Injuries force
Engquist to switch sports
AP
29 July 2000 – Stockholm, Sweden - World and Olympics hurdles champion Ludmila Engquist, who made a stunning comeback last year after being diagnosed with breast cancer, announced Saturday that leg problems were finally forcing her to quit track.
The decision comes just two months before the Olympics are set to begin in Sydney, Australia, but the 36-year-old Engquist said she still had Olympic hopes - as a future bobsled champion.
The Russian-born Engquist was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and had surgery to remove her right breast. She came back a few months later to win the bronze medal in the 100 meter hurdles at the World Championship in Seville, Spain.
But she has been unable to recover from calf surgery in June and doctors have told her training for the hurdles would be too rough on her legs, she said at an emotional news conference at Stockholm Stadium.
"Only God knows how hard I tried to come back this time,'' she said, tears streaming down her face. "But the injury won't heal and only gets worse.''
The Olympic champion four years ago in Atlanta, Engquist said she came to her decision after two weeks of relaxation and hard thinking in Spain.
She said she has put the hurdles behind her, but she has set a new goal: a bobsledding medal at the Winter Olympics in 2002.
The tenacious athlete said she has not yet actually tried the sport but hoped to start serious training with Swedish long jumper Annika Sandstroem in about six weeks at a track they were having built outside Stockholm.
Engquist, who is immensely popular in her adopted Scandinavian country, said she chose bobsledding because it is a relatively new sport and she believes she can win.
"I don't want to be number two or three,'' she said.
Engquist, who was born in Tambov, Russia, but moved to Sweden in 1993, won the gold in the 100 meter hurdles at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. She also won the same event at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, Greece, and at the 1991 World Championship in Tokyo.
Engquist will be honoured at the DN Galan Grand Prix track and field meet that starts Tuesday in Stockholm.
