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Four-car pileup in women’s 800

By Helene Elliott
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EUGENE, Ore. -- The first semifinal of the women’s 800 meters resembled the 405 freeway at rush hour: no room to pass and a big pileup.

Becky Horn, boxed in and hoping to go to the outside, said she was elbowed as she made her move and thrown off balance. She stumbled and nearly righted herself but couldn’t stay upright, falling to the track. That set off a pileup that left four women on the track -- including Nicole Teter, who got up and finished but was out of the top four.

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‘It’s devastating,’ Teter said. ‘But we signed up for the 800 and the 1,500 just as a fallback. Now, it seems to be a blessing in disguise.’

-- Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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