Photo above by Victah/www.photorun.net: Mary Slaney, Meet Director Emeritus Howard Schmertz, and Eamonn Coghlan at the Millrose Games 100th Anniversary Gala.

A Celebration of Track & Field in the USA
The 100th Anniversary Millrose Games were held on Friday, February 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Meet Director of the Millrose Games from 1975 to 2004 was Howard Schmertz, who graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948 and worked as a partner in a law firm during the day. Schmertz devoted nights and weekends to his unpaid post as the Millrose Games Meet Director.

At a press conference on Thursday, February 1, three athletic stars in the long history of the Millrose Games - miler Eamonn Coghlan (7 Wannamaker Mile titles during the 1977-87 era), six- time Millrose Games winner Mary Slaney (in the 1000m, 1974; 1500m, 1980; mile, 1982, '83, '85, '97), and native New Yorker Diane Dixon (8 titles in the 400m from 1983-92) sat with Meet Director Emeritus Howard Schmertz and responded to questions.

Mary Slaney, age 48 of Eugene, OR, is a giant of American track and field and was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2003. She holds the Millrose meet record in the women's 1500m (4:00.8, 1980) and is the only athlete to hold every American record from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, according to USATF. Her U.S. women's records still stand in the 1500m (3:57.12), mile (4:16.71), and 3000m (8:25.83). She won both the 1500m and 3000m races at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. She competed for the USA Olympic Team in the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Games. Her 1988 time of 3:58.92 set in the USA Women's Olympic Team Trials 1500m race remains an outdoor all-comers record on American soil. Other American Record times that she set include: 1:56.90 (800m), 15:06.53 (5000m), and 31:35.30 (10,000m).

One questioner at the press conference asked Eamonn Coghlan and Mary Slaney whether they competed against each other for spectator attention and both replied in the negative.

Mary Decker Slaney elaborated that she wasn't competing against anyone in particular. But she would run her races, and in her mind, she wanted people to think that the women's races were as exciting as the men's races.

Mary Slaney has always been very motivated as an athlete. But that was how she pushed herself to be better. Women's running was not at the same level as men's running, historically. [Women have been competing in long distance events only in recent decades.] It wasn't pressure, it was more of something that motivated her to be better. And when she got on the track, she felt that she wasn't running against her own times or that she was trying to be #1 in the world, but she wanted people to say: oh yeah, there are two really great races at the Millrose Games or any other track meet, and one of them is the women's race. She wanted women to be recognized in track and field. She's not a feminist. But she felt that to a large extent female athletes were always viewed as second best. But not in New York City's famous arena, though, at the Millrose Games. In Madison Square Garden, women shared the roaring approval of spectators.

Another reporter wondered whether the quest for gold kept Coghlan and Slaney in the sport longer than if they had won an Olympic medal. Again, both downplayed the role that the desire for a medal played in their careers.

The desire to win an Olympic gold medal motivated Mary Slaney in 1984, and she fell [in the race]. But it's not what motivated her throughout her career. What has motivated her is the simple fact that she loves running. And that is why she never formally retired from the sport, because she keeps hoping that she can still run [despite numerous injuries and surgeries]. Physically, it's just not happening for her. But she has always felt that running is what she was born to do, it is what has always made her feel good.

Outside of having a great family - her husband, Richard, is wonderful; her daughter, Ashley, is amazing - running has made her feel the best. Just going out for a run, a ten mile run, training feels good. Mary Slaney loved racing. So it's not just the Olympics. Yes, it would have been nice to win a gold medal, particularly in '84, but it wasn't meant to be.

Learn more about the Millrose Games at www.millrose-games.com