Michael Johnson (athlete)

Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson (2010)
Full name	Michael Duane Johnson
nation	United States
birthday	September 13, 1967
place of birth	Dallas
size	183 cm
Weight	77 kg
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	19.32 s ( 200 m ) 43.18 s ( 400 m )
status	resigned
End of career	2000
Medal table
Olympic games 4 × 0 × 0 × World championships 8 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Barcelona 1992 4 × 400 m gold Atlanta 1996 200 m gold Atlanta 1996 400 m gold Sydney 2000 400 m  World championships gold Tokyo 1991 200 m gold Stuttgart 1993 400 m gold Stuttgart 1993 4 × 400 m gold Gothenburg 1995 200 m gold Gothenburg 1995 400 m gold Gothenburg 1995 4 × 400 m gold Athens 1997 400 m gold Seville 1999 400 m

Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, 1967 in Dallas ) is a former American athlete with four Olympic victories and eight world championship titles over the distances of 200 meters and 400 meters .

Between 1993 and 1999 Johnson managed a series of successes that is still unique today over the 400 meters when he won the title at all four world championships . He also won the gold medal on this route at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games .

Career

Early successes

Michael Johnson graduated from Baylor University in Texas in 1990 where he studied marketing. There he met his coach Clyde Hart , who looked after him until the end of his career. During his studies, Johnson won several medals at the NCAA championships. In the same year he made the leap to the top of the world when he remained unbeaten over the 200 meters for the entire season. On June 16, he achieved a time under 20 seconds for the first time with 19.90 seconds. At the end of the season he finally led the annual world best list with 19.85 s and finished third with a time of 44.21 s over twice the distance.

At the World Championships in Tokyo a year later, Johnson won the gold medal over the 200 meters. With 20.01 s he distanced the runner-up Frank Fredericks (Namibia) by more than three tenths of a second. For the Olympic Games in Barcelona the following year , Johnson was considered a contender for the gold medal.

On June 9, 1992 Johnson had to take another defeat against Frank Fredericks in Rome for over two years in a 200-meter race. Nevertheless, the American was still considered the top favorite to win the Olympic gold, not least because of his convincing performance in the national eliminations almost three weeks later. But just before the Olympics, Johnson fell ill with food poisoning , as a result of which he lost a lot of weight. Due to the compulsory break, Johnson was not in top form in Barcelona and missed the final over 200 meters. As a consolation, he won at least one Olympic gold medal with the 4 x 400 meter relay . In the line-up of Andrew Valmon , Quincy Watts , Johnson and Steve Lewis , the quartet ran a time of 2: 55.74 minutes, which meant a new world record.

The Johnson era

In 1993 Johnson started at the World Championships in Stuttgart only over the 400 meters. He was also a top favorite on this route, as he ran a world class time of 43.74 s in the US eliminations. A year earlier, Johnson caused a stir on the stadium lap when he stayed under 44 seconds for the first time in London. This made him only the seventh runner in the world to do this. In Stuttgart, Johnson lived up to his role as a favorite and won his first gold medal over 400 meters. He again improved his fastest time to 43.65 s. He also won the gold medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay in Barcelona, ​​just like a year before. With a slightly different line-up compared to Barcelona (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Harry Reynolds , Johnson), the US team again set a new world record (2: 54.29 min).

At the World Championships in Gothenburg two years later, Michael Johnson was even able to surpass his triumph from Stuttgart when, in addition to his victories in the 400 meters and in the 4 x 400 meter relay, he also won gold in the 200 meters. With a new personal best of 43.39 s, Johnson approached the “world record of the century” of his compatriot Harry “Butch” Reynolds to a tenth of a second over 400 meters.

1996 was the most successful of Johnson's career. Even at the US championships, which, like the Olympic Games, which took place a short time later, also took place in Atlanta, Johnson ran the 400 meters in 43.44 s, his second fastest time to date. Three days later, he demonstrated his outstanding condition over half the distance and undercut the 17-year-old world record of Italian Pietro Mennea by six hundredths of a second with outside temperatures of around 42 degrees Celsius .

But just like four years before, Michael Johnson lost over 200 meters against his long-term rival Frank Fredericks when they met in Oslo for the first time this year. But only three days later Johnson was able to successfully take revenge in Stockholm .

Less than a month later, Johnson won gold medals over both courses at the Atlanta Olympics . If he missed his personal best over 400 meters by just a tenth of a second, three days later he increased his own world record over 200 meters by more than three tenths of a second to 19.32 s. For these two achievements, Johnson was honored with the Associated Press' Athlete of the Year award .

Since Johnson ran his world record run over 200 meters at a higher average speed than the then Olympic champion over 100 meters Donovan Bailey (CAN), the question arose as to which of the two should be considered "the fastest man in the world". For this reason, an exclusive race between the two over the rarely run 150-meter course was held on June 1, 1997 in Rogers Center in Toronto ( see below ). Donovan Bailey was in the lead from the start and won, while Michael Johnson had to retire after half the distance injured. In the same year, Johnson was named World Sportsman of the Year by the French sports newspaper L'Équipe .

As much as the defeat against Bailey hurt, the real drama was the injury, which finally turned out to be a thigh strain and questioned a start at the upcoming World Championships in Athens . Johnson, who has been concentrating primarily on the 400 meters since Atlanta, then actually had to forego the eliminations and was only allowed to participate in the world championships with a wildcard from the world association. Unlike in previous years, this time he was not considered the sole favorite. Not least because at the end of June in Paris he finished a race with an indisputable 45.76 s in 5th place and was therefore unable to win an important 400 meter competition for the first time in eight years. Nevertheless, Johnson won his third gold medal over the stadium round in Athens with a moderate 44.12 seconds for his standards. But this remained his only medal, as he was not considered for the relay because he did not start in the trials.

A year later, Johnson was able to repeatedly mark a world record over the 4 x 400 meters at the Goodwill Games in the New York suburb of Hempstead as the final runner with the US relay. The achieved time of 2: 54.20 minutes was a world record by 2008. In the summer of 2008, however, this world record was revoked due to several doping cases in the world record relay - all except Johnson were convicted of doping. The valid world record is now the 2: 54.29 min from the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart.

At the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Michael Johnson again won the world title over 400 meters. By winning his eighth gold medal, after several attempts, he also succeeded in getting the world record held by his compatriot Harry Reynolds for eleven years. With a time of 43.18 s, it stayed eleven hundredths of a second below the old record.

A year later, Johnson won the gold medal over 400 meters at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , as he did at the World Championships a year earlier in Seville . Originally he also won gold with the relay, but this medal was revoked in 2008 because of the doping affair surrounding Antonio Pettigrew . The appearance in Sydney was Johnson's last international championship. The following year he announced his retirement without having participated in the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton.

Michael Johnson has won Olympic gold four times in his sports career. With a total of nine world championship titles, including six in individual disciplines, Michael Johnson has also replaced his compatriot Carl Lewis as the most successful medal collector at the world athletics championships. He benefited from the new regulation of the IAAF to halve the frequency of the World Championships from 1993 to two years.

Fastest man in the world?

In his spectacular world record in Atlanta in 1996, Johnson ran the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, which corresponds to two 100-meter times of 9.66 s each. This 100-meter time was well below the 100-meter world record of the Canadian Donovan Bailey (9.84 s). Because of his higher average speed of 37.267 km / h, Johnson has been voted "the fastest man in the world" by many primarily local media. In the 200-meter run, however, the second hundred meters are covered with a flying start, which gives the 200-meter runner a clear advantage. For example, Pietro Mennea took 19.72 seconds in his record run in Mexico City in 1979 , corresponding to two 100-meter times of 9.86 s each. This time was only reached twelve years later on the 100-meter course by Carl Lewis. However, in athletics, the 100-meter world record holder has always been considered the fastest man in the world, because the highest top speeds are achieved on the short sprint distance. Donovan Bailey also claimed the rank of fastest man for himself, as he not only held the world record, but was also the reigning Olympic champion and world champion in the 100 meters. The question of whether long sprinter Michael Johnson should be considered the fastest man in the world led to a bitter rivalry between the two athletes.

Finally, a duel between the two stars was set for the summer of 1997, which should clearly clarify the question of the "fastest man". The race distance was set at 150 meters as a compromise between the different special routes of the competitors. In addition to the running duel, other comparisons between well-known representatives of athletics were also planned. B. in the long jump between Heike Drechsler and Jackie Joyner-Kersee . Since the project was announced, the sporting spirit has repeatedly been called into question. Some spoke of a "circus event". Many observers saw the main motive in making US athletics more attractive to sponsors again. By the mid-1990s at the latest, the Americans had to give up their dominance in the short sprint area. After Carl Lewis retired from the stage as one of the last great figureheads, Michael Johnson was to be built as the new superstar. On June 1, 1997, was one-to-one Challenge of Champions finally in the Skydome of Toronto held. More than 60 countries had bought TV rights .

The highlight was the duel over the 150 meters under the motto The world's fastest man . Donovan Bailey won with a time of 14.99 s and secured the prize money of $ 1.5 million. Michael Johnson was clearly behind from the start after a weak start and gave up in the middle of the race. The question arose whether he only wanted to avoid ending up as a loser with his task. Bailey's justification for a muscle strain in his thigh was treated with mockery and derision, which cast another shadow over the event. Bailey apologized the next day for his verbal glitch.

Running style

The unusual running style was considered a trademark of Johnson. He competed with an upright torso and a high step frequency. In the opinion of many experts, this represented a particularly economical way of running and was probably a major reason for its speed. The running style with an upright, almost stiff upper body was occasionally described as saying that one had the impression that Johnson had swallowed a broomstick.

Doping rumors

Johnson's world records aroused skepticism among many observers. Although Johnson never tested positive for banned substances during his career and had no evidence of any contact with suspected coaches or doctors, doping rumors persisted.

One reason was that Johnson consistently avoided direct questions about the doping problem when appearing in public. There was a scandal during the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton at a press conference organized by the sporting goods manufacturer Nike . Nike and Michael Johnson, who acted as co-moderators, did not allow questions about doping, related questions from journalists were stalled, and Nike-equipped athletes were not allowed to comment on the topic.

Johnson condemned doping only in isolated statements. He repeatedly spoke out in favor of harsh penalties against the coaches who were also responsible.

statistics

World records

Michael Johnson reached over 200 meters and 400 meters as well as with the 4-by-400-meter relay world records , of which the relay world record still exists today.

discipline	time	date	place
200 metres	19.66 s	June 23, 1996	Atlanta (US Championships)
200 metres	19.32 s	0Aug 1, 1996	Atlanta ( XXVI Olympic Games )
400 meters	43.18 s	Aug 26, 1999	Seville ( World Championships 1999 )
4 x 400 meter relay	2: 55.74 min	0Aug 8, 1992	Barcelona ( XXV Olympic Games )
4 x 400 meter relay	2: 54.29 min	22 Aug 1993	Stuttgart ( World Championships 1993 )

The world record achieved with the 4 x 400 meter relay on July 22, 1998 at the Goodwill Games was canceled on August 12, 2008 after contestant Antonio Pettigrew admitted to taking growth hormones and EPO .

Top performances

date	discipline	place	time
June 16, 1994	100 meters	Knoxville, Tennessee	10.09
August 1, 1996	200 metres	Atlanta	19.32
March 24, 2000	300 meters	Pretoria (South Africa)	30.85
August 26, 1999	400 meters	Seville	43.18

200 meter times under 20 seconds

time	wind	date	place
19.32	0.4	0Aug 1, 1996	Atlanta
19.66	1.7	June 23, 1996	Atlanta
19.71 A	1.8	18 Mar 2000	Pietersburg
19.77	0.6	0July 8, 1996	Stockholm
19.79	1.0	June 28, 1992	New Orleans
19.79	0.5	Aug 11, 1995	Gothenburg
19.83	1.7	May 18, 1996	Atlanta
19.85	0.4	0July 6, 1990	Edinburgh
19.85	1.1	05th July 1996	Oslo
19.88 A	1.5	0Aug 8, 1990	Sestriere
19.88	−0.9	Sep 20 1991	Barcelona
19.89	1.0	13 Sep 1991	Brussels
19.89	0.3	July 22, 2000	Sacramento
19.90	0.3	June 16, 1990	Norwalk
19.91	1.9	July 13, 1992	Salamanca
19.91	0.0	0June 9, 2000	Seville
19.93	−0.3	0Sep 9 1995	Monaco
19.93	0.8	0July 7, 1999	Rome
19.93	0.4	03rd Sep 1999	Brussels
19.94	1.4	Sep 15 1991	Sheffield
19.94	0.0	0Aug 2, 1994	Monaco
19.98	−0.4	06 Sep 1991	Rieti
19.98	0.3	May 22, 1992	Houston

A = achievement achieved at great altitude.

Most 400-meter runs under 44 seconds

rank	Track and field athlete	number
1.	Michael Johnson	22nd
2.	Jeremy Wariner	9
	LaShawn Merritt	9
4th	Kirani James	7th
5.	Wayde van Niekerk	6th
6th	Harry Reynolds	4th
	Quincy Watts	4th
	Isaac Makwala	4th
As of May 6, 2018

400 meter times under 44 seconds

time	date	place
43.18	Aug 26, 1999	Seville
43.39	0Aug 9, 1995	Gothenburg
43.44	June 19, 1996	Atlanta
43.49	July 29, 1996	Atlanta
43.65	Aug 17, 1993	Stuttgart
43.66	June 16, 1995	Sacramento
43.66	03rd July 1996	Lausanne
43.68	Aug 12, 1998	Zurich
43.68	July 16, 2000	Sacramento
43.74	June 19, 1993	Eugene
43.75	Apr 19, 1997	Waco
43.76	July 21, 1998	Hempstead (New York)
43.84	25 Sep 2000	Sydney
43.86	July 21, 1995	Oslo
43.88	Aug 16, 1995	Zurich
43.90	06 Sep 1994	Madrid
43.92	0July 2, 1999	Lausanne
43.92	June 24, 2000	Eugene
43.94	Aug 27, 1993	Berlin
43.95	Aug 24, 1999	Seville
43.96	0Aug 8, 1998	Monaco
43.98	July 10, 1992	London

Awards

• 1996: World Sportsman of the Year ( La Gazzetta dello Sport )
• 2004: Induction into the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame
• 2012: Induction into the IAAF Hall of Fame

Life

After his resignation, Johnson works as a coach. On August 31, 2018, he suffered a stroke while exercising .

Web links

Commons : Michael Johnson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Michael Johnson in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Michael Johnson in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} biography of Michael Johnson ( Memento from March 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), on the NDR website , 2003
2. ^ Matthias Krause: Money, honor and a pinch of patriotism . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 31, 1997.
3. ↑ See Jens Weinreich: Running Gag . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 3, 1997.
4. ↑ Portrait of the top stars of athletics archiv.rhein-zeitung.de, August 1, 1997, section on Michael Johnson.
5. ^ With a broomstick to the hall of fame taz.de, August 28, 1999.
6. ↑ Jens Weinreich: Big Bluff? In: Berliner Zeitung , August 3, 1996.
7. ↑ Barbara Klimke: In an upright position . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 30, 2001.
8. ↑ The topic of doping is taboo and yet on everyone's lips faz.net, August 3, 2001.
9. ↑ World record holder Johnson calls for lifelong suspension: Gatlin's trainer in the line of fire rp-online.de, July 31, 2006.
10. ↑ Renmin Ribao : Michael Johnson says doping can never be eradicated , August 22, 2007
11. ↑ IAAF Council cancels 4x400m World record . From: iaaf.org, accessed August 12, 2008
12. ↑ Michael Johnson Performance
13. ↑ Fable world record holder Michael Johnson after stroke: 200 meters in 15 minutes In: Watson (news portal) of November 16, 2018