For the past year, seemingly every sentence uttered or written about track & field began with BALCO or dealt with drugs. But after being convicted in the press, the Olympics’ most popular sport is looking for redemption on the track.
While Tim Montgomery’s world record and steroid-tainted career hang on a CAS hearing, girlfriend Marion Jones, sprinters Allyson Felix, Justin Gatlin, Maurice Greene and the star-studded U.S. squad hope a cathartic gold medal haul this week will cleanse track’s tarnished image.
“I think Allyson will kick [butt],” said USATF CEO Craig Masback. “She and [Dwight] Phillips are emblematic of what this team is about; the young generation that’s been overlooked stealing the show. Just as they took over the Trials, they’ll take over the Games.”
On a star-studded team that includes 28 Olympic or world champs, who is the greatest? The title World’s Greatest Athlete usually goes to the decathlon winner, but 1960 champ Rafer Johnson and 1956 champ Milt Campbell – a Plainfield (N.J.) native – said picking one is impossible.
“You usually call the winner of the decathlon the greatest all-around athlete,” Johnson said. “There are some great athletes in world, and on this team; I wouldn’t even toy with idea of picking one.”
So we didn’t. The Post quizzed some of track’s heavy hitters about this team’s most dominant stars, and came up with some interesting names.
ALLEN JOHNSON
EVENT: 110-meter hurdles
BORN: March 1, 1971, in Washington, D.C.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Irmo, S.C.
HIGHLIGHTS: 1996 Olympic gold medalist; a record four-time World Outdoor champion (’95, ’97, ’01, ’03).
NOTES: Hamstring injuries cost him a shot at the 2000 Olympic gold. But with his 7.36 indoor gold in Budapest and world-leading 13.05 at Lausanne – he has six of the world’s top 10 times this year – he’s favored to edge China’s Xiang Liu.
QUOTE: “The person I’d put [above all others] in the men’s side is Allen Johnson, the quiet guy who’s gotten it all done,” Masback said. “He was nicked-up and didn’t win last time, but certainly has to go into it as the favorite.”
GAIL DEVERS
EVENTS: 100 meters, 100-meter hurdles
BORN: Nov. 19, 1966, in Seattle
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Duluth, Ga.
HIGHLIGHTS: Two-time Olympic 100 champ (’92, ’96); three-time World 100-meter hurdles champion (’93, ’95, ’99); 10-time U.S. 100 hurdles champ.
NOTES: This winter, at 37, she became the first to win both the 60 and the hurdles at the U.S. meet. A pulled hamstring cost her the Sydney hurdles final, but she could finally get her first hurdles gold.
QUOTE: “For women in the hurdles, she’s the best,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how, but she keeps coming back and is the best in her field.”
SHAWN CRAWFORD
EVENTS: 100 meters, 200 meters
BORN: Jan. 14, 1978 in Van Wyck, S.C.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Raleigh, N.C.
HIGHLIGHTS: Olympic Trials champ at 200 meters, third in 100 meters; World Indoor 60 meters silver medalist; 2001 World Indoor 200 meters gold medalist.
NOTES: All three of his races at the Trials – topped by his world-leading 19.88 – are in the top four in the world this year. With a 9.88 win at Prefontaine and last Sunday’s win at Munich, he seems destined to win one or the other.
QUOTE: Masback and Johnson both favored Greene, but the former world-record-holder has lost all three 100s since the Trials, while Masbeck said “[Crawford] was spectacular in the Trials. It was like when Carl Lewis used to dominate, and coast in with his arm in the air.”
DWIGHT PHILLIPS
EVENT: Long Jump
BORN: Oct. 1, 1977 in Decatur, Ga.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Tempe, Ariz.
HIGHLIGHTS: Olympic Trials champ; 2003 World Indoor and Outdoor champ.
NOTES: After a pulled hamstring at the 2001 Worlds limited him to eighth, he swept the World Indoor and Outdoor championships last year. He won the Trials (27-2), Sunday in Munich (26-11) and already has the world’s top five jumps this year, led by a 28-2 3/4.
QUOTE: “The general public doesn’t know about him, but he’s one of those guys who competes when it counts,” Masback said. “He’s never gone in as the favorite, but he will now. Mike Connelly told me he has as much talent as Mike Powell or Carl Lewis.”
MARION JONES
EVENTS: Sprints, Long Jump
BORN: Oct. 12, 1975, in Los Angeles
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Chapel Hill, N.C.
HIGHLIGHTS: Trials Long Jump champ; 2000 Olympic 100, 200 & 4×400 champ; 13-time U.S. Outdoor champ.
NOTES: After giving birth last June and dealing with steroid rumors, she’s a shadow of her former 10.65 100 self. But despite running fifth in the Pre and Trials 100s, she’s won long jumps at the Trials (23-4), Home Depot (23-4 3/4), Pre and Kingston.
QUOTES: “Marion will be better in the next few weeks. She wasn’t at her best from the baby and all the ugly press. She’s been there before, and when you get back something happens to you,” said Campbell. Johnson said, “I’m impressed how she hung in there and won in something that’s not her event. I think she’ll win.”