World champion shook off an untimely injury and first-night nerves to wipe away the legacy of Ben Johnson and deliver the Olympic 100m title for Canada, in a world record too
Olympic Games, Atlanta, July 27, 1996 – men’s 100m, first place, 9.84 (WR)
After winning the World Championships in 1995, the pressure was off for me. My entire goal was to make sure that I was prepared for the Olympic 100m final. Every single race, every single practice, was essentially trying to perfect that race.
On the circuit, not once did I care about the result or about the time. It was only about execution, only about getting out of the blocks, being consistent, standing up tall, driving in the middle of the track, so I could get to top speed, and then figuring out whether or not I needed to shut it down or work in the last part of the race.
Dan Pfaff has always been my coach, probably even today. I was very comfortable with the information he was giving me. I got bored with just training, training, training and he knew I wanted to run indoors. So he said: “Okay, you’ve got to work on getting out of the blocks and transitioning,” because I had a horrible start. I got some world records along the way over the 50m, beating guys who were world champions. It was really just working on the craft itself.
I got injured just before the Olympics. There were a lot of mind games being played. Linford Christie was the reigning champion and I respect him to the nth degree. He was fantastic at executing his race. I had beaten Linford a couple of times, but, in our last race going into the Olympics, I’m like: “There’s no way that I’m going to lose to him.”
Donovan Bailey (Mark Shearman)
He got out of the blocks. I thought: “I’m going to catch him, come hell or high water,” and in trying to do that I ended up over-striding. I flew back to see Dr Mark Lindsay. I call him “Holy Hands” because he is probably the best soft tissue specialist in the world. I believed that I was going to be okay.
He went through it all, breaking down the inflammation on a daily basis, working five to six hours per day: maybe a little weights, walking, stretching. I’d be in freezing water for five minutes and then be in boiling hot water for another five minutes. We were doing all kinds of things that allowed us to be back.
The genius of my team made sure I was spot on in terms of treatment but the number one thing already seared on my brain was that there was zero chance I…
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