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Joe DeLoach is probably less remembered as the winner of the gold medal
in the 200m at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, than for the fact that
he thwarted the goal of his friend and mentor, Carl Lewis, who was
attempting to repeat the feat of winning four gold medals that he had
achieved at the previous Olympics in 1984. It was in that year that
DeLoach first made his mark in international athletics, when he won the
100m/200m double at the Pan-American Junior Championships in Nassau.
Despite this early promise, it wasn't until 1988 that DeLoach began to
reproduce these sorts of results in senior competition. Initially, he
showed much greater promise in the 100m in 1988, winning the national
collegiate title on 4 June in a lifetime personal best of 10.03sec.
By
comparison, he was eliminated in his heat of the 200m at the same meet.
However, his fortunes turned around at the USA Olympic Trials held
later the following month in Indianapolis, where Joe finished fifth in
the 100m, but won the 200m from Lewis in a personal best of 19.96sec.
At the Olympic Games in Seoul, it seemed obvious that the contest for
the gold medal was between DeLoach and Lewis, when the two Santa Monica
Track Club teammates won their respective semi-finals on 28 September.
In the final held later that day, Lewis, in lane 3, led the field into
the straight, where DeLoach, in lane 6, gradually started to close the
gap, eventually catching Lewis at 150m, and then continuing on to record
a narrow victory (see photo above) in 19.75sec, which equalled
Lewis's time for the fastest 200m ever run at low altitude. DeLoach
failed to capitalise on his Olympic victory in the following seasons,
and he never competed again in a major championships. (Ron Casey)
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