When she looks back at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, Marcia Trotman wishes it was Groundhog Day and she could get a do-over.
One mistake cost her the chance to reach the semi-finals of the women’s 200 metres – one simple mistake.
Seventeen years old at the time, Trotman had been dominating the long jump, 100, 200 and 400 metres at Princess Margaret Secondary School, running against the likes of Juliette Toppin, Patricia Nurse and Sylvia Blanche at house sports.
There were no trials, and she was informed by coach Joseph Gittens, Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) president Austin Sealy and chaperone Liz Earnshaw that she had been selected, one of the first women to represent Barbados at the prestigious international event.
The others were Freida Nicholls (100); Lorna Forde (400) and half-milers Barbara Bishop and Heather Gooding, the latter only 14 years old at the time.
The girls went on a six-week training camp to New York with Freddie Thompson, of Atoms Track Club, training during the week and competing on weekends. Like Gooding, she remembered it was a rough baptism.
“Training camp was really tough, really tough. I never trained so hard in all my life. I cried for six weeks – six weeks with ‘nuff shouting from Freddie Thompson.
One day, we went to the track and the rain poured that day. When we thought we weren’t going to train anymore, he told us to go home and change and come back,” she said, shaking her head at the memory.
Trotman also recalled the incidents of Black September and the attack on the Israelis at the Games. Fast asleep with the rest of the team, she wasn’t at first aware of what had happened, or that an attempt had been made to kidnap the lone Israeli female who was in their compound.
In those days, the women were in a separate section of the Olympic Village.
“I was very scared. I wanted to go home with my parents, but Mr Sealy came over to us and told us not to be scared. That morning, we couldn’t go training. There were soldiers all over the campus. Everything cleared up in the afternoon and we went to train.”
After the first round and she had advanced to the quarter-finals, the Highland Tenantry, St Philip resident was overjoyed. Coach Gittens told her to get some rest and return.
“The day of the 200, I was all excited. When I went to the line, I wasn’t scared. I just did what Mr Gittens told me – when I hear the gun just get up and run, but something else he forgot to tell me, when I get to the line, run through,” she said, with a wry laugh.
“The girl pipped me on the line, if not I would have got into the semi-finals.
“I felt so good, but only one mistake,” she said, with a shrug, “and that was it. I never thought I would get that far. Never.”
The team also ran the 4×400 metres relay and she did the fastest leg of 55 seconds flat, but they were out in the first round.
That lesson stayed with Trotman, who is now an athletics coach at the National Sports Council, responsible for teaching the fundamentals to several Barbadian athletes.
She never let it affect the rest of her achievements. The following year, she was at the Co-Operative High School and made a name for herself at All-Girls’ Sports at the National Stadium.
She had competed at the inaugural CARIFTA Games in 1972 and returned the following year. She was second in the Under-20 girls’ 100m in 12.2 seconds behind Jamaican Regina Montague (12.00) but won the 200 in 24.4,with Montague second in 24.8. Barbados were also third in the 4×100.
The following year, she won gold again in 24.5 seconds.
She never returned to the Olympic stage, but at age 50, she set a world record 31.33 in the 200 metres at the Huntsman Games in Utah, returning to competition after many years in the 50 to 54 age group.
“Sometimes when I go to the stadium to a track meet, I wish I could run with the younger people, but if I put in the hard work and dedication, I believe I could do it again at this age,” the 56-year-old said.
