THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608040246
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 77 lines
There is a God, and he is not named Carl Lewis after all. The U.S. Olympic track coaches rightly rebuffed Lewis' crass bid to bully his way onto the 4x100 relay team Saturday for what he assumed would be a record 10th gold medal of his career.
You might have heard that the Lewis-less Americans were later run off the track by Donovan Bailey and the Canadians. This was not because Lewis and his 35-year-old legs didn't anchor the U.S. team. This was because Canada's foursome was indomitable for the 37.69 seconds it took them to carry a baton once around the Olympic track.
``The USA relay team were on their home turf and concerned so much with whether or not Carl Lewis would be on their team that they forgot other teams were running, too,'' Bailey reminded everybody after he and his mates completed the swiftest 4x100 ever run in the United States.
No question the U.S. men, who clocked a 38.05 for second place, did not deserve the chaos created by Lewis' write-in campaign, which turned the event into a media sideshow. It was a ridiculous distraction.
Hindsight says they might have been doomed by lesser ability, anyway, to becoming the first U.S. team to lose a Olympic 4x100 in which it did not drop the baton.
Tim Montgomery will never believe that. Lewis didn't run, but Montgomery's absence might have been more hurtful than any. We'll never know, though, and that's why the Norfolk State sprinter wore such a long face behind his sunglasses after the race.
Montgomery, a relay team alternate, was some kind of sad-looking silver medalist, but that's only because he was counting on a gold. Beyond that, he figured he would actually be out there running for the gold before 80,000 people instead of inside the stadium watching his team claim a silver on TV.
Montgomery, from Gaffney, S.C., had run the third leg in the relay's first round and semifinals Friday. He was smoking both times, making up ground on his rivals before cleanly handing the stick to anchor Dennis Mitchell, who was first to the finish each heat.
Still, even discounting Lewis, if somebody was going to be dropped to make room for veteran Mike Marsh, who rested Friday from four 200-meter heats in the previous two days, it followed that Montgomery, 21, would be the first to go.
Nobody really knew the guy before he made the 100-meter final at the Olympic Trials and finished seventh. He was young and inexperienced. His day would come. But Saturday night, he took more questions than anybody about the outcome. Even more than Tim Harden, whose awkward pass to Marsh at the end of the second leg was largely blamed for the U.S. loss.
``After the performance I had yesterday, I felt I would be on the team today,'' Montgomery said. ``I came this far, why turn back now? Of course I'm disappointed. Second place is for first-place losers. Who wants to be a first-place loser?''
Montgomery said U.S. coach Erv Hunt told him Saturday morning that he was putting Marsh in the relay in his place.
``What could I say? He's the coach, I'm the athlete,'' Montgomery said. ``I just had to take it like it came. But the way I was running yesterday, why change it? Why fix something if it's not broken?
``All I could ask myself was what if? Could I have changed it? But when they crossed the finish line all I could do was drop my head.''
Just the day before, that head was filled with visions of returning to Norfolk State in a few weeks as a gold medalist. And in his heart, at least, gold is what he earned.
``I went out there and gave it my all,'' Montgomery said. ``So when I look at that silver, it's going to look like gold to me.''
So the U.S. has lost a relay, and somebody's head might roll. Sorry. Hunt still did the right thing by leaving Lewis off.
Who would've thought his real mistake might have been dumping a kid named Tim Montgomery? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jon Drummond, left, and Dennis Mitchell of the United States walk
away disappointed after taking the silver behind Canada in the men's
4x100 relay Saturday night. It's the first time the United States
has ever been beaten on the track in the event. by CNB