Mystery woman keeps mum

Marie-Jose Perec, the mystery woman of the Sydney Olympics, kept everybody guessing by shunning the French athletics team's official news conference on Tuesday.

"We would have liked to have her with us but she didn't wish to come," said French federation president Philippe Lamblin, apologising to dozens of Australian journalists who had hoped to get a glance of Cathy Freeman's main rival for the Olympic 400 metres title.

Triple Olympic champion Perec has hardly competed this year and has refused to talk in public since arriving in Sydney.

She has also irritated French officials by declining to join their team training camp in the Sydney suburb of Narrabeen, training instead at a secret location with her German coach, Wolfgang Meier.

"Our facilities are so excellent that Michael Johnson decided to use them," said French team chief Richard Descoux. "We asked Marie-Jose if she wanted to join us but she said it was too far."

French athletes started arriving at the Olympic village on Tuesday, three days before the start of the athletics competition.

There have been suggestions that Perec, who won an unprecedented 200 and 400 metres double at Atlanta before adding a 4x400 metres relay gold, might leave her five-star hotel in downtown Sydney for the village.

But Lamblin said: "She will have to pass through the village because that's the rule but I very much doubt she will stay there."

Fiercely independent, the statuesque 32-year-old from Guadeloupe has always had a difficult relationship with her federation and the media.

Francois Pepin, who coached Perec early in her career, last week branded her a prima donna, in contrast to the likeable Freeman.

France's pole vault Olympic champion Jean Galfione expressed only lukewarm sympathy for her on Tuesday, saying: "She knows what's best for her and I respect her decisions even if personally, I believe that sport is not a major drama and there's no point making that much fuss."

Plagued by injury and sickness since Atlanta, Perec has barely competed since.

She took a gamble earlier this year by leaving the stable of American guru John Smith to join Meier, the husband and former coach of former East German sprinter Marita Koch who still holds the 400 metres world record.

"I talked to Meier today and he says everything is all right," said Lamblin.

Perec's last race was in Nice in July, when she was third in 50.32 seconds in her first one-lap event in four years. She won gold in Atlanta in 48.25, while Koch's record, set in 1985, stands at 47.60.

But Descoux said she would be ready for her quest for a fourth Olympic gold medal.

"It's not her to come here just to take part," he said. "The simple fact that she is here means she will be a serious contender."

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