Transcript: Paris Olympics: A Conversation with Michael Johnson

MR. BREWER: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Jerry Brewer, a sports columnist at the Post, and I’m in Paris for the Summer Olympics. Before I get to my guest, I want to quote him from 1996. He said back then, quote, “There are two household names in the history of track and field--Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis. I’m in position to be the third. It’ll be the biggest show of the Olympics. I’m going to be the man at these Olympics.” And he was, and now the man is here.

Joining me now to talk about the men and women dominating track and field this year is four-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time world champion Michael Johnson. Michael, welcome to Washington Post Live.

MR. JOHNSON: Thanks. I appreciate it. Appreciate the intro.

MR. BREWER: Well, let's get started. We had to do something special for you. Michael, the other day, you talked about the stacked competition. You said on social media that you were particularly interested in what's about to go down on August 3rd and August 4th. Tell us what has you so hyped about those two dates, and I'm going to put you on the spot. Who do you expect to win, and who do you hope medals on August 3rd and 4th?

MR. JOHNSON: Yeah. So August 3rd and 4th are the dates of the men's and women's 100-meter final races here in Paris at this Olympics, and starting with the men, the men's 100 meters for this particular Olympics is absolutely stacked. It's probably the most evenly matched field that we've seen in quite some time, because if you think about the last Olympics, Marcell Jacobs won, the 100-meter standard that year and coming into those Olympics wasn't as high as we had seen in the past. And then you think about the three previous Olympic Games, Usain Bolt dominated. You always knew that it was his to lose, and everyone else was just fighting for the silver and bronze medals.

This time, you've got ten people, I would say, that legitimately have a chance at medals and possibly even gold medals. When you start talking about the gold medal, realistically, that ten may narrow down to six. That's still a lot. I mean, only eight people will make the final, only three people get medals, and only one gets to be the champion. So that's really, really exciting.

And then on the women's side, you've got Sha'Carri Richardson, who has been, you know, for the last several years, just a household name. Everyone knows her. You know, she is very different. She is--has this amazing talent that we've seen for several years now and until last year had not realized that potential and showed us what she could do in a world-class field of athletes on the global stage. But last year, she absolutely did and did it in fantastic style, winning the 100-meter world championship.

I don't think that that women's 100 meters is as challenging and as evenly matched as the men's, but it still will be a good race to watch. You'll have a couple of the Jamaican women in there and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who is a legend in the women's 100 meters, Melissa Jefferson from the U.S., but the Jamaicans aren't nearly as strong as they have been in the past. And that's unfortunate and took a little bit of the sting out of that one.

MR. BREWER: Michael, let's take a deeper dive at some of the standouts, but let's talk first about the youngest member of Team USA who won't be competing individually, but he's such a precocious talent. And we might see him in the relay pool, Quincy Wilson, who is local for us, from Maryland. You aren't the type to hype up someone who's 16 years old, but you've been impressed by him. Why are you so impressed about Quincy Miller--I mean Quincy Wilson--excuse me--and what do you think his future is if he stays on this path?

MR. JOHNSON: Yeah, he's--I mean, he's an amazing talent. What he's--and I typically do refrain from, you know, sort of hyping up young, you know, phenomenal athletes, simply because it puts so much pressure on them, and we never know. You know, there's still a long road from 16 years old and lots of potential to become world class. So I typically will hesitate to sort of start predicting what a young athlete might do when they get to the senior level.

But Quincy is different because he's already competing at the senior level, and if he never ran any faster than he's already run, he would still be one of the fastest athletes. I mean, he's running world-class times already at 16, which is just phenomenal. I mean, we've seen athletes at sort of 17, 18 years old, senior year of high school, starting to already run world-class times and immediately jump to the pro level of track and field and bypass college, but very few at 16 years old. He's only a sophomore in high school. He's still got two more years of high school. So what he is doing really is phenomenal. You know, the last time we saw anything like this, it was Sydney McLaughlin who made the Olympic team at 16 years old in Rio, and we see what she's done. But what I always do is hesitate. You know, I ask people to hesitate to go and start to predict that what he's doing right now means that he's going to be running, you know, 50, 60 percent faster when he's 20 years old, which is typically what happens with a 16-year-old. He may have already started to tap into some of that improvement that most young athletes at 16 will see as they get older, as they mature physically, as they graduate from high school into better coaching at the collegiate level and then even better coaching at the professional level. He may be already receiving some of that type of coaching and have--already may have experienced some of that maturity as well.

MR. BREWER: Michael, let's take a deeper dive into Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson, particularly their big personalities, right? Like, I think that is very common for a 100-meter runner to have to be able to bring it like that. What does--what kind of confidence do you need as an Olympian but especially in that race?

MR. JOHNSON: You absolutely need confidence in any of the sprint events. You know, you need confidence in track. I mean, it's an individual sport. You're out there by yourself, and track is almost like a combat sport as well. It's racing, but it's a combat sport. It is you have to beat other people individually in order to win and call yourself the champion, and you have to fend--you have to defend. You have to fend them off from beating you, and so it takes a tremendous amount of confidence to go out there and especially in a sport like track, where, you know, you only have a few opportunities to get it right and win these championships.

You know, it's not--there isn't sort of--until we launch Grand Slam Track, anyway, there isn't--there isn't sort of that, you know, four times a year, multiple times a year to win. There's only one big championship every year, and you don't get another opportunity.

At this Olympics, you know, these athletes, this is it. This is the pinnacle, and if you don't do it this year, there is no next year for the Olympics. It's another four years. So it takes a tremendous amount of confidence. But when we start talking about Sha'Carri and Noah, it's important to note that there's a difference between confidence and--you know, and then just, you know, being on show. You know, you could--there are some quiet, confident athletes out there that you're not hearing from who are just as confident. So don't mistake them that just because you're not hearing from them that they're not confident. They are--you know, there's more than one way to be confident.

MR. BREWER: When you have a personality like that, Michael, it puts you on front street. Is there any concern you ever have about distractions, or is there any negative to that?

MR. JOHNSON: Well, you know, when you put yourself out there like Noah has done and Sha'Carri has done as well in a different way, when you put yourself out there, you need to be able to back that up, number one, but also, you have to be prepared for the backlash that's going to come if you fail, because--and especially today with social media, I mean, there are a lot of people out there already hoping, wishing, praying for both of them to fail fantastically. They would like nothing more than that to happen, and if it does happen, those people will be the first screaming at the top of their lungs, "I told you, you suck. You're horrible," you know, and reminding you of all of the things that you said, all of the claims that you made. They will be reminding you of that. So if you're going to put that out there, you have to be unafraid of that backlash. And Noah certainly has demonstrated that he's unafraid.

The other thing about that that I think that people don't understand is that's also what makes Noah so dangerous. He's not afraid. When you're not afraid, you run freely. You run, you know, without a care. You run more focused, more relaxed, which is exactly what you need as a world-class sprinter when you go out there under that type of pressure. You need to be able to run free. You need to be able to run relaxed, and that's very difficult to do when you're running without much pressure. But when you do have that sort of pressure and you're unafraid, that makes you very, very hard to beat. And Noah is in that position.

MR. BREWER: Michael, you referenced it earlier, the rivalry between Jamaica and the United States, and it's shifted a bit. But tell us what you have enjoyed and what you've thought about the last few Olympics, you know, particularly with Jamaica being so dominant, and how might it change if things go according to plan in these games?

MR. JOHNSON: That rivalry is real. You just have to go on Track Twitter and you will see, especially Jamaican Twitter, which is a very, very--it's not for the faint of heart over there. They don't play around. They are a very proud, a very proud nation when it comes to sprinting. It is the national sport. They have punched far above their weight, you know, for many, many years. I mean, there aren't very many things where a country the size of Jamaica could best a country the size of America for years, and they have done it in sprinting.

And this isn't new. I mean, you go back to the days of Don Quarrie in the '60s and Merlene Ottey and Grace Jackson, Juliet Cuthbert, Raymond Stewart. There have--they've had--this has always been the case. It's not new.

But now and in the last sort of 15 years or so with the emergence of Asafa Powell but then Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who for years--and then Elaine Thompson-Herah after Shelly-Ann have just dominated both the men's and women's 100 meters and 200 meters.

So what has happened in the last sort of five years or so, four or five years, is the women on the Jamaican side, they found more talent with Shericka Jackson, and they started sweeping medals. The last Olympics, they swept the women's 100 meters and won the women's 200 meters as well. On the men's side, the last Olympics, they didn't medal, and then you saw, after Usain Bolt retired in 2013--I'm sorry--'17, 2017, you saw a bit of a void, a huge void actually left from when he retired on the men's side, and the Americans filled that void to a point where in 2022 world championships, the Americans' men swept the 100 meters. And they won it again last year with Noah Lyles winning it.

So things have shifted around a bit to where the men now on the Jamaican side, they have Kishane Thompson who is--who has the fastest time in the world this year, Oblique Seville, who has one of the fastest times in the world this year. He's finished fourth at both of the previous world championships, right outside of the medal. So he's knocking on the door. So the Jamaicans feel that on the men's side, they may have found some talent that can come in. And they certainly believe that Kishane Thompson, ran 977 earlier this year, which is the fastest time in the world by a little bit, he could be the Olympic champion. So they have new hopes there.

Whereas on the women's side, after so much dominance for so long, they've got a little bit of a drought. And Elaine Thompson-Herah has been injured the last few years. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the greatest of all time in the women's 100 meters, bar none, has--you know, she's had difficulty this year staying healthy. She's there, and when she's in the race, she's always a potential medalist but not like we've seen her in the past. Shericka Jackson, world champion in the 200 meters and silver medalist last year in the 100 meters, struggling with a little bit of injury this year as well.

MR. BREWER: Michael, there's so much in track and field, particularly with Team USA. It's such a deep group and interesting in so many different areas. We haven't even talked about the hurdlers, and let's get back to that in a little bit. But we want to talk about your career, and whenever anyone talks about you, we talk about how dominant you were with a running style that is almost impossible to imitate. And I never liked this nickname, but some people nicknamed it "The Duck." Tell me about your running style, and have you seen anyone come close to trying to run the way that you did?

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MR. JOHNSON: No. I mean, everybody runs differently. I just happen to run dramatically different than most people.

[Laughter]

MR. JOHNSON: But we found out--which my coach always suspected that while my running style was different, he always suspected that it was one of the advantages and one of the things that helped me to run as fast as I could. And once we worked with our sports science team and realized that that was indeed an advantage, then we started to do more things to actually, you know, from a strength training standpoint, from a force production standpoint, do more things, incorporate more things into the training that helped to enhance the style and the advantages of that style even more.

But it was just a natural way I run. I'd love to say that I, you know, created that, but it wasn't something I created.

[Laughter]

MR. JOHNSON: It was something that--the way that I'd always run since I was a kid. But thankfully, I had a coach who didn't try to change it and recognize that it actually was an advantage, because I didn't know. I was just running the way that I run.

And when I was being recruited out of high school, all of the coaches that were recruiting me were saying, you know, "You're going to need to change your running style to reach your full potential," which I was absolutely willing to do because I was willing to do whatever it took to be world class. But thankfully, my coach thought, "No, we're not going to mess with your running style. We think it works," and ultimately it did.

MR. BREWER: The 200 and the 400, those are your specialties. When we think of sprinters, we think of the 100 being the sexiest race. Like, what drew you to those two events? And then there has just been a spike in popularity in both of those since '96, and do you consider that part of your legacy?

MR. JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, it's definitely one of the things that I'm proud of, but at the same time, again, it wasn't something that I just set out to create. My talent just happened to--you learn as an athlete where your talent lies, you know, and it's very specific. You would think that, oh, if you're a sprinter, you run the 100, you can run the 200. Some 100-meter runners are just not very good at the 200. Some 200-meter runners are just not very good at the 100. Same thing with 400. So, you know, you find out very quickly where your talent lies. Even the traditional sprinter, the Carl Lewises and Jesse Owens, who would double in the 100 and 200, which became a very traditional double, each one of them were always better at one of those events than they were at the other. They weren't as good at both.

But there was no one--before I started running the 200 and 400, there were no men that do that, and this wasn't a very popular thing.

But I always remind people or give them at least a little bit of a history lesson that I was inspired by Valerie Brisco-Hooks, who was the Olympic champion in 1984 in the 200 meters and 400 meters and doesn't get enough credit, because that was 12 years before I even did it, and just a phenomenal athlete.

So when I came along as a college athlete and I was a 200-meter runner first, that was my only event, just 200 meters. I wasn't a 400-meter runner, but I was on our 4x400-meter relay and always had the fastest splits. I knew I could run the 400 meters if I wanted to, and--but it wasn't something that was normal. Most people didn't do that. But I knew from watching the 1984 Olympics, watching Valerie Brisco win the 200 and 400 at the Olympics and thought, you know, it is possible.

And Tommie Smith, who was the '68 Olympic champion in the 200 meters, could have been the Olympic champion, I believe, in the 400, because he was just as fast. And if you look at the times--I was always studying the history of the sport, and I remember looking to see, oh, Tommie Smith, great 200-meter runner, and then I'm looking at the 400-meter list of times and see Tommie Smith over there as a sub-44-second, 400-meter runner. I'm like, wow, I didn't even know he was a 400-meter runner. So I'd seen that people had done it before me.

But yeah, when I did it and won it on the biggest stage, in the 200 and 400, then, yeah, you started to see after that, more people realizing that it is a possible double and that you could do both.

MR. BREWER: Michael, I got to tell you, similar to Valerie inspiring you, you inspired me. I was in middle school in '92. So I wanted to run the 200 on my middle school team. Track coach saw me. He's like, "You know what? I think 400, 800, 1500 is more your range," and now I'm a sports writer, so--

[Laughter]

MR. BREWER: I want to transition and ask you about Grand Slam Track. How did the concept come together? How did the funding come together?

MR. JOHNSON: Yeah. So the concept first, this is something that, you know, having been in and around the sport since I retired--so first as an athlete at a sports agency at one point representing athletes, helping them with their careers. I've been a television pundit and commentator for BBC for 22 years now, so seeing the sport from a television standpoint as well. I've seen where this sport struggles in relation to other sports and certainly saw it during my own time as an athlete, realizing that, you know, once I--things changed dramatically for me as an athlete after the '96 Olympics, only because I made history in those Olympics when everyone was watching an Olympics in my own country. That changed everything for me, and I was able to transcend the sport and do very well and be recognized as well, not just financially but, you know, recognition of my talent and my accomplishments and people watching the sport to watch me.

That all changed after '96, but every athlete in this sport doesn't have that opportunity, and it's very, very difficult for them. But they're just as talented, just as great of an athlete. They're doing amazing things.

You know, one of the things that Noah Lyles said last year that, you know, I think was lost in the whole NBA thing was that it is very difficult to win a world championship. It's very difficult to win an Olympic medal, and I don't think that people really truly understand that and understand how great these athletes are because they're not seen very often. You're seen once every four years, and then, you know, everyone who will watch this Olympics in Paris here and watch these great athletes will watch it. There's high stakes. You get the backstories of who they are, and they're big--they're the superstar athletes. They're the biggest, best athletes in the world.

But then after this, you will have to wait another four years to see this again, and that then creates a situation where the fans of track and field are disappointed because they're not seeing the athletes compete. They want to see more head-to-head, great competition. The athletes are disappointed because they're not compensated or recognized at the level of other professional athletes even though they're just as good.

So what I saw is an opportunity to provide to fans what they want, what they're looking for, and to reward athletes, and just like any other sport, you know, Grand Slam Track, we sit at the intersection of the athlete and the fan. Without fans, athletes are not going to, you know, have a sport. You're not going to be compensated. You're not going to be recognized for your talent, and so what we are doing with Grand Slam Track is providing that sort of entertainment to fans and opportunities for athletes.

So we've built this in the mold of the four tennis Grand Slams, the four golf majors, those four tentpole events every year that fans look forward to where there's high-stakes, superstar athletes, head-to-head competition, and jeopardy, you know, and all of the things that make for an entertaining sports spectacle.

MR. BREWER: Michael, we're starting to run low on time. There's so much I want to get to with you, but I got to ask you, we've already talked about how no one runs like you, and no one kind of runs like anybody, I guess, in general. But which runner reminds you of yourself? So I'm talking about mentality, student of the game. It doesn't have to be someone who just runs the 200 and 400.

MR. JOHNSON: I think there's a couple right now, actually. I think Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, she is a very--she's obviously a student of her event, the 400-meter hurdles. She doesn't put limits on herself. She, you know, focuses on, you know, putting the records out there as far as she believes, you know, she can go, not just she doesn't run to the level of the competition. She runs to, you know, the level of her potential, and she takes a very methodical approach to it. And she loves racing, and we're thrilled that she's the first athlete that I signed to the Grand Slam Track. And she's an ambassador for us, and we're thrilled to have her. But I love watching her compete because I understand how seriously she takes it, and--yeah. And she's got that sort of focus, level of focus and that pursuit of excellence that I remember having myself.

And I think Noah a bit as well because, you know, Noah wants all eyes on him, and he says, you know, to the world, "I'm going to do this, you know, amazing thing," that's a big, audacious goal, and then he goes out there, and he delivers on it. And he wants all eyes on him while he's doing it, and that's how I was, you know, yep, saying, "Hey, I'm going to go out here and make history at the Olympics, and I'm going to wear gold shoes." You better be unafraid to do that, and that I was unafraid. I knew what the backlash would be if I didn't win gold, wearing gold shoes, and Noah knows what the backlash is going to be if he's going out saying all of these things if he doesn't win, and he's unafraid.

MR. BREWER: Where are the gold shoes now, Michael?

MR. JOHNSON: I have--I have some of them. My coach has one of them. There's some at the Nike headquarters. I wore a different shoe in each one of those races in '96, so there were--and I had eight races, so there were more than just one. It wasn't the same shoe every race. I wore a different pair every race. So they're sort of scattered.

MR. BREWER: 19.32 seconds. That was the world record that you set in '96. You know, obviously, Usain Bolt came and did his thing, but for a sprinter, that record stood for quite a long time. How proud of you, were you of 19.32 seconds, and where does that--where does that stand on--was that your greatest race, your greatest accomplishment in track and field, or something else?

MR. JOHNSON: I mean, it's certainly up there. I think, you know, records are special, I mean, because the process to break a world record is--you know, it's a very difficult process, and in many cases, it takes years.

I broke the 200-meter world record six years after I first believed that I could, but the 400, my 400- world record, which I broke in 1999, that took me eight years, almost nine years. From the time that I believed and realized that I could break the world record, it took me nine years to get there. So, you know, that process and then everything that it took, working with my coach and with my team to break that world record, that's something that, you know--that's why once a world record is broken, nothing changes--or at least for me, it didn't, because it's not the holding of the record or how long you hold it that makes it special. For me, it's the process of having done it and knowing what it took.

In terms of what I'm most proud of, it's not--it's not any one thing. What I'm most proud of is the consistency and longevity of my career. I don't have any silver medals; I don't have any bronze medals. I got to every championship relatively healthy. There was a couple that I'm really proud of because I wasn't completely healthy, and I was still able to win the gold, and so that's what I'm most proud of is that consistency that I was able to go to every one of those championships and win a gold medal. And I started winning gold medals at the very beginning of my career and finished it at the end winning gold.

MR. BREWER: What a career it was. Unfortunately, we're out of time, so we'll have to leave it there. Michael Johnson, thank you for joining me today.

MR. JOHNSON: Absolutely, enjoyed it.

MR. BREWER: And thanks to all of you for watching. For more of these important conversations, consider getting the Washington Post subscription. Get a free trial by visiting WashingtonPost.com/live.

I'm Jerry Brewer, and thank you for joining Washington Post Live.

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