Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
\ As they were being honored as the best, track stars Gail Devers and Michael Johnson took time Tuesday to think about another Olympian kept from showing that she, too, was a champion.
Devers and Johnson, named sportswoman and sportsman of the year, respectively, by the U.S. Olympic Committee, said the attack Thursday on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan left them more aware of the dangers world-class athletes face in a violent society.
"It's something strange, that people are out there who want to hurt people," Devers said.
A favorite for the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in February, Kerrigan was struck on the right knee with a club or metal bar by an unknown attacker as she left a practice rink at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. The injury knocked her out of the competition, but officials put her on the Olympic team and doctors said Monday she could resume skating within a week.
"I felt really bad for her," Devers said. "She had worked all her life to get to that point, and then when she reached that point . . . it must be devastating for her. I hope she comes back and wins the Olympics."
While distressed, Devers and Johnson said that attacks such as those on Kerrigan and tennis star Monica Seles in April would not drive them off the track.
"It doesn't make me paranoid," Johnson said. "I thought about it after Seles was injured, and with it happening again so soon, I have to be a little more careful."
Said Devers, "I'm just going to live my life."
That's something Devers has been doing to the fullest during the past two years, overcoming a healthy dose of adversity herself.
After being bedridden and on the verge of having her feet amputated because of Grave's disease, Devers came back to win the women's 100 meters at the Barcelona Olympics and just miss the gold in the 100 hurdles when she fell near the finish line.
In 1993, she won the world indoor championships in the 60 meters and took the 100 and hurdles titles at the outdoor championships, becoming the first person since Fanny Blankers-Koen in 1948 to sweep the events at an Olympics or world championship event.
"At the beginning of each year I set goals, and I was very satisfied with 1993 because I met most of those goals, especially doing the double at the world championships," she said.
For 1994, Devers said she would concentrate on the mechanics of hurdling.
Johnson plans to take a different tack in '94.
The 1993 world champion in the 400 meters and a world-class competitor in the 200, Johnson said his season would be focused on those two distances indoors but switch to the 100 once he moves outdoors.
"I will not concentrate too much on being No. 1 in the world in the 200 and 400," he said. It will be a different story in '95, however, when the next world championships come around, and Johnson wants to match Devers' double feat.
"She's definitely done something I'd like to do - be a double world champion," he said. "That's a great accomplishment, especially considering the obstacles she has overcome. I know how hard it is to go out and train when I'm healthy."
by CNB