Still the fastest: American track stars take center stage and regain mythical title given to world's top sprinters - 1997 World Track and Filed Championships - Brief Article

Ebony, Oct, 1997

It used to be automatic, the hoisting of the U.S. flag and the crowning of Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph or Bob Hayes and Wyomia Tyus or Carl Lewis and Evelyn Ashford and Florence Griffith Joyner as the fastest man or the fastest woman in the world.

But all that changed dramatically as men and women from other countries sprinted to the head of the pack in the early '90s. Many had trained in the United States and were beginning to best Americans -- physically and mentally -- on a regular basis. Before long, they had yanked records, titles, endorsement deals, world championships, Olympic medals and bragging rights away from the African-American masters. The world watched as America lost the 100 meters in the 1995 world championships and at the 1996 Olympics. Then there was a Canadian dusting America's golden boy with the gold-colored shoes in a $1 million race earlier this year.

In one of the world's most inculpable sports, U.S. athletes were full of excuses -- "I was hurt; he was doped up; I wasn't motivated; it was her day." But many began to wonder if, in reality, it was a classic case of the followers having followed the leader for so long that they knew the leader's every move. Just when the sport was beginning to emerge from small tracks and a few diehard fans to large arenas and worldwide television audiences, stories were proliferating that maybe the long reign of great African-American sprinters was over.

But it took two virtually unknowns a little more than 20 seconds and 200 meters between them for it to become obvious that the reports of the death of American track were greatly exaggerated. On a cool summer night at the Spyridon Louis Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, Maurice Green and Marion Jones put the United States back on top of the sprinting world.

At the sixth World Track and Field Championships in August, Greene of Kansas City, Kan., captured the men's 100 meters in 9.86 seconds, and Marion Jones of Los Angeles took the women's 100 in 10.83 seconds. In doing so, they not only re-established U.S. dominance in the sport, but took America to new heights. (No country had ever won both events at the world championships, and not since Jim Hines and Tyus took gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City had any country had a man and woman to win the 100 meters in any un-boycotted event.) "We are jumping for joy," says Pete Cava of the USA Track & Field Association. "We're on cloud nine."

Greene's victory over Olympic champion and world-recordholder Donovan Bailey of Canada equaled the third-fastest 100 meters ever run. The 23-year-old had promised to carry AMerican sprinting on his back, and he delivered, not only beating Bailey but the Olympic silver medalist Frank Fredericks of Namibia and bronze winner Ato Boldon of Trinidad as well.

"I was tired of hearing people saying we were down, we were dying, that our time was past and it was all over," says the 5-foot-9 Greene during a post-race press conference in Greece. "I never really believed that. I though it was just a matter of somebody standing up and saying he was going to put us back on top. I think this should say something to the world."

Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Jones, who had finished fifth in the 100 meters at the 1992 Olympic Track and Field trials, missing a spot on the 1992 Olympic Team as a 16-year-old by just .07 of a second, recorded the fastest she had ever run. Tall, attractive and photogenic, Jones is being compared to Florence Griffith Joyner and Wilma Rudolph. Because she is also a worldclass long jumper, having dethroned Jackie Joyner-Kersee at the national championships in Indianapolis, she is being called the next Carl Lewis.

A track star and basketball standout at the University of North Carolina, Jones earned six All-American honors in track and field during her four years in Chapel Hill and helped lead the Tar Heels to a national championship in basketball in 1994. " This [world track] championship is on the top of my list and a lot higher than my basketball career," says Jones, who is known for her trademark fast start and powerful running style. "I'm definitely here to stay for may years.... In my mind, I am the world's fastest woman."

With the right preparation, the right attitude, a little luck and a few good starts, maybe America's sprinting dominance -- and the much-coveted title of fastest man and fastest woman in the world -- will be here to stay for many years.