Michael Johnson

Something of a shadow was cast across Johnson's otherwise sterling reputation by his participation in a privately organized 150-meter race against Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey. The race, held at Toronto's SkyDome in 1997, ostensibly was staged to find out who was the "world's fastest man." Favored three to one by bettors, Johnson shocked everyone when he pulled up lame halfway through the run as Bailey raced past him. Johnson grabbed his left thigh and walked to the finish line. Opponent Bailey later called Johnson a "coward," and the media flooded Johnson with questions about whether he had purposely thrown the race. The American sprinter explained that he'd suffered an intense cramp, forcing him to drop out of the race. An x-ray later confirmed that Johnson had torn his quadriceps muscle. This was just the beginning of a string of physical problems for Johnson, who also suffered problems with his left hamstring and other troubles associated with a skeletal imbalance that forced his spine into misalignment. Despite these leg problems, he continued to train.

In 1998 Johnson was a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. 4×400 relay team at the Goodwill Games in New York City. During his leg of the relay, he ran the fastest 400-meter sprint of the year at 43.30 seconds. The following year, at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Seville, Spain, Johnson won the 400-meter sprint with a new world record time of 43.18 seconds. At the 2000 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Sacramento, a hamstring cramp forced Johnson out of competition in the 200-meter sprint. He did, however, qualify for the 400-meter, his signature event. At Sydney, he successfully defended his Olympic title in the 400-meter sprint and also won gold as a member of the U.S. 400×4 relay team, bringing the total of his Olympic gold medals to five. In winning the individual 400-meter sprint at Sydney, Johnson became the first sprinter in history to win consecutive gold medals in the event.

Johnson wrapped up his brilliant running career with another gold medal as a member of the winning 4×400 relay team at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. Although he had maintained a home in Texas for most of his professional career, Johnson in the fall of 2001 put his Dallas home on the market and moved to Mill Valley, California, a suburb of San Francisco in nearby Marin County. There he lives with wife Kerry and their son, Sebastian, born in May 2000. Interviewed in April 2002 by Runners World Daily, Johnson's longtime coach, Clyde Hart, was asked what the sprinter was doing now that he'd retired. "He's keeping busy and enjoying retirement," Hart replied. "I think he retired at the right time in his career." Asked if he thought there was any chance that Johnson might return to running, Hart said, "No, Michael is not going to do that. That decision was made and there's no looking back. That's the kind of guy he is." Although it seems unlikely Johnson will ever run competitively again, he has a glorious record to reflect upon for the rest of his life.