Maurice
simply has more will to win
James Dunaway for the
IAAF
6 August 2001 – Edmonton - John Smith is, of course,
the coach of Maurice Greene, winner of Sunday’s thrilling 100-metre final at the
World Championships – just coincidentally Smith’s birthday, too. But that’s kind
of a sideline. John’s day job is coaching UCLA’s sprinters.His boss at UCLA is
Art Venegas, who also has a sideline coaching throwers such as world shotput
champion John Godina.
Of course, Venegas sees quite a bit of Maurice, since Greene trains on the UCLA track. And one day when he was talking about Greene, Venegas said, “Maurice Greene has more will to win than any athlete I have ever seen.”
Today, Greene needed every bit of that will to win to conquer not only a sizzling challenge from a completely remodeled Tim Montgomery, but also an attack of muscle twinges and cramps which might have beaten anyone else.
By now, of course, you know that Greene won his third consecutive world championship at 100 metres, and that he won it in 9.82 seconds, a foot or so ahead of Montgomery’s 9.85.
And you probably know that the 9.82 is the third fastest 100 in history, bettered only by Greene’s 9.79 world record and his 9.80 winning the world championship two years ago in Sevilla.
But that doesn’t begin to tell the story. Greene, after a good start, had taken command of the race at 40 metres, and by 80 metres had established a lead of a full metre over Montgomery. Nobody else was close.
Suddenly, with 20 metres to go, Greene’s stride became irregular, and it looked for a moment as if he might not make it to the line first. “I felt something in my quad,” said Greene after the race. “But I said to myself, ‘No, I’m not gonna let that stop me.’ And then I felt something in my hamstring, and I said, ‘I’m not gonna let that stop me.’ Basically, in a race like this one I’m not gonna let anything stop me.”
Montgomery made up most of the space between them, but Greene crow-hopped his final steps, slowing visibly but never thinking of stopping before he stopped the photocell at 9.82.
“I’d have killed myself to finish the race,” he said just after limping around a victory lap carrying a large American flag.
He later expanded on his fierce competitiveness. “No one is going to give you the gold medal,” he said. “You have to come out her and fight for it, and be willing to actually die for it.
“I’m just thankful for being able to finish the race the way I did and that I was able to pull it out. We had eight fast guys out there, and everyone is coming for one thing—the gold medal. But I’m not going to give it to them; they’re going to have to take it.
“This is just so sweet, when you put a lot of pressure on yourself and you come through and you win. That’s great.”
It would have been even greater if Greene’s left leg hadn’t acted up. For 80 metres he was on his way to a new world record. If he had held his one-metre margin on Montgomery through the finish, his time would have been a full tenth of a second faster than Montgomery’s 9.85. That would make it 9.75, four one-hundredths under Greene’s current world standard of 9.79.
I hollered at John Smith a few minutes after the race, and asked if it was worth 9.75. Hurrying to accompany Greene to the doping control, he shouted back over his shoulder, “Yes, or better!”
Only one person in the stadium seemed unconvinced: Tim Montgomery. He blamed himself for a false start (one of three), which he says, cost him the gold medal. “I knew that to beat Maurice you have to beat him at the start. And I was trying to beat him. But after the false start, I had given him too much.
I was gaining on him at the end. I just ran out of room.”
He’s not a sore loser; just a sprinter. He then proceeded to issue a challenge. “I came here to break a world record, and I beat myself. But Maurice, I’ll be at Zurich, at Brussells, at Goodwill—wherever you want to race.!”
Greene said he definitely will not run the 200 metres here, and would decide on the 4x400 relay later in the week. “I’m not gonna run the relay unless I’m 100 per cent. I’m not gonna let my ego get in the way of the U.S. winning the gold medal.”
One begins to wonder if the limits to speed are the limits to what flesh and blood can stand. Remember how long it took for Michael Johnson to recover fully from his19.32 200 metres in Atlanta?
There’s no doubt in my mind that Maurice can run 9.75, or even faster. He has the speed, and the strength of will, to do it. But I’m beginning to wonder if his body, or anyone’s body, can go that fast and stay in one piece.
