Michael JOHNSON

In the rarefied air of Mexico City in 1979 the Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea (1952 - 2013) smashed the World 200 metres record, setting a time of 19.72 seconds at the World University Games. The next year he won the Olympics. Seventeen years later, during the USA National Championships, Michall Johnson, without the advantage of the thin air of the Mexican capital, finally broke the record when he ran 19.66 seconds. With that performance he qualified to run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta - where coincidently he had just established the new record. He also won the 400m USA title and prepared himself to attempt the 'impossible' to win both titles - something no one had ever achieved. On the 29th July he captured the 400 metres crown in 43.49 seconds, an Olympic record. Second came Britain's Roger Black (44.41secs.).

Michael was then ready to try for the unique double. At 9.0 pm on August 1st with the Atlanta temperature at 26 degrees he lined up for the final of the 200 metres. He was about to make history. Around the bend he ran the opening 100m in 10.12 seconds and entered the straight, just ahead of Frank Fredericks. Thereupon bade his farewell and 9.2 seconds later he crossed the line. The electronic timer read 19.32 seconds. He had just carved 0.34 seconds from his thirty nine day old record. The biggest improvement ever on a world 200m record. The photo above shows him at the close of the race metres ahead of the defending champion Mike Marsh (2375) 20.48 seconds and Jeff Williams 20.17 seconds. Most commentators there (and since) could only find one comparable Olympic performance - Bob Beamon's 1968 long jump in Mexico. There the comparisons ended. Johnson performed with distinction for over a decade. (G.H.)

1997 was a year when Michael Johnson very nearly ended up as the sillyman of the season and not one of the supermen of the season. Running in his third World Championship and defending his 400 metres title for the second time the Texan, admittedly not 100 per cent fit, slowed down in his quarter-final and came home in fourth place. Only the first three automatically qualified! After a long wait - until all the quarter-finals were concluded - it was announced that he had qualified for the semis as one of the fastest losers. Phew! He made no mistake in the semi-final winning in 44.37.

In the final he ran a shade faster clocking 44.12 seconds, ahead of Uganda's Davis Kamoga (44.37 secs.) but never really threatened his CBP of 43.65 seconds set in 1993. Indeed his best time of the year was a 43.75 secs. recorded back in April when making his seasonal debut and before he injured himself during a race over 150 metres with Donovan Bailey for a millon dollars. After his return from injury he then lost in Paris on June 25th, his first defeat in 58 races over one lap going back seven years. In 1998 injury again struck in May and his first Grand Prix meeting of that year, in Oslo, saw him trail home in third place behind two Britons - Mark Richardson and Iwan Thomas.

However, after that defeat 'normal service was resumed' and he concluded the year winning every race and clocking the only sub 44 times of the year - three in total - with the best of 43.68 in Zurich on August 12th. He ran only two 200 metre races in '98, a 20.31 which ranked him 15th. in the world and a 20.28 wind assisted. (G.H.)

Eleven years after it was established, Butch Reynolds's World 400 metres record of 42.29 seconds finally fell to the man who above all will be for ever associated with the event, Michael Johnson. In near perfect conditions in Seville on August 26th 1999 the defending world champion, drawn in lane five, recorded 43.18 seconds to retain his title for the third time. His opening 200m took just 21.22 seconds and the four 100 metres splits were 11.10, 10.12, 10.44 and 11.52. (As the photograph above illustrates, Micheal was a very happy man as he crossed the line knowing the record was at last his). The World record won him an extra 100,000 dollars on top of the 60,000 for winning.

Runner up was Sanerlei Parrela of Brazil in 44.29 seconds (a South American record) with Mexico's Alejandro Cardenas (44.31 secs) third. Michael won his semi-final in 43.98 seconds. He later ran the last leg of the 4 x 400m for the U.S.A. team (43.49 seconds) to add a ninth World Championship gold medal to his collection. His season, though concluding on a perfect note, had been troubled, with two injury scares curtailing his 400m races to just four before the Championships in Spain.

Indeed, had it not been for the IAAF's policy of allowing defending champions automatic entry, he would not have been in Seville because he failed to compete in the U.S.A. trials in June when he was injured. His only other 400s that year were 44.51secs. in Waco (17th April) and Eugene (30th May) and a 43.94 secs. in Lausanne on 2nd July. (G.H.)

Michael Johnson, the greatest 400 metres runner the world has ever seen, ended his fabulous career at the most fitting of events, the Olympic Games. It was at the 2000 Sydney Games that the four times World Championship 400 metres champion and defending Olympic 400m champion called it a day, after successfully defending his one lap title. He did that with yet another sub 44 second time (43.84 seconds) ahead of fellow American Alvin Harrison (44.40) and Gregory Haughton (44.70) of Jamaica. He also collected his customary gold medal in the 4 x 400m relay thus bringing his total of Olympic golds to five, some four short of his World Championships total of nine.

It all began back in the late seventies when he was a student at Baylor University. He won his first international medal in 1989 (a mere silver!) as a member of the USA students relay team that came second in the 4 x 400m relay at the World University Games. Medals apart he ended his career as both the world 200 metres and 400 metres record holder. Both of those records he set at major championships. The 200m record of 19.32 seconds was the more impressive of the two and is regarded, along with Bob Beamon's long jump in Mexico (1968), as one of the greatest Olympic/World records of all time.

He set it on home soil at Atlanta, just weeks after establishing the existing record, and carved 3.4 seconds from that record. His world 400m record of 43.18 seconds was recorded at the 1999 World Championships in Seville. As a sprinter his upright piston like action was not particularly attractive to watch but it sure was effective. Indeed to most sprinters it probably looked dreadful. It was, one has to add, from their point of view invariably seen from behind. (George Herringshaw)