Michael Johnson 1967–

A “Normal” Childhood

Disappointed in Barcelona

An Olympic Hero

Sources

Track and field athlete

The lasting image of the 1996 Olympic Games will be that of Michael Johnson, arms raised in triumph, as he became the first man ever to take gold medals in both the 200 and 400 meter sprints at the same Olympics. Johnson’s remarkable double victory proved to be the highlight of the Summer Games in Atlanta, and it helped to promote positive images not only of the athlete himself, but of his chosen sport as well. For a year or more before the Olympics, Johnson had confidently predicted that he could take gold medals in the two grueling sprints. He even lobbied to have the Olympic schedule changed to accommodate his ambitions. Then, under mountains of pressure, in the glare of a spotlight he did not court, Johnson ran magnificently and made history.

Variously described as shy, aloof, self-contained, and independent, Johnson has spent his career concentrating more upon his victories than upon his media image. The history-making double gold at the Olympics brought him into the limelight as an American sports hero, however, and he rose to the occasion with grace and wit. “It’s tough being Michael Johnson, but I enjoy that position,” he told theAtlanta Constitution.“I enjoy being the one everyone is shooting at or shooting for. Really, it puts pressure on me. But I feel if I continue what I need to do, I’ll win the race.” Such confidence has bred success: with the Olympics behind him, Johnson has won 55 straight 400 meter finals in an unbroken string leading back to 1989. He has occasionally been challenged in the 200 meter, but in that event he holds the world record—19.32 seconds—set at the 1996 Summer Games. His dominance on the track has made him a wealthy man, but it has wider implications as well: Johnson has emerged as a standard-bearer, a role model who will help to broaden American interest in track and field events.

A “Normal” Childhood

“I think my upbringing had a lot to do with things I do now as far as setting goals for myself,” Johnson told the New YorkDaily News just before the Olympics. “I give my parents a lot of credit for a lot of correct decisions that I’ve made in my life.” Born Michael Duane Johnson in Dallas, Texas, Johnson grew up in a stable family environment with working parents and four older siblings.

At a Glance…

Full name Michael Duane Johnson; born Septem ber 13, 1967, in Dallas, TX; son of Paul (a truck driver) and Ruby Johnson.Education: Baylor University, B.A., 1990.

Track and field athlete. Won 1989 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 200 meter indoor championship; ranked first in the world in the 200 meter and 400 meter sprints in 1990; turned professional in 1990, won the 1991 world championship in 200 meter sprint; won gold medal as part of 1992 American Olympic 4x400 relay team; won 1993 world championship in 400 meter sprint; won 1995 world championships in 200 meter and 400 meter sprints; won 1996 Olympic gold medals in 200 meter and 400 meter sprints; holds world record in 200 meter sprint.

Addresses:Office—do United States Olympic Committee, 1750 East Boulder St., Colorado Springs, CO 80909.

who stressed education but also enjoyed playing sports. “Pretty normal” was how Johnson put it in thePhiladelphia Inquirer when he was asked about his childhood. The track star himself was a studious youngster who wore black-rimmed glasses and shunned contact sports such as football and basketball. He preferred running from the start. “I don’t like depending on anyone for anything in life,” he explained inUSA Today. “In track, it’s just you.”

Johnson was recruited from Dallas Skyline High by Baylor University track coach Clyde Hart. Hart thought that Johnson, with his stable background, good grades, and solid maturity, would add leadership to relay teams. “Michael was not that big of a recruit, to be quite honest,” the coach recalled in thePhiladelphia Inquirer.Shortly after Johnson arrived on the Baylor campus, however, coach Hart began to see greater potential in the studious marketing major. In his first 200 meter race, Johnson broke the Baylor record with a 20.41. Three years later, coming off injuries, he won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) indoor championship in the 200 meter sprint, setting an American record. In 1990, the same year that he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and marketing, Johnson became the top-ranked runner in both the 200 meter and 400 meter sprints. He was the first man ever to hold the dual top ranking for those two events.

In 1990 Johnson embarked on a professional track career. Although track and field competitions receive minimal attention in America, they are extremely popular in Europe and Asia, and it was there that Johnson became a star. He was virtually unbeatable in the 400 meter sprint, and he won the world championship in the 200 meter in 1991, beating the field by .33 seconds. As for his lack of renown in America, Johnson was able to be philosophical about it. “When I’m in Europe and everybody knows who I am, and everybody wants an autograph and wants to shake your hand, you sometimes worry about going out,” he said in theNew York Times. “It’s kind of relaxing to come home and not have to worry about that. But it’s frustrating to know that I’m the best in the world in two events, and there are guys in other sports who are good, but not the best, and they have $3 million contracts. It’s kind of tough. But I look at the positive side. I’ve traveled, seen the world. I could be a great writer and not make $3 million in a lifetime.”

Disappointed in Barcelona

Johnson wanted to run in both the 400 meter and the 200 meter during the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The schedule did not permit it, and since no man had ever done it before, it was thought to be an impossible combination. Instead Johnson opted for the 200 meter, an all-out sprint that “ideally suited” him at the time. Upon arrival in Spain for the Games, he ate some tainted ham and developed food poisoning. Two weeks later, at the start of the Olympics, he had shed seven pounds and was still weak. In one of the stunning upsets of those Olympics, he finished sixth in his semifinal heat and did not make it to the final. “It was very upsetting,” Johnson admitted in theNew York Times.“Even on a bad day, I don’t think I would have done worse than a silver medal. But it was out of my control.” He did recover in time to win a gold medal as part of the 4x400 relay team, but that was small consolation for the 200 meter loss. Quietly Johnson vowed to press on toward Atlanta in 1996.

The track and field community recognized that the 1992 Olympics were an aberration for Johnson. His celebrity continued in Europe, where he won the 1993 world championship in the 400 meter sprint. Johnson began to ask himself if it might be possible to dominate at both the 200 meterand the 400 meter distances. The two races were considered quite different: one required pure power and all-out speed, the other speed with strategy. Johnson was at ease in both, and he proved it by winning his first double at the 1995 world championships in Göteborg, Sweden. No man before him had ever achieved such a feat, and the accomplishment helped the ambitious Johnson to persuade the International Olympic Committee to change the track schedule so he could try for a repeat in Atlanta.

With the world championship win in the 200 and 400 meters, Johnson began to draw comparisons to famed Olympic hero Jesse Owens, a runner who made a farce of Adolf Hitler’s Aryan supremacy theories at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Certainly the two sprinters share an unorthodox style: Johnson runs with his back ramrod straight and his head arched slightly back, taking short, piston-like strides that can hardly be followed with the naked eye. “Everyone has a different style, but mine happens to be dramatically different than most sprinters,” Johnson told theAtlanta Journal “We’ve measured stride length and frequency, and my style happens to be much more efficient than guys I’m running against. I’m not wasting time or motion.” He added: “For so long, people looked at me and wondered why I didn’t run like everybody else. You can’t change something that comes natural.”

Also natural to Johnson was a certain reticence with press and fans. Always an independent athlete who prefers to train alone with a staff he pays himself—one of whom is his former Baylor coach, Hart—Johnson was perceived on the track circuit as a prickly loner. After his double world championship in 1995, Johnson took a hit from fellow American track star Carl Lewis, who told the press that the U.S. track team was “boring.” Lewis continued: “The electricity is not there. There’s no buzz, no passionate missions. The one American they’re trying to build up, Michael Johnson? He doesn’t have it. He’s not doing anything for them.” Johnson made no reply to Lewis’s remarks at the time, but in a pre-Olympic profile forGQ magazine, he addressed the issue at length. “There’s only room for one person to be a track-and-field superstar,” he explained. “What came to light [with Lewis’ remark] was what everybody was already thinking about, but not talking about—the changing from Carl to Michael. Here I come, someone who runs one of the same events [the 200]. It’s hard to let it go. And Carl gets confused. He thinks that what the fans can appreciate is [his] working on an album, coming out with his own line of clothes. Well, they’re not looking for flamboyance; they’re looking for someone who’s genuine.”

An Olympic Hero

“Genuine” Johnson might be, but he has never shied from the prospect of making money. As the 1996 Olympics approached, and the IOC agreed to rearrange the sprint schedule to allow him to try for double gold, Johnson cashed in on the product endorsement offers that prove so rewarding for athletes. In commercials he promoted Coca-Cola, Bausch & Lomb, and Nike. He hosted a weekly radio show in Dallas. And, perhaps most painfully, he began to sit for interviews with major magazines and newspapers. His wasthe major Olympic story, and he knew it. “With the Olympics being in Atlanta, there are opportunities before, and there are going to be opportunities after,” he told theAtlanta Journal.

What was revealed in the numerous profiles of Johnson was a man who thrived under nerve-shattering competition, a man whose cold confidence could strike fear into his opponents. Not only would he be trying to accomplish something no man had ever done before (one woman, Valerie Brisco-Hooks, earned double gold in the 200 and 400 in 1984), he was also responsible for an international body changing an entire schedule so he might have the chance. And a man who had once enjoyed near-total anonymity outside Texas was suddenly in the national eye. Did it bother Michael Johnson? “I like that kind of pressure,” he informed thePhiladelphia Daily News.“I perform best that way.”

Johnson’s history-making try for gold in the two distance sprints was perhapsthe story of the 1996 Summer Olympics. Hyped relentlessly before the Games began, he did not disappoint when his events got under way. On Monday, July 29, 1996, he came to the 400 meter final sporting gold shoes and a thick gold chain—and he won the final in an Olympic record-setting time in front of 83,000 cheering fans. Just three days later a second gold medal was hung around his neck as he beat his own world record in the 200 meter, finishing at 19.32 seconds.Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Diane Pucin noted that Johnson’s victory in the 200 meter “was like winning a swimming race by the length of the pool. No human being had ever run that fast. It’s hard to imagine that one will again.”

The normally self-contained Johnson was elated with his Olympic performance, especially since he had been so disappointed at the 1992 Summer Games. Tears ran from his eyes as the national anthem played at his medal ceremony. He shared the joy with his family and his longtime coach. Johnson, who lives in Dallas and Waco, Texas, has hinted that he will remain active in track and field, perhaps returning to the Olympics in 2000. He realizes that his unprecedented victories mean more than just wealth and fame for him—they help to increase track’s popularity in America. “Somehow I feel a responsibility,” he told thePhiladelphia Daily News. “As someone who has benefited from my status in track and field, I feel responsible to the sport, to do what I can do to raise the sport to the next level. I’m trying to make this sport as big here as it is in Europe.” That’s a tall order, but Michael Johnson might be just the man to fill it.

Sources

Atlanta Journal and Constitution,June 18, 1995, p. E10; June 30, 1995, p. D5; December 1, 1995, p. C7; February 26, 1996.

Chicago Tribune,June 2, 1991, p. C3; August 12, 1995, p. H1.

Daily News (New York), July 14,1996, special section, p. 4.

GQ,June 1996, pp. 169-177.

Los Angeles Times,July 19, 1995, p. C1.

New York Times,March 5, 1995; July 14, 1996, special section.

Philadelphia Daily News,June 13, 1996, pp. S1, S3.

Philadelphia Inquirer,July 14,1996, p. C1; August 2, 1996, pp. 1,9.

USA Today,August 4, 1992, p. E4.

Washington Post,February 23, 1996, p. Fl.

—Mark Kram

Johnson, Michael (1967– ) US track athlete. Johnson became 200m world champion (1991), but was forced to retire from the 1992 Olympics. He was 200m and 400m world champion (1995). At the 1996 Olympics, he became the first man in Olympic history to win 200m and 400m gold medals. he successfully defended his 400m title at the 2000 Olympics.