|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Johnson bows out in true champion style
ATTENTION - REPETITION fixing date and slug /// SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) - Michael Johnson's sparkling Olympic career ended with a fitting gold medal when he anchored the American 4x400m team to victory here on Saturday night. The 33-year-old swept across the line to the roar of over 100,000 people packed into Stadium Australia to witness the last run by one of the greatest athletes ever to have competed in the Games. Johnson paid them back by taking a leisurely jog around the edge of the track, exchanging high-fives with an adoring audience before disappearing into the bowels of the stadium. "Now I am going to take time out and think about my future and if I should call it a day," said Johnson. "This was my last major meet. I will not be running at the world championships. There is nothing to be gained." "Tonight I was just happy to go out with gold. I sure as hell did not want to finish with silver or bronze," he added. It was a perfect end to an amazing career for the Texan who was able to walk away with nothing to prove. In Michael Johnson's race for history, his fiercest competitors were only himself and time. Johnson donned his golden spikes again on Monday and did what no man had done before, successfully defending his Olympic 400m crown. In the chilly night air of Stadium Australia, the magical 43-second barrier remained impenetrable. But Olympic gold was Johnson's first priority, and he drew on all of his experience and will to achieve it. There was no one on the track who could drive him. "I can honestly say that since Carl Lewis left this sport, there's not an athlete that I get excited about running against," Johnson has said in the past. "I get excited about achieving my own goals." "Once I get to a final, there's seven other people there. I don't care who they are, I don't know who they are. They have no faces or names to me. They're just seven people standing in my way." Two world records - one set in the 200m final in Atlanta and the other in the 1999 world championship final - have earned Johnson the right to wear his trademark golden shoes. Johnson has won six individual world titles (twice completing the 200/400 double), three 4x400m relay world titles, three individual Olympic titles including the incredible double in 1996 - and one relay medal. Disappointments have been few and far between save an embarrassing exit in the 200m 1992 Olympic semi-finals and pulling up injured in his bitter duel with 100m Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, who accused him of being a chicken. Johnson claims to be above such name-calling whether it comes from Bailey or from 100m world record-holder Maurice Greene. He prefers to focus, he says, on his own pursuit of Olympic athletics history. "To make history, that is something that motivates me. Winning the Olympics is important. Making history is more important.
|
