Article July 8, 1996 Issue

Summer Olympics 1996—the real victory

by Kim Shippey

In Barcelona in 1992, Ngozi Mwanamwambwa, then a sociology student at an American liberal arts college, became the first Zambian woman to compete in the Olympic Games. She ran before the biggest crowds of her life, and against athletes who had inspired her but whom she had seen only on television.

Ngozi didn't advance beyond the first round in the three track events in which she was entered, but there was nothing exhilaration in her eyes as she described her first taste of the Games to those of us who had watched her race in the steamy heat of the Barcelona stadium. "Exciting, amazing, inspirational!" she proclaimed, savoring every moment of that experience.

Four years later, Ngozi told us in a Sentinel interview that, before she left Barcelona, her thoughts were already beginning to focus on Atlanta 1996. Later thismonth, she will again be representing Zambia in the Olympic Games, with the 400 meters as her main goal. This time it'll be with a university degree to her name, the advantage of having trained for many months in the Atlanta area, and what she describes as "tons more" self-assurance.

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