Forty years ago today, the athletics programme at the Seoul Asian Games came to an end. Over the seven days from 29 September to 5 October 1986, a 22-year-old from Payyoli, Kerala, had turned the track into her own.
P T Usha left Seoul with four gold medals and one silver, the biggest individual track-and-field haul at those Games. Her first gold came on 30 September in the 400m hurdles, where she ran 56.06 seconds, an Asian Games record. The other three followed through the week, and each one also came in record time. She won the 200m in 23.44 seconds, the 400m in 52.16 seconds and the 4x400m relay in 3:34.58.
The fifth medal was the one that got away. In the 100m, Usha ran 11.67 seconds and took silver behind Lydia de Vega of the Philippines, losing by a whisker. Her coach, O M Nambiar, later said she was running on tired legs. The schedule was punishing, and at one point she ran three races within 110 minutes.
Seoul followed years of near-misses and comebacks. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Usha finished fourth in the 400m hurdles, missing the bronze by one hundredth of a second. India felt that loss with her. A year later, at the 1985 Asian Athletics Championships in Jakarta, she won five golds, and “Usha, Usha” chants filled the stadium. Seoul was supposed to prove Jakarta wasn’t a one-off, and it did.
Known as the Payyoli Express, she already had an Arjuna Award from 1983 and a Padma Shri from 1985. After Seoul, she became something bigger than an athlete. Girls across Kerala and beyond saw a woman from a modest background beat the best in Asia, and many took up running because of it.
Her overall Asian Games record stands at four golds and seven silvers across four editions, with all four golds won at Seoul. She won more at the 1989 Asian Championships after returning from retirement.
Usha at Seoul 1986
- 400m hurdles: gold, 56.06s (Games record), 30 September
- 200m: gold, 23.44s
- 400m: gold, 52.16s
- 4x400m relay: gold, 3:34.58
- 100m: silver, 11.67s, behind Lydia de Vega
Four decades on, Indian athletics is measured in Olympic podiums, a standard Usha and her Seoul week helped set.