MOSCOW 1980 WHO knows how Moscow would have turned out for Sydney teenager Michelle Ford if Tracey Wickham had felt able to make the trip. 
The two were great rivals, widely endorsed as outstanding swimmers, and both young.
They had been at Montreal in 1976, when Ford was just 13 and Wickham 14, but neither had experienced Olympic success.
Four years on, and Ford was in a groove. After training in the US under Australian coach Don Talbot, Ford returned to Australia and won 800m and 1500m national titles. Wickham captured the 200m and 400m. Wickham, though, was the great hope for Moscow and her withdrawal unleashed recriminations that lasted years.
''My reasons for not going were purely personal, not political," she said years later. ''My parents had just divorced â€¦ and I had glandular fever and didn't know it. I couldn't work out why my times were down. I knew two things: I was nowhere near peak condition and Australia expected me to win gold."Once Wickham announced her decision to stay home, Ford became Australia's best hope in the 800m. Ford was aware of the East German threat and how two of its swimmers would work in tandem: one to take the rest of the field out hard, the second to finish over the top of the tiring rivals. Ford's approach was to get in first, and apply pressure to the East Germans. By the end of the fifth lap, she was in front. After that, she was never headed and won gold in a record time.