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Wake up and think it's all a dream
Four years ago when the Summer Olympics came to Atlanta, John Capel was a high school sophomore who just wanted to handle the bags for track superstar Michael Johnson. This year, Capel, a former University of Florida football player, was the surprise 200-meter winner at the U.S. Olympics Trials. He won the race in which both Johnson and Maurice Greene pulled up lame. Check in with Capel on CNNSI.com as he prepares to compete in Sydney.
September 5, 2000
Let me say that I have the greatest respect in the world for Michael Johnson. What he and Marion Jones have done for the sport is incredible. I would be crazy to say that I would have beaten Michael in the 200 at the trials if he had been healthy. But Maurice is another matter. He and I have had confrontations in the past and I have stood my ground each time. Let's just say I don't respect him at all. I'm 21, and he's four or five years older, but I'm more mature than he is. You never see Michael or Marion going around screaming and trying to get attention for themselves when they go places. But that's the way Maurice is. We had a few run-ins while we were in Europe in pre-Olympics matches last week. In Sacramento, I basically let [Greene and Johnson] beat each other down before the race. They came out so hard because they got caught up in the hype and were concentrating so much on beating each other. I really felt for Michael when he went down because you could tell he was genuinely hurt. But Maurice, he was walking around right afterwards with no ice or anything when we had to go in for post-race drug testing. I think he was faking because he didn't want it to seem like he had gotten beat by some college kid. I ran a 19.84, but I think I could have run even faster. I was watching the screen when those guys went down.
I really didn't get a chance to enjoy winning like a lot of the guys. A couple of days after the race, I was on plane going back to Gainesville to see my daughter. Her name is Janya and she is now two months old. The past two months have been like a dream. Maybe after the Olympics are over, I will wake up and think it's all a dream. I didn't run my best in Europe. It took me a while to get adjusted to the time change. I didn't eat, lift or really train at all. I lost seven pounds while I was over there. I even had a run-in with Maurice. We exchanged words one time on the track. But almost every day in Europe, Michael was encouraging me. He said, "You are the U.S. champion." And he would tell me to keep my head up. Michael has been wonderful. It's like he's passing the torch [in the 200]. I'm sure he was a little frustrated with the way things happened at the trials, but he has been really classy. Coach [Steve] Spurrier called me today. I didn't really tell him that I was quitting the football team to concentrate on track this year -- I just kinda jumped ship. I mean, he's the biggest name in Gainesville; everybody knows Coach Spurrier. I kinda punked out and didn't tell him face-to-face. But he understood that you only get this opportunity once in a lifetime. He asked me if I wanted to come back and play running back or something when I was finished with the Olympics. I still love football. Running and playing football at the same time is something I've done since I was six. I probably will play football again. Whatever it takes to support myself and my daughter. If track does, then that's fine. But I can really see myself going back to play football. I'm really excited about Sydney. But you can't get ahead of yourself and think you've won before you actually do it. I'm kinda laid back. But when it comes time to run, you can bet I'm going to be the most crunk -- pumped -- person on the track.
-- John
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