donovan bailey talked a big game for someone who was so easily forgotten and whose records didn't last.
seriously, what did people do before YOUTUBE?
run?
Bailey ate him alive.
All the guys that win talk a big game and strutt around like ass clowns.
There has to be a guy at some point who was not so cocky
Bailey had a world record and won Olympic gold; actually two since Canada won the 4x100 that year. He is legit and will not be forgotten. He had already made up the stagger when Johnson pulled his ham. I actually was there; it was pretty cool! It doesn't diminish the fact Johnson is one of the greatest 200/400 runners ever.
"one of the greatest 200.400 runners every"
o well thats hard to figure out since he does have the 200 and 400 world records i think thats enough to say he is the best at them events not just one of the best. i mean he has the fastest times in both events that speaks for himself
THis argument always comes up when people just use world records to determine the greatest ever. If it was that easy we'd never debate it!
Is Johnson better than Jesse Owens for example? Bekele better than Zatopek? Because of training methods , equipment , tracks etc. we don't just say the curretn world record holder is the best ever. Of course a very good arguement could be made for Johnson being the greatest 200/400 ever but I would site his won/loss record and championship performances not times.
i remember watching the race as a kid and i didnt really get track then... i just thought MJ got hurt... but Donovan actually smoked him on the curve he was gonna kill him...
its hard to tell if MJ was favoring his leg from the start or if he pulled up when he saw Bailey destroying him... i mean beating MJ on the curve like that is no small feat...
it really looked like he f***ed up his left leg from the start. He got out ridiculously slow and did you see his left leg flopping all over the place coming off the turn. Probably was already injured before the race, but I bet there were appearance fees and it's probably hard to turn down the chance to win a million dollars in one race.
I wanna see Marion Jones race a horse. You wouldn't know which one is Marion and which one is the horse with all them steroids she has in her body.
JooJooBee wrote:
I wanna see Marion Jones race a horse. You wouldn't know which one is Marion and which one is the horse with all them steroids she has in her body.
No, I'm pretty sure you could tell if she was a horse or not..
uhh mj has more than one olympic gold, and world championship gold. he dominated two events for years and no one could, or has yet to, touch his times in his events
Its always the last 30 meters or so of a 200 that sprinters slow down (esp. 100m guys). This is understandable considering their poor aerobic development and the draining effects of running 500 feet at roughly 30 ft. per second pace, 300 or so of that around a curve. While not exhausted, their legs are essentially empty of the phosphates and electrolytes needed for a max effort. This last part of the 200 is when the legs start changing over from phosphates to Glycogen for feul, complicating nervous stimulation.
MJ would always be ahead after the curve but not by much, he would pull away extensively in the last 50m. Basically he did not slow down. His 400m strength was just enough to carry him through against faster opponents (he never broke 10, most of the runners he competed against in the 200 demolished 10 seconds) and it seems he was the 'perfect' 200m runner. The fact that this race finished at the point where slowing down begins DB would most likely have won because it wasn't long enough to remove that 'sting' from him.
If MJ won it would be by a considerably small margin, and DB would be fighting him every cm. 9.84 is a fast pr, and his 150 slowing down and looking back was still 15.00, which easily equates to a 19.8-9 200m. MJ never should have run this race, its comparable to Seb Coe (read 800m specialist capable of 1:42 low) racing Jeremy Wariner (400m specialist* under 44.5) over 600m.
I agree with this post. Well said.
"poor aerobic development?"
Well, sorta well said. I mean, that's the treat isn't it? Race a 400m specialist against an 800m specialist over 600m, who would win. Shit, I'd pay money to see that race. Donovan Bailey was exceptional over 100m, not as good as MJ over 200, so the race distance of 150 was agreed on. Theoretically they should have tied the race: DB hanging on for dear life after 100m and MJ closing the gap. Who knows who woulda won if MJ hadn't gotten "injured". I remember watching the race on tv and it appeared that MJ chicken-shitted out when he saw DB accelerating away on the turn. He knew closing speed or not, he was gonna lose the race. My opinion I'd say 8 times outa 10 DB would have beaten him.
how come there was a 150m world record listed at the bottom of the screen? when was it run as an event before the bailey vs. johnson race?
In some of the big meets in europe in the summer they used to run more off distance races more as training and with less pressure because it was an off distance.
THe whole D. Bailey and MJ thing started because the winner of the 100 is usually given the title "Worlds Fastest Human". After the 1996 Olympics some people were saying that MJ averaged 9.66 per 100m making him the fastest human because Bailey only ran 9.84! Of course the concept of the flying start and the blocks being the slowest part of the race and the average 100 of the WR for the 200 is always faster than the 100WR was lost on these people.