ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
Michael Johnson made Olympic annals as expected Thursday night. That, however, won't be the memory he scorched into track and field history.
Writing his own version of "Gone With the Wind'' in an apropos location, Johnson broke his world record for 200 meters and won his second gold medal of the Atlanta Games.
In 19.32 seconds.
It's OK to gasp. A record crowd of 82,884 at Olympic Stadium surely did.
The U.S. sprinter became the first male in Olympic history to win the 200 and 400 in the same Games.
Of course, that had been done before, by a woman - in the race right before Johnson and his followers marched onto the track.
Marie-Jose Parec of France won the women's 200 after getting 400 gold earlier in the week, matching the 1984 double by Valerie Briscoe-Hooks of the U.S. at the Los Angeles Games.
So, Johnson, 28, produced something even more special from lane 3 of the fast Atlanta track, bending, folding and mutilating the 19.66 he ran on the same surface on June 23 in the Olympic Trials.
Perhaps something this spectacular should have been expected from the Texas tornado. After all, he ran a 20.28 in his semifinal heat earlier in the evening, and Johnson didn't have any of his top challengers chasing him. He jogged about the last 50 meters.
"I got a lot more than I expected,'' Johnson said. "A 19.3, I can't even imagine that. I thought a 19.5 or maybe a 19.4 might be possible on a good day.
"The crowd was just incredible. It's been great all week. They deserved to see a world record, and I was glad to give it to them.''
Johnson, the only American in history to run the 200 in under 20 seconds, finished .36 seconds in front of silver-medal winner Frankie Fredericks of Namibia as a longtime rivalry continued. Fredericks' 19.68 clocking is the third fastest in the history of the sport. Asked if he could comment on Johnson's 19.32, Fredericks just laughed and shook his head.
"I thought Michael's 19.66 was absolutely incredible,'' Fredericks said. "A 19.32 ... This might be a record that stands as long as people run.''
Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago ran a 19.80, becoming only the third man in 200 history to break 20 seconds, and all the UCLA student could manage was the bronze.
Johnson's winning margin was the largest for a men's Olympic 200 since Jesse Owens (20.7) beat Mack Robinson (21.1) in a 1-2 U.S. finish in 1936.
Johnson's first individual gold medal was accompanied by an Olympic record Monday night, when he blistered the rest of the field in the 400, at 43.49. He has won 55 consecutive races at that distance.
You'd never know it by his Olympic torching, but Johnson hasn't been quite so invincible at the 200.
Fredericks, a Namibia native who lives in London and is a Brigham Young graduate, beat Johnson in the 200 last month at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, by .03 second, with a 19.82 clocking.
Three days later in Stockholm, Sweden, Johnson won in 19.77, which was the world mark until his Trials run.
Fredericks has beaten Johnson eight of 24 times at the distance since the NCAA championships in Durham, N.C., in 1990.
Johnson had successfully lobbied the International Track and Field Federation for a change in the Olympic schedule, giving him more time between the 400 and 200.
After his 400 gold, the former NCAA champion from Baylor University said the 200 was his kind of race. "I do what comes natural to me, just sprint,'' he said. "Go all out.''
Johnson, who won a gold medal at the Barcelona Games four years ago as a member of the U.S. 4 x 400 relay team, had to scratch from the 200 at the semifinal stage after a bout with food poisoning.
"I wanted to make history,'' he said. "There was great competition out there, and this was the one I really wanted, the one I didn't get in Barcelona.''
He is not on the 4 x 400 team in these Games - yet.
When Johnson made the solo turn on the staggered start, his gold left earring was dangling, his gold chain necklace was flapping and his gold-shoed feet were flying.
He knew he had a world record when he crossed the finish line, mouth and eyes open wide.
The astounding time wasn't what was important, Johnson said.
"Definitely, the fact that I was the first man to win the two [200 and 400] in the same Olympics is the big thing to me,'' Johnson said. "No one else has done that.
"A lot of people can say they have world records. No one else [male] in the history of the Olympics can say they did what I did tonight.'' He was talking about his Olympic double. Everyone else was talking about something else.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Michael Johnson holds the U.S. flag aloft afterby CNBsetting a world record with his gold-medal performance in the men's
200-meter final Thursday night in Atlanta. color