Here is Carl Lewis, ushered to the interview podium at the Olympic trials after the 200 meters, looking like a whipped puppy. He has finished fifth, but he is Carl Lewis nonetheless, and he must be interrogated, even if he is only a warmup act to the man who just set a world record.
Michael Johnson does this.
Here is Butch Reynolds, 32, who has held the world 400-meter record for the past eight years. He has been through hell and back, having failed a drug test in 1990, fought it successfully and won a $27-million court settlement only to have it overturned, and then be threatened with a lifetime ban by the international governing body.
You just know Reynolds can envision deliverance with an Olympic gold medal, a full-circle flight that would make him whole. But he must know that is a longshot.
Michael Johnson does this.
Here is Mike Marsh. He is the reigning Olympic champion at 200 meters, and in Atlanta, could become the first-ever men's repeat winner in that event. But he has to have doubts.
Michael Johnson does this.
Here is the International Amateur Athletic Federation, a collection of stodgy characters for whom the word ``change'' does not exist. Ever so grudgingly, they alter the Olympic schedule so that races in the 200 and 400 don't occur on the same day. In fact, they schedule a day between the finish of the 400 and the preliminaries in the 200.
Michael Johnson does this, too.
As spectacular as is Michael Johnson's world record in the 200 meters (19.66), as overwhelming as is his 53-meet streak of finals victories in the 400, his most telling asset is his influence on people around him.
These are not small-change athletes Johnson has made to look mortal, in some off-event of track and field. They are some of the sport's marquee figures. And every day they must come to grips with this realization:
``Michael Johnson,'' said Clyde Hart, his coach, ``will not beat himself.''
Because of that, the Atlanta Olympics is liable to be remembered as the Michael Johnson Games. Dream Teams come and go, world records are broken in swimming like ripe apples falling from trees. But as the track events begin today (including the 400 prelims), Johnson may do something for perpetuity, or at least history: He is trying to become the first man ever to win gold medals in both the 200 and 400 meters.
One woman has done it, Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984. But the powerful East German delegation boycotted those Games, so Johnson's agenda is more formidable.
It seems as though only misfortune can waylay him, as it did at Salamanca, Spain, in 1992, when he gotfood poisoning at a pre-Games meet and lost training time and strength for Barcelona. He didn't make the finals of the 200.
Maybe that's why, in the moments after Johnson had disassembled the 17-year-old world record in the 200 at the trials, Hart was fidgeting about the infield at the warmup track.
``You cannot walk on it, much less run,'' he said. ``It was put in in a hurry, sodded and it's a little uneven. Those things worry me. One rotation of an ankle, and it's 10 years down the drain.''
Johnson is a serious man, 28 years old, 6-feet-1 and 170 pounds. He is not by nature a showboater, but the smallest breach in etiquette has affronted his biggest antagonists.
Quincy Watts, who won the 1992 gold in the 400, says Johnson has said some things he didn't appreciate, without specifying. Reynolds didn't like Johnson celebrating his U.S. quarter-mile championship in 1995, telling USA Today, ``You don't dance on the world-record holder.''
Nor is there love lost between Lewis, the outgoing king of track, and Johnson (incoming). At last year's World Championships at Goteberg, Sweden, Lewis told the International Herald-Tribune, ``This World Championships, it's boring. The electricity is not there. There's no buzz, no passionate missions. There's something missing.
``The one American they're trying to build up, Michael Johnson, he doesn't have it. He's not doing anything for them.''
To which Johnson shrugged, ``I think a lot of people approve of what I do. My focus is to satisfy myself and satisfy my fans. I don't care what one particular athlete has to say, Carl or anyone else.''
Hart discovered Johnson in a high school meet in Dallas when Johnson was a fairly undistinguished senior. He was the third-best 200-meter runner in Texas.
``We felt he'd be a youngster that would help our program in the relays and the open events,'' said Hart, the coach at Baylor. ``We doubted he'd be a conference champion, or NCAA or national champion.''
But Hart liked the fact Johnson was solid, a strong student with a good background, the son of Paul and Ruby Johnson, a truck driver and schoolteacher.
What we see in Atlanta in his upright, quick-stepping fashion will be the product of a decade's relationship between Johnson and the veteran Hart.
``Michael has done everything we've asked for 10 years,'' said Hart. ``He's gotten stronger in the weight room. We realized the only way you're going to counteract people taking steroids is to get in the weight room and get strong naturally.
``We do all the stretching, the vitamins, the rubdowns, the warmup sessions. We've got everything broken down to the exact minutes. It's taken us 10 years to come up with that.''
Think heat and humidity might derail Johnson? The only place where it might be hotter than Atlanta is Waco, Texas, where Johnson trains.
``It's 101 where I live,'' Johnson said, scoffing at the notion.
These are the more important numbers that swim around Johnson's head:
``I think I can do 19.5,'' he said, referring to the 200.
And in the 400, where Reynolds' world record is 43.29?
``I feel very confident,'' Johnson said, ``I can run 43-flat.''
The record books tremble. And the competition shudders.
Biofile
MICHAEL JOHNSON
Sport: track & field
Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 180
Birthdate: Sept. 13, 1967
Birthplace: Dallas, Texas
Favorite athletes to watch: Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Charles Barkley, Andre Agassi (``I like that whole rebel kind of thing.''), Mike Tyson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt (``Aggressive.'')
Prerace feeling: ``Try to execute the strategy I've set for myself before I get into the blocks. It looks like we're just running, but there's a whole lot more to it. Before you go out there, you figure out what is the best strategy for you - when to push, when to make my move. I formulate strategy based on years of past performances.''
Most painful moment: ``Not making the Olympic 200 final in '92 (Barcelona). Got sick from food poisoning. That's one good thing about track. You can come back the next year instead of waiting for four years.''
Nicknames: MJ, Mike
Hobbies: Race car driving, jet skiing, water sports, go to movies
Fact: Michael hasn't lost a 400 meter race since 1989
Childhood sport hero: ``Didn't have any. Never was into the hero thing. I was more into playing anything and everything.''
Future ambition(s): ``Win three gold medals in Atlanta - 200, 400 and 4x400 relay. I'll be disappointed if I don't win three gold medals. (And) finish my career as one of the greatest track & field athletes to compete in the sport.''
Greatest sports moment: ``'95 World Championships (in Goteborg, Sweden), winning the 200 and 400 meters. I won the World Championship in the 200 in '91 and 400 in '93. But because of the scheduling, I wasn't allowed to run in both races in those years. I felt I could've won both events in '91 and '93. After '95 I felt I did all I could.''
- Mark Malinowski
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