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No one had got near Michael Johnson’s 1996 world record until the Jamaican giant scorched the Bird’s Nest and seared history
No one was ever going to beat Michael Johnson’s record. Not in my young lifetime anyway, maybe some distant day when I was old and grey, and the game had changed out of all recognition.
Remember watching him set it at the Atlanta Olympics in ’96? That idiosyncratic style of his, back straight, carriage low, arms tucked, legs spinning so quick his gold spikes were like sparks from a Catherine wheel. He had a technique all of his own, and maybe that explained why he was so fast. He finished in 19.32sec, three-tenths ahead of his own world record. The man in second place, Frankie Fredericks, ran faster than any one else ever had, and he finished five metres back. Continue reading...