Editing Maria Mutola (section)

==Career==

===Early years===
Mutola was born in 1972 in the poor [[shanty town]] of Chamanculo on the outskirts of [[Maputo]], then known as Lourenço Marques, the capital of [[Portuguese Mozambique]].<ref name="bbcnews2000">{{cite news |last1=Tembo |first1=Jose |title=The Maputo express |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1011499.stm |access-date=12 September 2016 |publisher=BBC News |date=7 November 2000}}</ref> Her father was employed by the railways and her mother was a market vendor. As a young girl she excelled in [[association football|football]]. She played with boys, as there were no leagues or teams for girls. At only 14 years of age, she was encouraged to take up athletics by one of Mozambique's foremost literary figures, the poet [[José Craveirinha]], who was a keen sports fan.<ref>https://olympics.com/en/athletes/maria-mutola</ref> His son Stelio, himself a former national [[long jump]] record holder who had competed in the [[1980 Summer Olympics]], was Mutola's first coach. Not used to the intensive training, Mutola initially decided that running was not for her, but was persuaded to continue when it became obvious that she had immense potential.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

After a visit to Portugal, plans were made for her to join the Lisbon-based [[S.L. Benfica (athletics)|Benfica athletics club]], but at the last minute Mozambican government denied her permission. The next year, after several months' training, she won a silver medal in the [[800 metres]] in the [[1988 African Championships in Athletics|1988 African Championships]] in [[Annaba]], [[Algeria]] before competing in the [[1988 Summer Olympics]] less than a month later. She ran a personal best time of 2:04.36, but only finished seventh in her first round heat, failing to progress to the semi-finals. Mutola was still only fifteen years old.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sport-olympic.gr/sp/index.php/athletics/competitions/area-competitions/african-competitions-in-athletics/11-african-championships/6-1988-african-championships-in-athletics |title=1988 African Championships in Athletics – Sport-Olympic.com |first=Giannis |last=Lygkas |access-date=6 August 2016}}</ref>

===Studying and training in the United States===
Over the next few years Mutola failed to improve on her best time, but still won gold at the [[African Championships in Athletics|African Championships]] in [[Cairo]] in 1990.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sport-olympic.gr/sp/index.php/athletics/competitions/area-competitions/african-competitions-in-athletics/11-african-championships/8-1990-african-championships-in-athletics |title=1990 African Championships in Athletics – Sport-Olympic.com |first=Giannis |last=Lygkas |access-date=6 August 2016}}</ref> She faced little opposition in Mozambique and only trained properly in the run-up to big competitions. Attempts were made to organise scholarships for her to train abroad, but it was not until 1991 that, thanks to an [[International Olympic Committee|IOC]] solidarity programme, she was awarded a scholarship to go to the United States to study and train. [[Springfield High School (Oregon)|Springfield High School]] in [[Oregon]] was her host school, due to the fact that there was a Portuguese-speaking staff member (since Mutola spoke no English).

She quickly surprised many by finishing fourth in the final of the [[1991 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 800 metres|1991 World Championships]] in Tokyo, where her time of 1:57.63 constituted a [[List of world junior records in athletics|world junior record]]. Mutola lost out on a medal because she was severely impeded, elbowed twice by [[Ella Kovacs]] as she tried to pass in the final few metres. On the finish line, Kovacs fell across the line ahead of Mutola, reaching out and tripping race winner [[Lilia Nurutdinova]] as well. A protest was lodged but it was unsuccessful. At the [[1992 Summer Olympics]] in [[Barcelona]] there were great hopes for Mutola to win Mozambique's first Olympic medal. She ran strongly but faded badly in the home straight, eventually finishing fifth behind winner [[Ellen van Langen]]. At the same Olympics, Mutola ran one of the few [[1500 metres|1500 m]] races at an international championship, placing ninth in the final. That same year she also won the 800 m event at the [[1992 IAAF World Cup]] in [[Havana]], and was the only woman to beat Ellen van Langen throughout the whole year.

===Athletic domination===
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Over the next few years, Mutola dominated the 800 m event, winning the 800 m title at the [[1993 IAAF World Indoor Championships|1993]] and [[1995 IAAF World Indoor Championships|1995 World Indoor Championships]] and the [[1993 World Championships in Athletics|1993 World Championships]]. At the latter event, held in [[Stuttgart]], she won by over two seconds, the biggest ever winning margin in an international women's 800 m final.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} A favourite for the world outdoor title in 1995 as well, she was disqualified in her semi-final for stepping outside of her lane. Some consolation came at the [[Memorial Van Damme]] meeting in Brussels a few weeks after the World Championships, when she broke the world record for [[1000 metres|1000 m]] with a time of 2:29.34, becoming the first woman ever to run the distance in less than two and a half minutes. She also went on to break the world indoor record for 1000 m.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}  She also went undefeated (3-0) vs that years World Champion [[Ana Quirot]], including crushing Quirot at the season ending Grand Prix final where she finished 1st to Quirot's 5th.

Her immense success and her total domination of the event during this period can be attributed to the guidance that she has received since 1991 from [[Margo Jennings]]. Jennings was a track coach at Springfield High School and continued to coach Mutola, even when she had relocated from Oregon to [[Johannesburg]] to escape the high pollen count in Oregon. Jennings would fax Mutola's training schedules to her in South Africa, and has also coached other world class 800 m runners like [[Kelly Holmes]], Namibian athlete [[Agnes Samaria]] and [[Tina Paulino]], who is a distant relative of Mutola's.

At the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in [[Atlanta]], Mutola was a hot favourite for the gold, as she hadn't been beaten in an 800 m final since 1992 and her winning streak stretched to over forty 800 m and 1000 m finals. However, suffering from flu, she ended up finishing third behind surprise winner [[Svetlana Masterkova]] and Ana Quirot. The Russians had also used team tactics with Masterkova's teammate and Britain's Kelly Holmes working to box in both Quirot and Mutola with Masterkova in front, leaving them too much ground to make up near the end. Later in 1996 Mutola lost her world 1000 m record to Masterkova in a hard-fought head-to-head duel.

Mutola was known as the complete package as an 800-metre runner. She had tremendous strength, and would turn in numerous impressive 1500 metres performances through her career. She had blazing speed, and a very strong finishing kick. She also was a smart and calculated tactical racer, who understood her competitors and their strengths and weaknesses well, and how to position herself throughout a race. She was comfortable running and winning races from either the front or the back. Most of all she had an unwavering determination to win, rarely ever matched in women's middle-distance running.

===Status in 800 m race history===
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Mutola is often ranked as one of the greatest female 800&nbsp;m runners of all time, and to some even the best. She has not gained a world record in the event, but her consistency, her performances at major championships and her ability to compete at the highest levels of the sport for two decades are unmatched – the [[2008 Olympics]] were her sixth consecutive Olympics. She does however have a 0–4 record against her rival Ana Quirot in World and Olympic competition, and Quirot ran sub-1:55 twice vs. Mutola's career best of 1:55.16.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.alltime-athletics.com/w_800ok.htm|title = Women's 800m}}</ref>  In terms of global championship gold medals however, Mutola bests Quirot in Olympic titles (1–0), outdoor World titles (3-2) and indoor World titles (7-0).   Mutola and Quirot are good friends to this day and often write one another, and Mutola often wrote Quirot letters of encouragement to return to Track and Field following her near fatal heavy burn explosion.

Mutola won [[Bronze medal|bronze]] in the 1997 [[IAAF World Championships in Athletics]] and silver in 1999. She also won the [[IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics]] in 1997, only weeks after her father had been killed in a car accident. She raced wearing a black ribbon and dedicated the victory to his memory. In total she has won nine world 800&nbsp;m titles, including both indoor and outdoor championships. She won the [[Commonwealth Games]] twice, after Mozambique was admitted to the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] in 1995, and has also won the [[IAAF World Cup]] event, representing the Africa team, four times consecutively.

Her greatest moment, though, came at the [[Sydney Olympics]] in 2000, when Mutola finally won Olympic gold. She beat her major rival [[Stephanie Graf]] and Kelly Holmes. She returned to Mozambique after her Olympic victory, huge crowds came to cheer her and a road was named after her in Maputo.

She continued her successes in the 2001 season, grabbing the world title in [[Edmonton]] and again in 2003 in Paris. It was widely felt that Mutola ran tactically during the 2003 race by setting a slow pace in order to aid her training partner Kelly Holmes. As a result of such a strategy Holmes was able to take silver. Mutola was unbeaten throughout 2003 and grabbed the headlines again that year, at the Memorial Van Damme race in Belgium. By winning here, it meant that she became sole winner of the [[2003 IAAF Golden League]] one million dollar jackpot, awarded to athletes who remained undefeated in all six competitions in the season. She put part of her winnings towards the foundation that she had established in her name in Mozambique.

Aiming to become the first woman to successfully defend the Olympic 800&nbsp;m title in 2004, her fifth Olympics, Mutola ended up finishing fourth. Despite carrying a hamstring injury, Mutola was in the gold medal position until the final few metres, when three athletes passed her, including the eventual champion, her former training partner Kelly Holmes. In 2005, her injuries were still lingering and she suffered several losses to opponents she would normally easily beat. Mutola finished fourth in the 800 m at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki; third-place winner [[Tatyana Andrianova]] was retroactively suspended for a doping violation in 2015. A later test invalidated Andrianova's results from 9 August 2005 through 8 August 2007. On April 14, 2016, the [[Court of Arbitration for Sport]] (CAS) overturned Andrianova's two-year doping suspension because her sample had been re-tested beyond the eight-year statute of limitations. "As the eight-year statute of limitations had expired prior to January 1, 2015, the 10-year statute of limitations provided under the new 2015 anti-doping rules cannot apply", CAS said in a statement.<ref name="doping">{{cite web |author=Last Updated: 14/04/16 5:15pm |url=http://www.skysports.com/more-sports/athletics/news/29175/10242831/russian-runner-tatyana-andrianova-wins-cas-doping-appeal |title=Russian runner Tatyana Andrianova wins CAS doping appeal &#124; Athletics News |publisher=Sky Sports |date=2015-01-01 |access-date=2016-08-06}}</ref>

Mutola parted amicably with her coach Margo Jennings, before returning to good form in 2006, when she won the World Indoor Championships title for a record seventh time. At the [[2007 IAAF World Championships]], Mutola was in contention for a medal entering into the home straight, but pulled out of the race in the dying metres.

In 2008, the 800 metres [[African records in athletics|African record]] held by Mutola, was beaten by the young [[Pamela Jelimo]] of Kenya.<ref name="berlin">IAAF, June 1, 2008: [http://www.iaaf.org/GLE08/news/newsid=45140.html Berlin witnesses Jelimo, 800m revelation]</ref> Mutola had decided that the [[2008 Olympic Games]] would be her last major championships, and she finished fifth in the [[Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metres|800 metres Olympic final]]. She publicly called an end to her 21-year-long athletics career at the [[Weltklasse Zürich]] meeting immediately after the Olympics. She finished fourth with a run of 1:58.71 in the 800&nbsp;m, again behind Jelimo, who completed a symbolic feat by beating Mutola's meet record which had stood since 1994.<ref name="iaaf2008">{{cite news |last1=Powell |first1=David |title=Mutola bids farewell in Zürich – ÅF Golden League |url=https://www.iaaf.org/news/news/mutola-bids-farewell-in-zurich-af-golden-le |access-date=12 September 2016 |work=IAAF.org |date=29 August 2008}}</ref>

Her appearance at the [[2008 Olympics]] made her only the fourth female [[Athletics at the Summer Olympics|track and field]] athlete to compete at six Olympics, after [[Lia Manoliu]] (discus), [[Tessa Sanderson]] (javelin/heptathlon), and seven-time Olympian  [[Merlene Ottey]] (sprints).