surprise the officials of the French delegation, who eventually justified her attitude. Marie-Jose Perec is the second female athlete of France to win a gold Olympic medal in athletics. Before her Micheline Ostermeyer had won two golds in 1948 in the discus throw and in the shot put.
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