Gwen Torrence was in her Stockholm hotel room, rolling around the floor, scratching herself fiercely.
"I didn't know what it was," she said of a mysterious ailment that had attacked her body. "I was scared. I was itching."My tongue got so big, and my lips got big. I couldn't believe it was me."
She wouldn't go to the hotel dining room for dinner, "because I had such big lips and they would have taken a picture of me, and I didn't want one taken of me with those big lips."
Instead, she went to a hospital, and asked questions.
"Am I anemic?" she said. "Do I need iron? What's wrong with me?"
This was Monday, and she was supposed to compete in a 100-meter race that night.
Doctors told her she didn't have an illness, only that she was "stressed out and fatigued." Also, she might have been allergic to something she had eaten.
"I would have run that night, but I felt so weak," Torrence said. "I could hardly roll over.
"The meet director came into my room and asked if I could open my eyes. I could barely open them."
Tuesday, Torrence left Stockholm and flew to Chapel Hill, site of the U.S. Olympic team's training camp.
Wednesday night, a rejuvenated Torrence was out on the track with the other members of the U.S. women's 400-meter relay team, practicing simple handoffs. She also was working on her own, stretching, doing pop-ups and trying to get the kinks out of her tired and aching torso.
Not only was her body weary from all the recent competition in the U.S. Olympic trials - she ran a total of eight races, winning the 100 meters and placing fourth in the 200 - and two races in Europe, but she still was nursing a painfully strained left thigh.
The thigh injury, sustained during the rounds of the 100 at the trials, cost her dearly in the 200 final. It robbed her of an opportunity to defend her Olympic title in the 200, a chance at a sprint sweep at the trials and at the Games in front of her hometown fans in Atlanta, and a shot at winning four Olympic gold medals, including two in the relays.
Torrence said that when she didn't make the team in the 200, her chances of running on the 1,600-meter relay team practically vanished.
"Unless I can indicate in practice that I can run in the low 49s, then maybe I can help the team," she said.
Torrence said she was feeling "relieved, relaxed and rested" following her frightful experience in Sweden.
"I shouldn't have gone to Europe. I thought I would be OK."
From the outset, she was feeling exhausted, she said. Nevertheless, she ran twice, winning a 100 at Lausanne, Switzerland, and finishing third in a 100 at Oslo, Norway.
At Lausanne, she got out of the blocks quickly, established a lead by 60 meters and held on to win. At Oslo, she also was in front by 60 meters, "but ran out of gas."
Usually angry and upset when she loses, Torrence took the setback calmly.
"The loss didn't bother me because I knew what I was up against," she said.
Her reaction was similar to that after her stunning defeat in the 200 at the trials.
With her thigh throbbing, swollen and inflamed, she couldn't accelerate in her normally strong fashion and missed the 200 team by .001 second. "When I tried to go around the turn, I didn't have it," she said.
Torrence is still getting treatment for her thigh, hoping the pain will subside enough for her to win the Olympic 100 and retain the title of world's fastest woman - an accolade she earned by winning the 100 at last year's World Championships - and run the anchor leg on the 400-meter relay.