Ask the athlete: Michael Johnson
Who were your heroes growing up and were they the ones who inspired you to get into track and field?
My hero growing up was my dad. He taught me about hard work, which certainly came into play when I was an athlete. What I admired in him and wanted to emulate in myself was being in control. We had some difficulties as a family financially but my dad always figured it out and that’s what probably led me to being a control freak as I wanted everything to be the same.
Being in control served me well as I didn’t, or couldn’t, care about the things that I didn’t control, such as my competitors and what happened in their lane. I was only focused on my lane and in my race preparation I knew that was a contributing factor whether I’d win or not. As I got into track more as a young athlete at college, Jesse Owens became a hero as I started getting into his story. I still believe he is the greatest athlete of all time.
What one race do you regard as your very best (outside of the two gold medals that you won it Atlanta)?
Obviously, the 1999 World Championships when I got the 400m world record [43.18]. It was something that I was chasing for years. When I first ran under 44 seconds in 1992 I knew I had the potential and it took another seven years before I broke the world record. I got close so many times and it was just a matter of trial and error in races, figuring out where I could shave off time.
The 1997 World Championships was one of my favourite races and I was injured. I probably shouldn’t have been out there – I had no race preparation and my training had suffered – but I still thought I could win the World Championships.
In the final, with about 250m to go, my quad pulled on me again and I felt it go so I thought the race was over. Then, just as I was starting to slow down, it went away and I felt like I could run again and, although I was in seventh place at that moment, I still won.
That was one of my best races as it was all mental and it was about having the will that I could come back and do it. I had that armour of “that’s Michael” which meant that there were people in that race who should have beaten me but they had never beaten me. I tried to protect that feeling of invincibility at all costs.
How excited are you by 200m under-18 world record-holder Erriyon Knighton and what can he achieve in his career? Are the comparisons to Usain Bolt or yourself fair?
Erriyon Knighton is very exciting as a prospect. I say that to emphasise the fact he is still a senior at high school, even though he’s already made the Olympic team and run one of the fastest times in the 200m in history.
Obviously, he’s got huge potential but it’s about realising that before he can be considered as a Usain Bolt or someone like myself. He’ll need to transition to the senior level of the sport but he has bypassed the university level and by all indications he doesn’t need to go through the collegiate model.
He’ll need a lot of guidance. We saw that Noah Lyles did it successfully so it can be done. Whether he can be someone who can break world records and win multiple Olympic and world medals, it’ll be exciting and interesting to watch. He certainly has the potential and I see no reason why he can’t realise it. We have seen athletes with that potential and not fulfil it.
What was the biggest factor during your rehabilitation from a stroke in getting back fit and well again?
In 2018 I had a stroke. I was in really good shape at the time and I always had a good training regimen and ate healthily even after I retired. I’m probably better now than when I was in competing. I had no real family history of a stroke and it was surprising. I had just finished a training session at the gym when I had no real feeling on my left side and only went to the hospital as a precaution.
It got progressively worse and after 15-20 minutes after I arrived I could no longer walk, stand or move any fingers on my left side. It was a shocking and scary diagnosis and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to walk again.
I did make a true recovery and had to learn to walk again. You hear people say that after surgery on an ankle they had to learn to walk again but they really didn’t. The connection from the brain to their body was still there, whereas in my case the link was severed. I applied all of the things that I learned as an athlete during that rehabilitation and my mindset was to get back to my livelihood before the stroke. That was the greatest fight and battle of my life and far more important than any gold medal.
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