donderdag, november 21, 2002

Kim Gallagher, a middle-distance runner who overcame illness to win medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, has died. She was 38. Gallagher, a member of the Pennsylvania Track and Field Hall of Fame, died of a stroke Monday at Roxborough Memorial Hospital. She was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1995 and suffered the first of two strokes in August. Gallagher had surgery on her ovaries about six months before winning a silver medal in the 800-meter run in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She also was anemic and later had chronic fatigue syndrome and an infection of the fallopian tubes. "I felt like I was being stabbed in the stomach," Gallagher said after winning the bronze in the 800 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Gallagher's time that year was 1 minute, 56.91 seconds, a personal best that still ranks No.3 on the all-time U.S. list behind Jearl Miles-Clark and Mary Decker Slaney. Gallagher still holds national high-school records for the 800 and 1,500, set 20 years ago at Upper Dublin High School in suburban Philadelphia. In the 1979 Penn Relays, she set a record for the high school girls' 1-mile run that still stands.
"She was so good so young," said Villanova women's cross-country coach Gina Procaccio. Gallagher is survived by her mother, Barbara; father, John; husband, John Corcoran; and 13-year-old daughter, Jessica Smith.
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tering, als je dit allemaal hebt meegemaakt en dan zo knetter hard hebt gelopen, ongelooflijk. Respect.