Bailey–Johnson 150-metre race
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The Bailey–Johnson 150-metre race was a
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
event that occurred in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
on Sunday, 1 June 1997. In an effort to settle the dispute regarding who was the "world's fastest man", a
150 metres 150 metres is a sprint event in track and field. It is a very rarely contested non-championship and not an IAAF-recognised event. Given the proportion of standard running tracks, the event typically incorporates a bend when held in a track and f ...
race not sanctioned by
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
was held at
SkyDome Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a multi-purpose retractable roof stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, i ...
between 1996 Olympic
100 metre The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
champion
Donovan Bailey Donovan Bailey (born December 16, 1967) is a retired Jamaican-Canadian sprinter. He once held the world record for the 100 metres. He recorded a time of 9.84 seconds to win the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. He was the first Canadian ...
from
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and 1996 Olympic 200 metre and 400 metre champion Michael Johnson from the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.


Background

The unofficial "world's fastest man" title typically goes to the Olympic 100 metre champion. The Olympics 100–200 metre double had been achieved only four times before 1996:
Valeriy Borzov Valeriy Pylypovych Borzov ( uk, Валерій Пилипович Борзов; russian: Валерий Филиппович Борзов, Valeriy Filippovich Borzov; born 20 October 1949) is a former Soviet sprinter. He is a two-time Olympian, ...
at
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and
Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, ...
at
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
for men as well as
Renate Stecher Renate Stecher (, ; née Meißner, born 12 May 1950) is a German (former East German) sprint runner and a triple Olympic champion. She held 34 world records and was the first woman to run 100 metres within 11 seconds. Biography Born as Renate ...
at Munich and
Florence Griffith Joyner Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner (born Florence Delorez Griffith; December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998), also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete. She set world records in 1988 for the 100 m and 200 m. During the late 1 ...
at
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
for women. On 1 August 1996, the night of Johnson's 200 m Olympic win, the host of
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
's Olympics coverage
Bob Costas Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 19 ...
stated on-air that Johnson's gold-medal performance in the 200 m (19.32 seconds) was faster than Bailey's 100 m performance (9.84 seconds) five days earlier in that 19.32 divided by two is 9.66. Bailey later dismissed Costas' comments as "a person who knew nothing about track talking about it with a lot of people listening"; nonetheless, the sportscaster's remarks touched a nerve. The 200 metre time almost always yields a "faster" average speed than a 100-metre race time, since the initial slow speed at the start is spread out over the longer distance. In other words, the second 100 metres is run with a "flying start", without the slow acceleration phase of the first 100 metres and without the greater than 0.10 s reaction time of the start. In fact, each 200 metre gold medalist from 1968, when fully electronic timing was introduced, to 1996 had a "faster" average speed at the Olympics, save one, yet there had been no controversy over the title of "world's fastest man" previously, until Bob Costas' remarks during the 1996 Olympics. Many in the U.S. media—including Johnson's personal coach,
Clyde Hart Clyde Hart (born 1935) is the director of track and field at Baylor University. Hart retired as head coach for the Baylor track program on June 14, 2005 after 42 years with the program. Hart is primarily known as the only coach to have instructed ...
of
Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...
—used Costas' reasoning as basis for pronouncing Johnson the "world's fastest man". Furthermore, fellow sprinter
Ato Boldon Ato Jabari Boldon (born 30 December 1973) is a Trinidadian former track and field athlete, politician, and four-time Olympic medal winner. He holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, ...
—who had competed against both Bailey and Johnson in the 1996 Olympic 100 and 200 metres races, respectively—chimed in to say, with Johnson sitting next him: "I said before, the person who won the 100 meters was the fastest man alive, but I think the fastest man alive is sitting to my left". Notably in the 1996 edition of the men's 100 metre final, after golds in
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
and
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, as well as a bronze in
1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
, the Americans had finished out of the medals despite being the hosts. Adding insult to injury, the Canadian team anchored by Bailey also defeated the Americans in the 4 x 100 metre relay

Bailey's accomplishments in the 1996 Summer Olympics, both firsts for Canadians, provided considerable national pride. Some Canadians saw the American media's promotion of Michael Johnson as the "world's fastest man" as a cynical attempt to lessen Bailey's achievements. It was also seen as reminiscent of the
Ben Johnson Ben, Benjamin or Benny Johnson may refer to: In sports Association football *Ben Johnson (footballer, born 2000), English footballer * Ben Johnson (soccer) (born 1977), American soccer player Other codes of football *Ben Johnson (Australian footb ...
-
Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, ...
rivalry in the 1980s, a rivalry that was exacerbated at the 1987 World Championships in Rome after Ben Johnson defeated Lewis in the
100 metre The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
final. In defeat, Lewis begun voicing accusations that Ben Johnson was using performance-enhancing drugs, behaviour which was seen as egotistical and lacking humility, despite the accusations later being proven to be true the following year. Some Canadians saw Bailey's 1996 Summer Olympic accomplishments as somewhat redressing Ben Johnson's positive drug test and disqualification at the 1988 Summer Olympics.


The event


Idea and initial reaction

Throughout August 1996, many Canadians were irate with continual references to Michael Johnson as the "world's fastest man" in the American media. The publisher of a
community newspaper Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community j ...
in Bailey's hometown of
Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. At its Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population of 213,759, it is List of tow ...
decided to launch a U.S. advertising campaign to promote Donovan Bailey as the world's fastest man by taking out ads in ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'', a decision that earned him much support from across Canada. As the debate and positioning over the 150-metre race continued at home, the two sprinters were taking part in various meets throughout Europe in their respective disciplines—on 30 August 1996 at the
Internationales Stadionfest The Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) is an annual track and field athletics meeting at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. It was first held in July 1921 at the Deutsches Stadion, which was replaced from 1937 by the Stadium of the 1936 Ol ...
meet in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Bailey and Johnson reportedly got into a shouting match. Both incidentally lost their races that day—Bailey to
Dennis Mitchell Dennis Allen Mitchell (born February 20, 1966) is an American former college and international track and field Athletics (sport), athlete, who was a member of the gold medal-winning team in the 4 x 100 met ...
and Johnson to
Frankie Fredericks Frank "Frankie" Fredericks (born 2 October 1967) is a former track and field athlete from Namibia. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games (two in 1992 and two in 1996), making him Namibia's only ...
. Due to the press attention and public interest over the disputed "world's fastest man" claim, the idea for a 150-metre showdown to settle the issue got floated right away and by early September 1996 a California-based promotions company announced getting Johnson's
agreement in principle In law, an agreement in principle is a Step-stone bridge, stepping stone to a contract. Such agreements with regard to the principle are usually considered fair and equitable. Even if not all details are known, an ''agreement in principle'' may, fo ...
for a 6 October 1996 race in Toronto's SkyDome. However, Bailey initially resisted all calls for the event to take place soon after the Olympics,Bailey, Johnson on Track for Match Race
AP, 19 November 1996
opting instead to compete in track meets across Europe. Back in North America, the issue was a topic of hot debate, especially in Canada where many felt that Bailey should not even entertain the idea of a 150-metre race, seeing the "world's fastest man" title as rightfully his and considering him the one with more to lose in the event of such a showdown.


Announcement

Over the coming months in the fall of 1996, several offers to stage the 150-metre event came in, the most serious of which were those by
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
-based company Nova International led by British former distance runner
Brendan Foster Sir Brendan Foster (born 12 January 1948) is a British former long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser, who founded the Great North Run, one of the sport's most high profile half-marathon races. As an athlete, he wo ...
and the one by an
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
-based entity named Magellan Entertainment Group, a small company that up to that point specialized in motivational seminars for corporations. Amid much media speculation, Magellan won the bid in mid November 1996, announcing a US$500,000 appearance fee for each athlete with an additional US$1 million promised for the race winner—a huge purse by track and field standards considering that the most lucrative one-day track meet at the time,
Weltklasse Zürich Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class track and field meeting at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one of the IAAF G ...
, had a total budget of about US$5 million from which some 200 athletes were being paid. Though no exact date and location for the 150m race had been set, the event was officially announced by a Magellan representative, 29-year-old Giselle Briden, at a press conference held in Toronto on 18 November 1996 with both athletes present and exchanging verbal barbs. A tentative date mentioned at this time was 31 May 1997.


Seven-month lead-up

The end of the calendar year 1996 brought the usual media summarizing of the sporting achievements during the previous year. By now well-known figures even outside of sporting bounds, both Johnson and Bailey as well as their upcoming showdown featured prominently in their countries' respective media year-end best-of lists. Predictably, American media celebrated Johnson with the US-based news agency
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
voting his Olympic double gold the top story of 1996, while Canadian media extolled Bailey with the country's 126 newspaper editors and broadcast news directors taking part in a vote for the top newsmaker of 1996, and choosing Bailey ahead of Chief of Defence Staff Jean Boyle's Somalia affair-induced resignation and Ontario premier
Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...
' "
Common Sense Revolution The phrase Common Sense Revolution (CSR) has been used as a political slogan to describe conservative platforms with a main goal of reducing taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the size and role of government. It has been used in places ...
" deficit-reduction program. Johnson won the Associated Press' Athlete of the Year award, US Olympic Committee's sportsman-of-the-year award, but notably lost to
Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...
for the ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
s Sportsman of the Year award, which made Johnson publicly lash out at
USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...
executive director
Ollan Cassell Ollan Conn Cassell (born October 5, 1937) is an American sprinter in the 1950s and 1960s, winning a gold medal in the men's 4 × 400 m relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics. In his early 30s, Cassell later became the executive director of the Amate ...
for "lack of marketing acumen to promote the sport of track and field". On the other hand, Bailey, the winner of the
Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...
' athlete-of-the-year award, was unhappy over receiving zero votes for the Associated Press award (by comparison professional wrestler
Ric Flair Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949), known professionally as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestler. Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had a career spanni ...
got two votes in the AP vote) and publicly voiced his displeasure. In response, American magazine ''Sports Illustrated'' ran a small article headlined "Bailey's Fine Whine", ripping Bailey for his complaints and "noting that Johnson had won two individual gold medals in Atlanta to Bailey's one, and that the American had obliterated the world record in the 200 while Bailey had set a new 100 standard by just .01 of a second" and questioning how Bailey possibly be considered more outstanding than Johnson. Bailey fired back in the Canadian media while also receiving plenty of support from the country's print media columnists. Amid continuous verbal sparring between the pair of athletes, a made-for-TV, 150-metre race at
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
's
SkyDome Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a multi-purpose retractable roof stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, i ...
was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, 1 June 1997. The 150 metre distance consisted of 75 metres of curved track and a 75-metre straight, a configuration that was unique to this unsanctioned event.
Frankie Fredericks Frank "Frankie" Fredericks (born 2 October 1967) is a former track and field athlete from Namibia. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games (two in 1992 and two in 1996), making him Namibia's only ...
of Namibia, who was the four-time Olympic-silver medalist at 100 and 200 metres, voiced his displeasure over not being invited to the Toronto 150 m race. American television rights for the event were sold to
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
only a week before the event for a bargain-basement amount reported to be in the $50,000-75,000 range. CBC purchased the Canadian television rights earlier in March 1997. The undercard was announced, featuring
pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...
duel between
Sergey Bubka Sergey Nazarovych Bubka ( uk, Сергій Назарович Бубка; born 4 December 1963) is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka was twice named Athlete of the Year by ''Tr ...
and
Okkert Brits Okkert Brits (born 22 August 1973, in Uitenhage) is a former South African track and field athlete who specialised in the pole vault. He was the silver medallist at the World Championships in Athletics in 2003. He was a four-time champion at th ...
as well as a
long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
competition between
Jackie Joyner-Kersee Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in tho ...
and
Heike Drechsler Heike Gabriela Drechsler (; ; born 16 December 1964) is a German former track and field athlete who represented East Germany and later Germany. One of the most successful long jumpers of all-time, she is a former world record holder and ranks ...
. By early May 1997, Magellan Entertainment Group (fronted by Briden and her partner Salim Khoja) was behind in paying many of the race's organizing costs, with creditors at the company's door. As late as a few days before the race, promotional and financial problems threatened to cancel the event. Clearly in over their heads, Khoja and Briden turned to experienced Toronto deal-maker Edwin "Eddy" Cogan. A financial restructuring was required to ensure payment to Johnson and Bailey, and a bailout of more than $1 million by Cogan was necessary to pay outstanding bills. In essence, in the eleventh hour, Khoja and Briden surrendered the race over to Cogan and his associate Dennis Jewitt who was put in charge of restructuring the event's finances. Furthermore, the undercard events suffered from numerous no shows—including the world's premiere pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, forcing the organizers to come up with last-minute replacement Lawrence Johnson. On Friday, two days before the race, Bailey examined the track in SkyDome and revealed his shock at its configuration, specifically the tight radius of the turn. The next day he trained at the track and reportedly asked the event organizers to move the finish line 11.8 metres down the track, but got refused for logistical reasons. Bailey complained that the turn was supposed to emulate the wider curve of the outer lanes 7 and 8 on a standard eight-lane track, not the tighter turns of the middle lanes 3 and 4. Bailey also claimed that the first 85 metres of the track were on the curve instead of 75 metres as promised. Nevertheless, he decided to run, but not before putting out a press release early on Sunday before the race, blasting the organizers for "deceitfulness", "egregious miscarriage of the competitive spirit of this competition" while adding that as a result he would be running the race "under mental duress". The runners were positioned with Bailey running in the track's 3rd lane with Johnson in the next outer lane (4th lane).


The race

Some 30,000 spectators showed up at SkyDome for the main event that featured five-event
undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...
including a performance by the
Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respective ...
. The televised event was billed as a competition for the title of "World's Fastest Man" with CBC's seasoned sportscaster
Brian Williams Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a reporter for ''NBC Nightly News'' starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004. ...
presiding over the Canadian network's coverage and CBS deploying
Pat O'Brien Pat O'Brien may refer to: Politicians * Pat O'Brien (Canadian politician) (born 1948), member of the Canadian House of Commons *Pat O'Brien (Irish politician) (c. 1847–1917), Irish Nationalist MP in the United Kingdom Parliament Others *Pat O'Br ...
to Toronto to anchor the U.S. coverage of the event with Tim Ryan calling the race alongside track pundits
Craig Masback Craig Alford Masback (born 31 March 1955) is a retired American middle distance runner who specialized in the mile and 1500 meters, recording 30 sub-four-minute miles, including a best of 3:52.02, winning the U.S. Indoor Championships at the mile ...
and
Dwight Stones Dwight Edwin Stones (born December 6, 1953) is an American television commentator and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and former three-time world record holder in the men's high jump. During his 16-year career, he won 19 national championshi ...
. Bailey was brilliant as he was ahead of Johnson on the curved portion, where it had been assumed that Johnson would have had the advantage. Johnson (losing the race at the time) pulled up at the 110-metre mark, citing an injury to his
quadriceps The quadriceps femoris muscle (, also called the quadriceps extensor, quadriceps or quads) is a large muscle group that includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the sole extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large ...
, appearing to grab his quadriceps and then slowed to a stop before squatting on the track in distress. Towards the end of the race, Bailey looked back at Johnson and waved for him to "come on", believing he had simply quit the race. Five minutes after winning the race while mobbed by reporters, pumped and animated Bailey shot the following into the CBC camera while interviewed by their sideline reporter Mark Lee: On the other hand, a dejected-looking Johnson, the first of the two sprinters to be interviewed post-race by CBS' sideline reporter
Michele Tafoya Michele Tafoya is an American former sportscaster. From 2011 to 2022, she was a reporter for NBC Sports, primarily as a sideline reporter for ''NBC Sunday Night Football''. She currently works as a political advisor and makes television appeara ...
in their live broadcast, explained that he pulled a quad muscle. Asked to comment on claims that are now sure to follow about this clearly proving that Bailey is the world's fastest man, Johnson responded: "Even if I had won it, and I feel very confident that I could have, some people would've said that. Everyone is always entitled to their opinion and, you know, I can't do anything about that". At a press conference right after, Bailey continued the aggressive manner of his post-race interview: "It's obvious that the gap was going to get bigger and my butt was going to get smaller and smaller as I pulled away from him. He knew he was going to get hammered after the first 30 meters, so he knew he had to pull up. This race was never going to prove who was the fastest in the world. All it was going to do was shut up Michael Johnson." Asked to comment on Bailey's "chicken" remark, Johnson said: "That's saying a lot about what kind of person he is. I'm going to show you what kind of person I am. I'm not going to address that". Another question alluded to Johnson "packing it in" when he fell behind and one more wondered if Johnson had been "genuinely injured" or if he had simply "thrown the race", to which irritated Johnson responded by shooting back, "I hope you're very proud of yourself. And I hope you're very proud of Donovan. You should be." Bailey finished with a time of 14.99 seconds and walked away with the $1 million prize. Both Bailey and Johnson received a $500,000 appearance fee. In addition to Canada and the U.S., the race was broadcast in 54 other countries. Several days after the event, CBC released the ratings for its 90-minute coverage of the race, showing stellar viewership rates in Canada with 2.584 million people watching the entire broadcast that included some of the undercard events.


Results


Reaction


Contemporaneous

Following the event in Toronto,
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
president
Primo Nebiolo Primo Nebiolo (14 July 1923 – 7 November 1999) was an Italian sports official, best known as president of the worldwide athletics federation IAAF. Primo Nebiolo was the ideator of the IAAF Continental Cup. Biography As an active athlete in ...
said: "This is not sports as entertainment, but more like something out of a circus. And we're not interested in it". He went on to add: "Some people have already talked about a rematch in Las Vegas. You can forget about that under these conditions. Our federation will not give authorization and without that, you can't do anything". ''
The Hamilton Spectator ''The Hamilton Spectator'', founded in 1846, is a newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation,''The Hamilton Spectator'' is owned by Torstar. History ''The Hami ...
s Steve Milton called it a "strange finish to a strange race", adding: "Donovan Bailey was already the fastest man in the world. Only the U.S. television networks and ''Sports Illustrated''—it'll be 'illustrative' to read that jingoistic journal's take on the affair—chose to suggest otherwise. And, in our usual fit of national self- doubt, we Canadians accepted that as at least a legitimate question. For the first time in a century the 100-metre winner was not unanimously considered the planet's fleetest? No wonder Bailey had such a chip on his shoulder about this". Reporting on the event, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
Jeré Longman wrote: "The event was billed as a chance to supply much-needed visibility to a moribund sport, but much of the exposure was not what track and field wanted. The sport appears to be in danger of having fans say ''Who cares?'' instead of ''Who won?'' ... The atmosphere for the five-event undercard was eerily somnolent. This resembled exactly what it was not supposed to -- a standard track meet, with long stretches of inactivity and dead-air time." Calling it "the sport's most intriguing event in many years that had been entrusted to a comically overmatched smalltime outfit", ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
s Tim Layden said "the long-awaited match race turned into a travesty, further wounding an ailing sport". Furthermore, Layden labeled Bob Costas' remarks from a year earlier (about dividing Johnson's 200m time by two in order to pronounce him the "world's fastest man") as "ignorant".


Retrospective

In 2017—two decades after the 150-metre race versus Johnson—answering a question on how much of the public grudge between the two back in 1996-1997 was real, forty-nine-year-old Bailey said:


Aftermath

Due to the injury sustained in Toronto, Johnson was unable to compete in the
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Olym ...
held a few weeks later in
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
and could thus not qualify for the
IAAF World Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
later that summer in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. However, Johnson would still able to compete as the
IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
introduced a new policy of inviting the defending champions to the World Championship in order to avoid losing the star appeal of the double world record holder. Johnson declined to compete in the
200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...
, won by
Ato Boldon Ato Jabari Boldon (born 30 December 1973) is a Trinidadian former track and field athlete, politician, and four-time Olympic medal winner. He holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, ...
, but he successfully defended his world title in the
400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...
. As a result of the loss to Bailey and the emergence of Maurice Greene, Johnson has not made any further claim to the "World's Fastest Man". Greene defeated Bailey to win the
100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
at the 1997 World Championships. In February 1998, Bailey reportedly used part of his $1.5 million prize earnings from winning the race to organize a charter plane for his friends to be flown to his native Jamaica for the
Reggae Sunsplash Reggae Sunsplash is a reggae music festival first staged in 1978 in the northern part of Jamaica. In 1985 it expanded with the addition of an international touring festival. The festival ran annually until 1996, with a final event in 1998, befo ...
music festival.


References


External links


The Unknown History of the Donovan Bailey vs Michael Johnson 150-metre showdown
a 2022 CBC short documentary on the race and television production. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey-Johnson 150-Metre Race Sprint (running) 1997 in athletics (track and field) 1997 in Toronto June 1997 sports events in Canada Sport in Toronto Track and field competitions in Canada