Goodbye
Michael, Hello J.J.
Mark Butler for the IAAF
28 August 2001 -
Michael Johnson was given a fitting send-off before the start of the Van Damme
Memorial in Brussels last Friday, with a standing ovation from the 46,000 crowd
as he jogged a lap giving out tee-shirts. Few of those spectators expected to
see another Johnson from Texas put himself firmly on top of the world
performance lists at 200m, but that is exactly what Dallas resident J.J. Johnson
did a few hours later.
Michael won nine times out of nine in Brussels. It would have been a big surprise if he had not done so. On the other hand, no-one would have bet on J.J. winning the half-lap event in Brussels. All eyes were on Bernard Williams and Christian Malcolm, and sure enough these two were in front at halfway, just as in Zurich and Gateshead. Then we saw a third figure, tall, slim and dressed in blue, sweeping ahead from lane nine. He crossed the line in a startling 19.88, a personal improvement of 0.60, the world’s quickest since last year’s US Olympic Trials, and clearly faster than the winning times of Kostas Kenteris in either Sydney or Edmonton. We did not see any wild reaction by Johnson to the world’s first legal sub-20 clocking in 11 months. That is because he did not see the digital clock at the finish. And unlike, say, Williams, he had no entourage to fill him in immediately “I knew I’d won,” he explained, “but I didn’t see the figures. I didn’t know what time I’d run until after I did my victory lap. I came back and was about to change clothes and asked someone. They told me 19.88 and I was thinking ‘oh yeah, right’. I thought they were just joking. When I realised it was 19.88, I was very surprised, very happy.”
How did he account for this, the biggest breakthrough in world-class sprinting since Marion Jones in 1997. “I didn’t expect it at all. It’s unexplainable. Before I ran I just prayed and asked the Lord to bless me to run hard. I ran as hard as I could and that’s basically it.” Joshua Jermaine Johnson (he prefers “J.J.”) was born in Dallas on May 10, 1976. He has been a basketball player for most of his sporting career. He was at Texas A&M Kinsgsville, and his biggest achievement was being part of the team which placed third in the NCAA Division 2 Championships in 1997. “I wasn’t really a shooter,” he explained, “more a power guy.” He played his last game in 1999 and tried (American) football for a year before considering athletics. “It was something that I wanted to try,” he recalled “I thought I was fast.”
He graduated, moved back to his home town and linked up with Arlington-based coach Nicalson Scott. Best times of 10.24 and 20.63 in 2000 confirmed Johnson’s speed, though ranked him only 37th and 36th respectively in the United States that year. It was enough to propel him into his first full winter of athletics training. At around the same time he got engaged and started to work full-time at a call centre in Dallas. He married his fiancé, Nikki, on March 24 this year and the couple agreed that J.J. should try to make it as a full-time athlete. He resigned from his job just before the US Championships in Eugene, where he had the third-quickest time from the 100m semi-finals (10.11w) before placing seventh in the final. He was eliminated in the 200m semis.
That seventh place was enough to get him into the relay squad for the World Championships, and he kept his name in the minds of the relay coaches by running anchor leg for the US team at meetings in Glasgow and London. He also cut his personal bests to 10.22 and 20.48, winning in Zagreb and Madrid. In the meantime, he split with coach Scott and started to train with relay team-mate Dennis Mitchell.
In Edmonton, he ran the relay semi-final, deputising for Tim Montgomery. This meant that Johnson was awarded his own gold medal when Montgomery anchored his team to the title around two hours later. A World gold in your first serious season is an excellent enough achievement, but a comparison of Johnson’s Brussels time with the 20.04 in Edmonton of Kenteris will make everyone wonder “what if ?” “Yes,” said Johnson, “the reason I didn’t make it to the World Championships [individually] was because it was my first national championships, and my body wasn’t ready for all the rounds, so I was tired going into the 200m.”
Despite his stint in basketball, Johnson seemed destined to be a track star. His mother Catherine was a sprinter at high school, as was his wife to be. ”My family is big on track,” he revealed. “All my uncles and cousins, they grew up round track.” When he rang Nikki after his Brussels run, she already knew the result. “She was at work and following the meet on the internet, “ he explained. “She was happy, the happiest person in the world.”
The world’s newest sprint star did not capitalise on his new status at the remaining meetings in Europe. He headed home for a friend’s wedding but may turn out for the Goodwill Games in Brisbane. Then he and Nikki will move to Gainesville, Florida, to train full time with Mitchell. “I have weaknesses that I have to perk up on,” he said. “As far as 200m, it’s the curve. My start is weak. When I get with Dennis, he’ll help fix all of that.”
Besides his height - 1.91 - another distinguishing feature of Johnson’s is his gold right front tooth. What happened to the original ? “I didn’t lose it,” he explained. “It’s something that we do down in Texas. I got it when I was 15 years old. I went to Mexico. They filed my tooth down real small and put cement on the tooth to hold the gold. It was painful at first, but after a while it was okay. A lot of guys have all their teeth golded.”
Johnson said he won’t be getting any more gold teeth, but if he can improve like he did in Brussels, there will certainly be more medals of that colour to come.