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As each client exits her chair at the NuBiance Salon, Gwen Torrence sweeps up the hair trimmings. They symbolize the past, not the present, just as time has swept her Olympic memories out of sight.
"Sometimes I look back, and it's like it never really happened," Torrence said, "because your life goes on and you start doing other things.
"My day-to-day thinking has nothing to do with track and field anymore."
Torrence, 41, was the hometown girl at the 1996 Olympics who hoped to become the world's fastest woman. But she overtrained for her third Olympics, caught a bad leg cramp in the first round of the 100 meters and fought to win the bronze medal.
"I lost all form and I held on," said Torrence, who grew up in Decatur, lives in Lithonia and works in Stone Mountain. "I medaled by the skin of my teeth."
Torrence then anchored the U.S. team to gold in the 400-meter relay.
"I was elated," said Torrence, who previously won two golds and a silver in Barcelona, where she was the 200 meter champion. "I was happy I at least got a gold medal being at home, being in front of my crowd, everybody expecting me to win."
As her track career wound down over the next two years, so did her marriage to her coach, Manley Waller. They divorced but have remained friendly while raising son Manley, 16, a football player and sprinter.
Torrence is now married to Jody Smith, and they have a 6-year-old daughter, E'mon.
No longer sidetracked by her running talent, Torrence finally went to cosmetology school.
"I didn't know how the hair thing was going to work out for me," Torrence said. "I just knew that was what I wanted to do."
"I say, 'I'm not the best hairstylist,' " Torrence said, " 'but I make my clients feel good when they come to me. They're going to laugh. I'm all about making them happy.' "
Torrence runs for fitness.
"I'm not as thin as I was in track," she said. "I like my womanly figure I have now, but I don't want too much womanhood."
Torrence refuses to time herself, but said local track coaches have told her, "Girl, you've still got that form."
"I say, 'Yeah, you don't know how slow it is.' But I still look like I can do something." 1996: 2006:
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
