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Capel should worry about himself
Last year Maurice Greene set the world record of 9.79 seconds in the 100 meters. Since then, he has been considered the man to beat at the Olympics. Check out Greene's diary on CNNSI.com as he prepares to compete in Sydney. September 5, 2000
I just heard about the things that John Capel said about me in his diary on CNNSI.com. He wrote that he doesn't respect me and doesn't think I'm as mature as he is, even though I'm four years older, and how I wasn't really hurt when I pulled up in the 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento. I think I know why he decided to say all this stuff now. It's because of what happened with the 4x100-meter relay last Friday night in Berlin. In my last diary I mentioned about how excited I was that Jon Drummond, Bernard Williams, Curtis Johnson and I ran 37.95 in terrible weather conditions, with safe baton passes, in England. Well, the four of us wanted to run together again in Berlin. We're all in the same HSI training group, we're all in the relay pool and we've been practicing sticks all over Europe, while the U.S. coaches haven't held any formal practices. Anyway, I guess there was some type of U.S. relay coaches meeting in Berlin, because before the meet John Moon, who's the head relay coach, told me he wanted to put Brian Lewis on the relay instead of Curtis. I said I didn't want to do that. Somebody told me later that some of the coaches said they didn't know who Curtis was. Well, he finished second at the trials and Lewis was fourth. The U.S. coaches wound up letting us stay together and put together a B team with Lewis, Capel, Kenny Brokenburr and Tim Montgomery, but by that time there was a whole lot of nasty talk going on about how relay runners get picked and all that. When we got on the track for the relay, Capel came up to me and said, "We're gonna kick y'all's asses." I said, "OK, do it." That didn't happen. Our team ran 37.65, which is the sixth-fastest four-by-one in history and the fastest run not in the Olympics or at world championships. Capel's team ran 38.18. I think the coaches should keep our four guys together for the Olympic final. It's not anything personal against John Capel or Brian Lewis or anybody else. This is our best team for bringing home the gold medal to the U.S. and maybe breaking the world record. I told John that in Berlin, but he wouldn't listen. I guess he wants a relay gold medal. As far as the things Capel said about me, other people have talked about the way I act on the track. I'm not going to change for John Capel or anybody else. That's the way I am. John shouldn't be worrying about Maurice Greene, he should be worrying about running his own 200 meters at the Olympic Games, because he hasn't been running well at all since the trials. Eventually, John and I will run against each other again, and then I'll settle everything on the track. I also ran the 100 meters in Berlin. I didn't run very fast in England a few days before that, because I didn't want to get hurt pushing too hard in cold weather. So my goal in Berlin was to send a message to all the other sprinters that I'm going to be very tough to beat in Sydney. I ran 9.86, which is the fastest time in the world this year, so I think I succeeded. And I wasn't surprised at all. I felt good and I knew I was going to run fast. I rushed my race a little bit and didn't relax enough or my time would have been even faster. That's why I believe I'm going to put on the best show that Maurice Greene has ever put on in the 100-meter final in Sydney. People have been talking a lot about the weather and the stadium, about how it's going to be cold and how there might be a wind in our faces. I don't care. I'm going to run a very fast race no matter what the conditions are. It could be 20 below zero and I'm still going to run fast. Right now I'm back home in L.A. for a few days and it just hit me: I'm going to the Olympics! With all the training and racing and interviews since the trials, it never really sunk in that I was actually going. But as soon as I got back here from Europe, I started getting excited. I mean, really excited. My original plan was to leave for Australia on Sept. 7, but I've got a lot of things to clean up here, so now I'm trying to switch my travel plans to Sept. 9. Either way, the latest I'll get to Australia is the 11th. I was there once before, for training, in the winter of 1998, and I loved it. As far as my training goes, I'm not doing anything strenuous right now, just light stuff every day to stay fresh. Once I get to Sydney I'll hit it really hard for about a week and a half. No more races, though. My next race will be in the opening round of the 100 meters on Sept. 22. The living situation in Sydney should be pretty good. HSI will have two houses. I'll be living in one of them with Ato Boldon and our manager, Emanuel Hudson, and probably one other person. John Smith, our coach, and Inger Miller and Jon Drummond will be in another house with some other people, right next door. We've hired our own cook and our own housekeeper to keep things running smoothly. It should be a little bit better than spending two or three weeks in a hotel room. —Maurice
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