August 2, 1996
Johnson's record run seals double
By KEN FIDLIN -- At The Olympics
ATLANTA -- He has gone where no man has gone before. Now, will Michael Johnson take it one step further?
With apologies to Donovan Bailey, Johnson became the brightest star in the 1996 Olympics when last night he added the 200-metre gold to his 400-metre win earlier this week.
The American not only won the 200, he obliterated the field and his own month-old world record by more than 3/10ths of a second, an astounding feat. This in an event in which Pietro Mennea's world record of 19.72 seconds stood for 17 years until Johnson lowered it to 19.66 at the U.S. Olympic trials on this same track.
By taking more than 1/3 of a second from the record, Johnson's 19.32 left people grasping for a point of comparison. Bob Beamon's 29-foot long jump in Mexico City? Ben Johnson's infamous 9.79 at Seoul?
"I can't even describe how it feels to break the world record by that much," said Johnson. "I thought maybe a 19.5 was possible, but not (19.32). And I still stumbled out of the blocks."
No male runner in history ever had combined the Olympic 200 and 400 races successfully. Now, Johnson hints, he may add the 100 metres to his repertoire.
"Sometime in my career, I may focus on the 100 metres," he said. "Maybe next year or the year after that."
Last night's opening 100 metres, around a curve in the track, had to very nearly match Bailey's world record of 9.84 set last Friday.
But as dazzling as his world record was, the 200-400 double was foremost in Johnson's mind.
"I wanted to make history," he said. "I had the world record before the race. I wanted to be the first to make that double and this was the one I didn't get in Barcelona. Put all that together and you have 19.32."
Johnson had come into the Barcelona Olympics favored to win both events, but fell victim to food poisoning after racing a pre-Olympic event in Spain. He lost 10 pounds and failed to make the 200 final.
"It wasn't so devastating that I wanted to jump off a bridge," Johnson said, "but it was disappointing seeing a guy win in a time I could run backwards.
"I think all things happen for a reason. I know how my career has gone since then. I don't know how it would have gone if I hadn't gotten sick."
By conventional standards, Johnson does everything wrong. In full stride in the 400 metres, his head is arched back, his step shorter than the classic sprinter. In the 200, he eschews the traditional high knee lift that most employ.
Doubles in track hardly are new. Carl Lewis has done it in the 100 and 200 metres, tossing in the long jump for good measure. Florence Griffith Joyner won the 100 and 200 in Seoul, establishing Olympic records in each. Valerie Brisco-Hooks pulled off the 200-400 parlay in Los Angeles in 1984. And last night, Marie-Jose Perec of France completed a 200-400 sweep of her own.
So what makes the men's 200-400 double so special?
"The 400 is a strategic race, the 200 is a technical race," Johnson said. "You have to go into the 400 not knowing exactly what you're going to do. You have a strategy, but it can change at any point. You're making decisions constantly.
"In the 200, there aren't many decisions to be made. You go in there with a strategy and you execute that strategy. In the 200, you make a mistake and the race can be over."
At 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, Johnson is a natural for the 200. He started toying with the 400, he said, in order to break up the monotony of so many 200-metre races, but showed enough promise to make the double seem realistic.
Last night, Johnson dragged silver and bronze medallists Frankie Fredericks and Ato Boldon along to run under Mennea's record as well.
For Fredericks it is just one more frustration. He has finished second in both the 100 and 200 in the last two Olympics, losing to four different men: Linford Christie and Mike Marsh in 1992, Bailey and Johnson this time.
"It's all timing," said Fredericks. "(Last night) Mike set a record that will stand for a long time. There's no shame in being part of a race like that."
The events of last night resurrected a simmering argument. Who is the fastest man on earth?
Conventional thought is that the man who wins the 100 metres holds sway. But after what happened last night, even that supposed truth is in question.
"With all due respect to Donovan Bailey," said Boldon, looking sideways at Johnson, "I think the fastest man in the world is sitting right next to me."
On such a stunning night, it was impossible to argue.
