‘Not so much as you could, but then it’s commonplace for East German women to do well in sports. Who was that swimmer in Montreal? Kornelia Ender. She won a stack of medals. I believe it set her up nicely. The state looks after its champions. Still, it damned well should. Ursula Krüll has been earmarked for gold medals since she was twelve. Believe me, she’ll deserve her success.’
Goldine took the bait. ‘Deserves it? When she’s second-best?’
‘No,’ said Dryden matter-of-factly. ‘Best. The Olympic champion is the best. That’s indisputable.’
She reddened. ‘I could have run Krüll off her goddamned legs!’
‘I’m sure,’ said Dryden, ‘but forget it. There’s nothing so boring as an athlete’s hard-luck story. Think of Klugman — that Achilles tendon.’
‘It isn’t like that,’ protested Goldine passionately. ‘I know I could beat Krüll. Those medals are mine by rights.’
‘It’s time to let go, Goldine,’ he insisted, confident now that she wouldn’t.
‘If there was some way to convince the doctors...’ she said.
He made it sound as if the idea dawned that second, instead of an hour before, when Melody had casually put it to him. ‘How about telling them you were diabetic before the Trials began? You qualified for three events, so they can’t stop you running the same three in Moscow.’
She caught her breath, attracted, but hesitant. ‘It wouldn’t be true, but—’
‘There’s nothing to it,’ said Dryden. ‘They
‘Jack, you’re right!’ She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her face, resurrecting her dream.
Each of the New York papers carried the same front-page picture next morning: Goldine in close-up, radiantly smiling. One headline consisted simply of the single word ‘SET.’
Dryden was not in the Lenin Stadium, Moscow, on Saturday, August 9, 1980, when the Twenty-second Olympiad of the modern era was ushered in, watched by 103,000 people. Nor was he one of the two billion TV audience. This was not from contempt of the marching athletes, flags, pigeons, flame and oath that comprise the opening ceremony; who was he to knock this supreme sales vehicle as it was rolled out? Pressure of work was his reason, pressure that would keep him in New York till the eve of the 100 metres Final on August 16. Ever since the kidnap story had broken, phenomenal interest had been generated in Goldine. The news that she was definitely going for three golds, despite almost a week’s loss of training, was seised on by editors as front-page material. Rumours of records broken in training runs watched only by Pete Klugman (who was to join the U.S. team as a supernumerary coach) and bodyguards kept things bubbling right up to the team’s departure on August 6. By then, with the name Goldine intelligible as a headline across America, and her picture splashed with each report, New York was no place for her to be. Dryden downed a double scotch as he watched the Boeing 747 Olympic Special take off from Kennedy Airport.
The next week was the busiest in his experience, but the potential revenue in endorsements soared beyond the target he had privately set. The take-up was so promising he steadily raised the asking price, and still they couldn’t wait to shake on it. The sportswear deal alone was finalised at a million-dollar guarantee, with a built-in percentage bonus. The West German managing director, who had flown to New York to clinch it, afterward admitted it was the biggest endorsement contract he had ever negotiated, but the personal satisfaction he would get if Ursula Krüll took a beating was worth every Deutschmark. Cosmetics, electronic stopwatches and gold jewelry joined the list: the only problem was dissuading manufacturers from sending Goldine presentation boxes of their products, care of the Olympic Village. The most unaccountable thing to Dryden was that people now assumed the triple was not merely achievable, but in prospect. The kidnap publicity and rumours of a million-dollar ransom had created a legend that could only end as fairy tales do.
