THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608030553
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Olympics 1996: From AtlantA
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 84 lines
When his right thigh knocked the crossbar off its perch, and both it and Lawrence Johnson fell to earth, it was almost anti-climactic. Johnson didn't want to believe it, but his first bid for an Olympic gold medal had gone bust a half-hour before at the Olympic Stadium vaulting pit.
Until then, it had been a good Friday night final, nothing like his erratic qualifying round Wednesday. Chesapeake's Johnson had cleared three heights in three attempts, and in fact was the first in the field to sail over 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches.
The crowd was large and boisterous. And Johnson was primed, not to mention resplendent in his wrap-around sunglasses and his so-called ``space suit,'' a full-length, blue-and-white body-hugging number zippered to the throat.
``I thought I was in there,'' Johnson said. ``I thought I was definitely on my way to the gold.''
But the bar moved to 19-0 1/4, and suddenly Johnson was missing badly - first falling under the bar, and then, strangely, not leaping in far enough on his second attempt and falling in front of the bar.
Facing a third and final attempt to stay alive, just as he faced two third attempts Wednesday, Johnson heard the pop. Not his sore right ankle. Not a hamstring or quad or any other of his sculpted muscles.
The vaulting equipment. It broke. As Germany's Michael Stolle failed on his third try at 19-0 1/4, he came down on top of the bar and snapped the bar support from the standard that framed the right side of the landing mat.
Johnson, 22, was the next vaulter. The men told him it would take about 15 minutes to fix. They wound up carting off both standards and wheeling out new ones. They pushed them up. They tinkered and measured and re-aligned.
Johnson sat and fidgeted and did little jogs to try and keep loose. But when 15 minutes turned to 30, you knew Johnson was finished.
The guy's got guts, he proved that Wednesday. Nobody's ever used his name and the word ``choke'' in the same sentence. But how much can one man stand? When you're down to one shot to keep your Olympic goal within reach, how much pressure can you swallow?
Under these conditions, a clearance by Johnson would've been remarkable.
He never had a chance. Johnson clapped his hands and pumped his fist at the top of the runway, and the crowd of 80,000-plus roared like a departing jet as Johnson rumbled toward the pit. He went up, but only halfway over, and you saw the despair on his face before he even landed.
The equipment failure gave Johnson an excuse. An excuse he never used.
``I can't say it was the wait,'' said Johnson, the American record-holder. ``It took a lot out, but I still should've cleared on the first attempt. So I shouldn't have been in that situation.
``Things are always going to come up. You have to be able to deal with it. I told myself I've performed a 19-foot vault numerous times in practice. And now was the time to pull it out.''
After warmups and his first three vaults, Johnson figured he maybe had even 19-8 in him. He felt that good. He'd had to peak three times since the spring, first for the NCAA championships, which he won, and then the Olympic Trials, which he won.
Doing it a third time wasn't easy, but it was in the wind. It's all Johnson could think about. Which is why his failure left him somewhat lost for words. He never expected it.
``I don't really even know how I feel,'' Johnson said. ``I came in here with high expectations, winning the gold medal. That's the only thing I saw, the only thing I was considering.''
The gold finally went to France's Jean Galfione, who cleared an Olympic-record 19-5 with fewer previous misses than silver medalist Igor Trandenkov of Russia and bronze medalist Andrei Tivontchik of Germany.
Johnson finished eighth, better than his two American teammates, and better than you or probably anybody you know will ever finish in the Olympics. He'll go to more Games.
But he left these walking alone down a corridor inside Olympic Stadium, equipment bag over his right shoulder. Head up. Heart breaking.
``I'm pretty upset and disappointed for myself,'' Johnson said. ``At the same time, there are a lot of people out there supporting me and a lot of people out there that believed in me. And I can't help but feel as though I let them down also.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Lawrence Johnson started by clearing three heights in three attempts
and ``thought I was definitely on my way to the gold.''
KEYWORDS: OLYMPICS 1996 by CNB