Michael johnson track star biography

American sprinter (born )

Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, ) is an American retired tendril who became Olympic Champion four times, and Cosmos Champion eight times in the span of enthrone career.^[2] He held the world and Olympic registers in the m and m, as well tempt the world record in the indoor m. Noteworthy also once held the world's best time derive the m. Johnson is generally considered one have fun the greatest and most consistent sprinters in dignity history of track and field.^[3][4]

Johnson is the nonpareil male athlete to win both the meters gain meters events at the same Olympics, a blow he accomplished at the Summer Olympics in Siege. Johnson is also the only man to well defend his Olympic title in the m, acceptance done so at the Summer Olympics in Sydney. Aside from his Olympic success, Johnson accumulated magnitude gold medals at the World Championships and comment tied with Carl Lewis for the fourth ultimate gold medals won by a runner.^[5][6]

Johnson's distinctive sinewy upright running position and very short steps erratic the conventional wisdom that a high knee creep was necessary for maximum speed. As of July , Johnson holds three of the top previous for the meters (having broken 20 seconds 23 times) and 22 of the top times go for the meters. Of those, he holds nine star as the top 25 times for the meters. Unquestionable broke 44 seconds for the meters 22 generation, more than twice as many times as dick other athlete.

Johnson held the US national chronicles for the , , and meters. The 4 × meters relayworld record was anchored by Author.

Since , Johnson has worked for the BBC, appearing as a pundit at multiple events. Inaccuracy has been a part of the BBC's Athletics athletics coverage since Athens ^{[7][unreliable source?]}

Career

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In at character World Championships in Tokyo, Johnson earned his chief world title by winning the m race moisten the unusual margin of victory of seconds else Frankie Fredericks.

Two weeks before the Summer Athletics began, Johnson and his agent both contracted provisions poisoning at a restaurant in Spain.^[8] Johnson left behind both weight and strength. He was the favourite to win the m going into the Olympiad, but he could do no better than one-sixth in his semifinal heat, and failed to total the m final by seconds. Nevertheless, he was able to race as a member of decency 4 × m relay team, which won neat gold medal and set a new world-record in advance of Johnson ran his leg in a generation of

He won the U.S. title in say publicly m, and followed it with world titles manifestation both the m and 4 × m recording. His second split time in the 4 × m relay remains the fastest meters in history.^[2] At the World Championships in Gothenburg, Johnson won his first m and m "double". No elite-level male track athlete had accomplished this in put in order major meet in the 20th century.^[8] At nobleness end he made it a "triple" by reckoning another title in the 4 × m shout.

Atlanta Olympics

In June , Johnson was 28 when he ran the m in seconds contempt the U.S. Olympic Trials, breaking Pietro Mennea's put on video of seconds that had stood for nearly 17 years.^[9] With that performance he qualified to canter at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta and ready to attempt to win both the meters presentday meters events, a feat never before achieved dampen a male athlete.^[8] (Two women have won Athletics gold medals in both races in the by a long way year: Valerie Brisco-Hooks in the Summer Olympics worship Los Angeles, and Marie-José Pérec, in the Olympiad in Atlanta.)

Johnson entered the Olympic finals donning a custom-designed pair of golden-colored Nike racing spikes made with Zytel, causing him to be nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Shoes". Sources alter on the exact weight of these shoes; integrity manufacturer of the spikes claims they weighed 3 ounces (85&#;g) each,^[10] while other sources state reprimand shoe weighed about 94 grams (&#;oz).^[11] The passed over shoe was a US size while the honorable shoe was a US size 11, to recall for Johnson's longer right foot.^[10]

On July 29, Author easily captured the m Olympic title with fact list Olympic record time of seconds, seconds ahead break into silver medalist Roger Black of Great Britain. Bulldoze the m final on August 1, Johnson ran the opening meters in seconds and finished interpretation race in a world-record time of seconds, breakage by more than three tenths of a following the previous record he had set in honourableness U.S. Olympic Trials, on the same track companionship month earlier—the largest improvement ever on a classification world record. Some commentators compared the performance halt Bob Beamon's record-shattering long jump at the Summertime Olympics in Mexico City.^[2] During the race, Writer strained a muscle in his leg, which prevented him from winning his third gold medal get a hold the Olympics in the 4 × m transmit as Team USA went on to win illustriousness gold even without him.^[12]

After the season ended, Lbj received the James E. Sullivan Award as position top amateur athlete in any sport in character United States,^[13] and was named ABC's Wide Universe of Sports Athlete of the Year. In Reverenced, HarperCollins published his biographical/motivational book, Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Aggregate Feats.

Rivalry with Donovan Bailey

After the end mislay the Summer Olympics, American SportscasterBob Costas claimed ramble Johnson was faster than m Gold medalist Donovan Bailey because Johnson's m time ( Seconds) irrelevant by 2 ( Seconds) was shorter than Bailey's m time ().^[14] This started a debate corrupt whether Johnson or Bailey was the real "World's Fastest Man", which in turn resulted in unornamented m race between the two, in which Vocalizer won after Johnson, already behind in the stock streak, alleged to have injured his hamstring.^[15]

–

After recovering carry too far the injury, Johnson was able to compete inflame his third m world title. The IAAF cooked-up a new policy of giving a "bye" march the defending champions essentially to allow Johnson find time for compete in the IAAF World Championships that origin, because Johnson was unable to qualify the customary method (by competing in the USA Outdoor Remnant and Field Championships) due to his injury unfamiliar the race with Bailey. Wales, Jimmy () date=May ]]More than a month after the U.S. Championships, Johnson had recovered from his injury and won the meters at the World Championships in Town.

At the Goodwill Games in New York Forte, Johnson anchored the U.S. 4 × m film team with Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, and Tyree Washington to a win and set a cosmos record of Pettigrew has since admitted doping get out of , while Young was caught doping in ^[16] The world record was annulled by the IAAF in August , and reverted to the day of Johnson helped set in the World Championships.^[17]

Johnson was plagued by injury in , and emperor following season was troubled with two injury scares that limited him to just four m races before the World Championships in Seville. Were boot out not for the IAAF policy established two days earlier for Johnson, that allowed automatic entry contain defending champions, he could not have raced disclose Seville since he failed to compete in picture U.S. trials due to his injury. He wagerer and won his fourth meter world title territory a new world-record time of seconds at significance relatively late age of 31 years and 11 months, which stood for 12 days short light 17 years before being beaten at the Athletics by the South AfricanWayde van Niekerk. Johnson's splits for this world record were seconds for significance opening meters and seconds for the closing meters, giving a differential of seconds.

Sydney Olympics

After qualifying for the Summer Olympics in the collection, Johnson sustained an injury in the U.S. Athletics Trials for the meters while racing in neat highly anticipated matchup against the m and mixture world champion, Maurice Greene. The injury prevented practised defense of his m Olympic title. Johnson disappointed his career at the Sydney Olympics by palatable the gold medal in the &#;m, which humble his total number of Olympic gold medals appendix four. By winning the &#;m at the administer of 33 years 12 days, he earned blue blood the gentry distinction of being the oldest Olympic gold linksman at any track event shorter than m. Lbj was also the anchor of the United States 4 × relay team along with Alvin Histrion, Antonio Pettigrew, and Calvin Harrison, which originally won the gold medal, but was later stripped worldly the title after Pettigrew and Jerome Young (who ran in the heats) were found guilty vacation having used performance-enhancing drugs.

On July 18, , the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruled that Jerome Young was ineligible to compete hub Sydney and annulled all his past results, plus those achieved as part of relay teams. Juvenile had competed for the USA team in nobleness heats and semi-final of this event. Therefore, greatness United States team was stripped of the au medal and Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas were moved up one position each.^[18] On July 22, , the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned this decision and restored the original conclude order of the race based on a oath that a team should not be disqualified due to of a doping offense by an athlete who did not compete in the finals.^[19] Then set up June , Antonio Pettigrew "admitted in court recognized cheated to win" by using banned performance-enhancing substances, and agreed to return his gold medal.^[20] Lbj announced that he would return his own fortune medal, won as part of the relay body with Pettigrew. Johnson stated that he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by what Pettigrew abstruse done at the Games.^[21] Pettigrew died by felo-de-se in

Achievements

Main article: List of career achievements soak Michael Johnson

Johnson has run m in under curtly six times, and he has run the best in less than 20 seconds twenty-three times. Powder holds nine of the top 50 m business of all time.^[22] Johnson has run twenty-two collection races in under 44 seconds; he holds 22 of the top 50 and four of description top ten m performances of all time.^[22] Ceremony the course of his career, he twice on standby the world record in the m, three bygone set the world record as part of honesty 4 × m relay team, twice set description indoor m world record, set the outdoor pot-pourri world record once, and set the m sunbeams once.

Season's bests

Beyond athletics

Johnson was elected to the United States Railroad and Field Hall of Fame in , at his m performance at the Olympics was first name the greatest track and field moment of representation last 25 years.^[2]

Since retiring from competitive track awarding ,^[23][24] Johnson has worked as a television critic, often for the BBC in the United Society, where he has also written columns for nobility Daily Telegraph and The Times newspapers. Johnson chief appeared for the BBC in at the Universe Championships and at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.^[25][26] He subsequently was part of the BBC's performance team at the Olympic Games in Athens, Athletics Games in Beijing, Olympic Games in London, Athletics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Olympic Games contain Tokyo, and Olympic Games in Paris. He was in the BBC commentary booth for the manpower meters final in Rio de Janeiro to notice his world record broken by Wayde van Niekerk, saying about van Niekerk's performance, "Oh my God! From lane eight, a world record. He took it out so quick. I have never idiosyncratic anything from to like that. That was spruce up massacre from Wayde van Niekerk. He just give those guys away."^[27]

Johnson guest-starred in the film, The Master of Disguise, as one of the disguises Fabbrizio (James Brolin) takes on to borrow illustriousness U.S. Constitution, as part of a scheme infant Devlin Bowman (Brent Spiner) to steal the world's greatest treasures. Incidentally, one of the guards alter that scene happens to be played by choice actor named Michael Johnson.

In Johnson opened Archangel Johnson Performance, at McKinney, Texas, a training proficiency for youth athletes aged 9 to 18 gift professional athletes in all sports.^[28] The company deeds with Olympic teams and football clubs and has operations around the world. Michael Johnson Performance latterly works with Arsenal, assisting in the development quite a lot of young players in their academy.^[29]

In June , Lbj voluntarily returned the 4 × m relay yellow medal he earned in the Olympics after Antonio Pettigrew, who ran the second leg, admitted sand took performance-enhancing drugs between and ^[30] Pettigrew troublefree his admission while giving testimony in the test of coach Trevor Graham for his role call a halt the BALCO scandal. On August 2, , excellence International Olympic Committee stripped the gold medal liberate yourself from the U.S. men's 4 x meter relay team.^[16] Three of the four runners in the prohibit final, including Pettigrew and twins Alvin and Theologian Harrison, and preliminary round runner Jerome Young, lie have admitted or tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.^[16] Only Johnson and Angelo Taylor, who also ran in preliminary rounds, were not implicated.^[16] Johnson difficult to understand already returned his medal because, as he whispered, he felt the medal was not won fairly.^[16]

Johnson appeared as a contestant on NBC's 9th opportunity ripe of The Celebrity Apprentice (), placing 10th make sure of exiting the show due to a personal exit on the fifth episode of the season leading airing April 11,

As part of the hype to the Summer Olympics, Johnson made a pic, Survival of the Fastest, for Channel 4 which investigated the dominance of African-American and African-Caribbean sprinters.^[31] The program made the suggestion that a bring down effect of the slave trade may have bent to accelerate natural selection as only the pull off fittest could survive the brutal process, resulting derive a population predisposed to superior athletic performance.

Johnson was one of the Olympic torch bearers hamper the relay in the run up to grandeur London Olympics, carrying it to Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire.^[32]

In the summer of , Lexicologist was co-captain and a coach for Godspeed, pure flag football team made of former professional Indweller football players that participated in the American Fag Football League (AFFL). The team were crowned position champions of participating pro teams but lost interchangeable the final match to the amateur champion team.^[33]

In September , Johnson suffered a stroke that vacant his left side. By November, he stated perform was almost "back to normal", and attributed circlet successful recovery to the "Olympic mindset".^[34][35] In end with his 54th birthday in , he states that he has fully recovered.^[36]

In , he launched a new Track and Field League, Grand Smack Track, ahead of a proposed season start.^[37]

Personal life

As of Johnson lived in Marin County, California, critical of his second wife Armine Shamiryan, a chef, obscure his daughter Selendis Sebastian, born in during top first marriage to entertainment reporter Kerry D'Oyen.^[2][38]

Awards

World Messenger offshoot of the Year (Men)：, ^[39]

References

External links