Ludmila Engquist
vows to fight on despite cancer
By Paul de Bendern (Reuters)
28 April 1999 - Stockholm - Swedish Olympic and World 100 metres hurdles Champion Ludmila Engquist said on Wednesday she had undergone breast cancer surgery but was determined to be fit for next year's Sydney Olympics.
"I don't want to finish this way. I'm really going to try to come back," an emotional Engquist told a news conference. "I'm going to come back, back to the Olympics in 2000.
"It would be sad to think only about survival and be happy with sitting down drinking coffee," Engquist said. "I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of having a boring time."
She said she had discovered a lump in her breast a month ago while training in Spain and had undergone surgery last week. She now faced chemotherapy. The 35-year-old Russian-born athlete, who had to cut her season short last year after failing to recover from a leg injury, said she hoped to return to the track next year and show other people that it was possible to make a comeback, whatever the odds.
"I can't only have the goal to live. That would be sad," Engquist said. "My goal is to return in the best running shape and I think it is good for me to have this goal, it will help me."
After the operation Engquist was told she could start light training in a few months but she started only days later. However on Tuesday she was told the cancer had spread and she would need further treatment.
Engquist, who has lived in Sweden since 1993, took world championship gold medals in 1991 in Tokyo -- under her maiden name of Narozhilenko -- and in 1997 in Athens plus the Olympic gold in Atlanta in 1996.
Engquist was born in Russia. She married her agent, Swede Johan Engquist, and became a Swedish citizen in 1996.