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Thursday, September 21
Jones, Johnson, Freeman squarely in spotlight
By Bob Baum
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- In the big stadium that has stood empty
in the middle of the action at Olympic Park for a week, Marion
Jones will launch a quest so bold that it has been labeled foolish,
even greedy.
|  | | Michael Johnson celebrated his 400-meter win in Sacramento. Will he have a repeat in Sydney? |
Five golds -- a feat accomplished in Olympic track and field only
once, by Finland's Paavo Nurmi 76 years ago.
Since she was a pigtailed girl outrunning the boys in her
neighborhood, Jones has expected to win everything. She's not going
to change now.
"I am not saying that I am a superwoman," she said. "I have
heard all these terms describing me. I am not invincible.
"I am running fast and confident. I am at the Olympic Games. I
am 24 years old. It doesn't get much better than that."
Jones and America's other two mighty M's -- Maurice Greene and
Michael Johnson -- will make appearances Friday as eight days of
triumphs, tragedies, upsets and upheaval get off to a flying start.
Jones and Greene will run in the 100-meter preliminaries,
Johnson in the opening round of the 400.
This U.S. team may be weaker than the juggernauts that dominated
Atlanta and Barcelona. The medal count could be down because of a
lack of depth, a rash of injuries and Olympic trials stumbles.
Yet there is the potential for plenty of gold, led by Jones, who
in her first Olympics will compete in the 100, 200 and long jump,
as well as the 400- and 1,600-meter relays.
Johnson knows what it is like to be "the" story of the games.
Four years ago in Atlanta, he was under intense attention as he
became the first to win both the 200 and 400 in a single Olympics,
smashing the 200 record in the process.
"It's a lot of pressure. It is difficult to handle at times,"
he said. "I think the best thing that Marion can do is surround
herself with people who understand what she is trying to achieve,
and who have experience in dealing with these kinds of things."
Johnson had experienced Olympic pressure before. This is all new
to Jones. She had a chance to compete in the relay preliminaries as
a 17-year-old in 1992 in Barcelona, but decided against it because
she wanted to earn her first gold on her own. She missed out in
Atlanta because of a basketball injury.
Jones faces an exhausting schedule -- the first and second rounds
of the 100 on Friday and the 100 semifinals and finals on Saturday.
After three days off, she's back next Wednesday for the first two
rounds of the 200 along with the qualifying in her weakest event,
the long jump.
Next Thursday, it's the semifinals and finals in the 200. On
Friday, she has the long jump finals, but probably won't have to
take part in the preliminaries of the two relays. The last
Saturday, it's the finals in the two relays.
A tall order for the young woman who, at age 8, wrote "I want
to be an Olympic champion" on the chalkboard in her room.
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“ |
It's a lot of pressure. It is difficult to handle at times. I think the best thing that Marion can do is surround
herself with people who understand what she is trying to achieve,
and who have experience in dealing with these kinds of things.
” |
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Michael Johnson on Marion Jones
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"It may be hard for a lot of people to understand what Marion
is trying to do, but most athletes understand what she is trying to
do," Johnson said. "You know you are capable in your mind of
winning every event you compete in. You want to go out there and do
that. I think that she would be disappointed if she had decided
coming in here, that 'I am not going to do one of my events.' "
"I think she felt like she would be disappointed sitting on the
sidelines watching the events she was to go in."
The U.S. team could have been much stronger. Greene and Johnson
both pulled up lame in the 200 in the trials. Jeff Hartwig, the
top-ranked pole vaulter in the world, failed to clear an opening
height in the pole vault, and defending decathlon gold medalist Dan
O'Brien pulled out with an injury.
C.J. Hunter, 1999 world champion in the shot put and Jones'
husband, is out following arthroscopic knee surgery. Regina Jacobs,
among the favorites in the women's 1,500, had to withdraw because
of a respiratory ailment.
In Sydney, there was more misfortune. Inger Miller, Jones'
biggest challenger in the sprints and a key member of the 400-relay
team, pulled out of the 100 with a hamstring strain and is
questionable for the other two events.
Yet holdovers remain. Allen Johnson tries to repeat as gold
medalist in the 110-meter hurdles. Gail Devers, the gold medalist
in the 100 in Atlanta, will try to win her first gold in the
110-meter hurdles.
New faces will emerge. Adam Nelson, a 25-year-old Dartmouth alum
who is the top-ranked shot putter in the world, could be the first
U.S. track gold medalist on Friday. World record holder Stacy
Dragila is a heavy favorite to win the first women's Olympic pole
vault.
Greene, also in his first Olympics, is approaching it with his
customary confidence and says a world record is within reach.
"This is the biggest stage you can be on," he said, "and I
like to say the bigger the stage, the better I perform."
A relaxed Johnson is enjoying is lowered status at what he
promises will be his final Olympics. He wants to break the
43-second barrier, but will satisfied with gold in the 400 and in
the 1,600-meter relay. No male runner has repeated as Olympic 400
champion.
The host Australians will focus on the women's 400, where Cathy
Freeman, the aboriginal hero who lit the Olympic torch in a moving
conclusion to the opening ceremony, will face reclusive Frenchwoman
Marie-Jose Perec, the two-time defending Olympic champion who has
run just one 400 in the last four years.
The Australian press has been merciless in its criticism of
Perec and unbridled in its adoration of Freeman. Both will run
Friday.
Let the drama begin.
|  | |
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