Duncan Mackay on the quick question that is giving athletics a touch of the twitches after Atlanta
HIS feet speak as eloquently as those of Michael Johnson or Carl Lewis, and he has a treasure trove of gold and a world record to prove it. But Donovan Bailey’s Olympic accomplishments in the 100m have been largely overshadowed in the hype surrounding Johnson’s double and Lewis’s ninth gold medal.
In Canada, however, 28-year-old Bailey’s victory in Atlanta meant they could finally start blotting out the stain of Ben Johnson’s disgrace when he tested positive after winning the 1988 Olympic gold medal. In the post-Ben era, Canadian fans had turned away from athletics.
Bailey struggled for recognition at home even after winning the world championship last year. When he returned to Canada from Gothenburg, he and two British athletes who were visiting him tried to get a local night club to waive the $5 admission fee. “I’m world champion,” Bailey said. “I don’t care, it’s still five dollars,” the doorman replied.
The corporate sponsors are now flocking to Bailey’s door.
He has signed endorsement deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from Adidas, Coca-Cola, Air Canada, Kellogg’s and Helene Curtis, and his asking price on the European Grand Prix circuit has shot up to $50,000 per appearance.
He was top of the bill at Gateshead in England last weekend when a Great Britain team, captained by Linford Christie for the last time, took on a composite International Select team.
Bailey and Christie had a public falling out earlier this year when the Canadian accused the Briton of faking injury at the world championships. The two will never be as friendly as they were, but Bailey expresses sympathy for Christie’s unlucky downfall in Atlanta when he was disqualified for two false starts. “I felt so sorry for him,” he says.
But it is hard to believe that even if Christie had not been thrown out of the Olympic final, he would have beaten Bailey, whose 9.84 seconds took one- hundredth of a second off the world record. “That man was smokin’,” says Jon Drummond, one of America’s top sprinters. “Weren’t nothing to stop Donovan that night. Nuff respect.”
The Olympic 100m champion usually can justifiably claim the title of the world’s fastest man, but Johnson’s performance in the 200m, when he covered the second 100m in an unbelievable 9.20 seconds, led Ato Boldon to say in Atlanta: “Donovan Bailey might be the world record holder, but Michael is the fastest human alive.”
If promoters can find the money, there is the possibility that Johnson and Bailey will split the difference and race over 150m. The world record for the distance of 14.8 seconds set by the Italian Pietro Mennea 13 years ago would surely be smashed. But by whom?
Bailey, all legs and shoulders, joined by an absurdly narrow 28-inch waist, can appear cumbersome but has an incredible acceleration, while Johnson’s unique upright style allows him to gobble up the ground.
“It would be a real clash of styles,” said John
Rose, an exercise physiologist from Arizona State University. “When you start a race it’s like you have a nine-volt battery. You have to use that battery wisely.
“Bailey, because he is such a long-legged guy, takes longer to unfurl and get into optimal running position, whereas Johnson seems to be able to get into his running more quickly and maintain a high cruising rate.
“As the 100m runner, Bailey may have more fast- twitch fibres — but that in itself may not be enough.
“Fast-twitch muscle fibres are to speed what hormones are to the sex drive — the physical manifestation of a rather nebulous phenomenon. Fast- twitch fibres fire quickly, burning glycogen that’s stored in the cells — a fuel supply that is readily available, but finite. Slow-twitch fibres fire slowly but continuously, burning oxygen pumped in through the blood supply.
“Though it is true that sprinters have a higher ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch fibres than the rest of us, the ratio is not an absolute indicator.
“Sprinters also need a cardiovascular system that can pump enormous amounts of blood, and thus oxygen, into the legs quickly. Johnson, as a 400m runner, would probably have a higher cardiovascular system than Bailey, and would therefore win.”‘