Perec under stress and under siege

For Marie-José Pérec, the Olympics have been a disaster. And she is still nine days' away from taking her first steps in the stadium.

The trouble began as soon as the Atlanta double gold medallist arrived in the country. She immediately ran out of the airport to avoid the waiting press pack and pushed a photographer out of the way. Yesterday, she was holed up in a luxury hotel room, with only a laptop for company, complaining bitterly about the harassment she has been subjected to at the hands of the Australian press.

"I have the impression everything is being fabricated to destabilise me," Pérec wrote of the local press on her website, www.mariejoperec.com, breaking the self-imposed silence that she has maintained all week.

"I have never seen anything like this. It is not right. It has affected me. They just make up rumours. I do not know what to do with these journalists who do not stop following me wherever I go. After three days I have not yet gone out of my hotel room and I have not even trained."

She claims that the Australian media are out to ruin her chances in her race against the local heroine Cathy Freeman in the 400m, among the most eagerly awaited events of the games and which should also involve Britain's Katharine Merry.

Australian newspapers have been obsessed with Pérec, believing her to be the only athlete capable of spoiling Freeman's party. They have contemplated why she has raced so sparingly this year and pulled out of races in London and Brussels.

Her training regime under the former East German coach Wolfgang Meier has been the subject of cynical comment. One newspaper speculated on whether she was wearing a wig.

In contrast Freeman is the darling of the media, who have elevated the aborigine to the status of national icon.

And, right on cue, the world 400m champion Freeman yesterday upped the ante by declaring herself a starter in the 200m as well, signalling she feels capable of challenging for the illustrious double Pérec achieved four years ago.

Pérec's paranoia has been fuelled by sharing her hotel with much of the French press - a fact she discovered only when she found herself seated next to a reporter at breakfast on her first day. Since then she has stayed in her room, not even leaving to train, and ordering room service.

Her profile in France outstrips that of any other sportsman or woman, including the World Cup-winning footballers. She has modelled for Christian Dior and her image adorns billboards in Paris.

But along with the high profile there comes criticism. François Pépin, who launched her career when he coached her from 1987 to 1989, said: "Marie-Jo has a difficult temper, she's egocentric and often behaves as if she were the centre of the universe.

"I much prefer Cathy Freeman as a person. Her attitude is more noble. She's always nice to the public and the media because she knows how much she owes them."

Though there is speculation that Pérec will pull out of the 400m, Pépin claims she has the beating of Freeman. "Pérec is in a totally different league," he said. "She may not be as strong as in Atlanta but she can still run clearly under 49sec if conditions are right."

Indeed, Pérec is arguably the most gifted woman quarter-miler ever, winner of the last two Olympic titles, plus the same 200m-400m double as Michael Johnson.

But since 1996 she has been plagued with injuries and illness, struggling to recover from the Epstein-Barr virus, a rare blood disease which manifests itself in chronic fatigue. "I couldn't walk up the stairs without being out of breath, it was that bad," she said recently. "When you are used to running 400m in 48sec and you cannot walk up the stairs without being in pain, it is hard."

She has taken drastic measures in an effort to win an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic 400m title. She split from her coach John Smith, the man behind the world 100m record holder Maurice Greene, fled the California sunshine and moved to the Baltic port of Rostock.

There she has been training with Meier, the husband and former mentor of East Germany's Marita Koch, still the holder of the world record with her 1985 time of 47.60sec (set, as very few world records have been, in the capital of Australia, Canberra).

The sleek Frenchwoman is perfectly aware of the nuances of her move to the former East Germany. In overt references to the drug regime once employed there, she has often claimed to be the fastest clean woman over one lap and once said it was impossible to reproduce Koch's 47.60sec mark.

"I asked him if he had given drugs to his athletes," Pérec said of Meier. "He answered by telling me I should come and train with him to find out."

Meier has denied any involvement in the systematic doping policy conducted in East Germany, even though Koch is named in old Stasi (secret police) documents. "I'm a trainer, nothing else," he said.

After a long chat with Meier, Pérec went back to France to pack and on January 31 she moved into a spartan apartment at Rostock's dilapidated stadium. "I didn't come here to hide and take drugs," she said. "I have nothing to be ashamed of and I don't have to justify myself."

Rostock, once East Germany's largest harbour, is hardly as glamorous as her former home in Hollywood. "Apart from training I don't go out," she said. "There's nothing to do."

That at least has prepared her for Sydney. If she does beat the local heroine, perhaps she really will find herself a prisoner in her own room.