Source: www.trinidadexpress.com
Today, we feature sprinter Ato Boldon. He bagged two bronze medals at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and then earned 100 metres silver and 200 metres bronze four years later, in Sydney, Australia.
Ato's double bronze in the sprints (in Atlanta) validated him as one of the top sprinters of his time. His medals indicated that "I could be a force for a number of years."
Most top sprinters have two good shots to medal at the Olympic Games. Ato, therefore, would be at his peak at Sydney in 2000. In Atlanta he proved that he was among the world's elite sprinters. The challenge for him was to improve his Atlanta showing and keep himself in contention for Sydney. And so 1997 was a vintage year for him.
He collected his first gold at the World Championships in the 200m. Just prior to those Championships he had run an incredible double at Stuttgart, 9.90 and 19.77 within 45 minutes. In the following year he flew down to the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur and set a new record, duplicating Mike Agostini's gold in 1958.
Ato continued to run fast times in 1999, running 9.86 twice before sustaining a serious muscle injury. It forced him to miss the Championships in Seville. This setback, however, opened a new door for him as a broadcaster, a capacity in which he has received tremendous praise.
In September, 1996, Maurice Greene, dissatisfied with his running career, left the Kansas cornfields and drove to Los Angeles to place his future in the hands of John Smith. After finishing in second place at the US nationals in 1995, Greene suffered an injury and had failed to make the American Olympic team in 1996.
Ato was in his senior year at UCLA but he was also a member of Smith's camp, Handling Speed Intelligently (HSI). Both sprinters in the same camp became friends and training partners.
At the outset Ato was no doubt the senior partner in the firm of Boldon and Greene. After a meet in 1997 where Ato had recorded a 9.89 and Greene a 10.15 in a 100m, Ato was to remark to Smith: "John, I need to teach him. Do you mind if I bring him over and show him the film and everything and the things he needs to do?" Greene was a quick learner, and later that year he ran 9.96 and 9.80. The battle was on.
Maurice was a double world champion in 1999 while an injured Ato did commentaries for the BBC. Greene's consistency in 1999 made it obvious that he was the man to beat. Inevitably the relationship devolved and Ato was to say: "There will be no tag-teaming this year. It's every man for himself."
On the other hand, Greene was determined to bring back the 100m crown to the United States. Ato again indicated his sentiments on his training with his partner, now the main contender for the Olympic crown in Sydney: "I will continue to be a cat burglar. I won't smash a front window. I'll enter through the back so I won't be noticed."
Olympic Year 2000 was difficult for Ato. He could not follow his usual pattern of workouts, and his layoff from the previous season, because of an injury, literally threw him off track. Getting back in shape was his challenge.
"I'm using the indoor season to sharpen up. If I wait until the outdoors I'll be a year out of competition. The indoor 60's I'll be running is a means to an end."
But during the outdoor season, he never achieved the quick times he usually did. He continued the pedestrian times (compared to his past performances) in August. This sort of form carried into the Games. His times of 10.04, 10.11, 10.13 and 9.99 told the story. Compare these with his times at Atlanta four years earlier—10.06, 9.95, 9.93 and 9.90.
When he did 9.95 in Atlanta, it was the fastest-ever quarter-final mark, as was his 9.93, the fastest-ever qualifying time in a preliminary. Granted that the Atlanta track may have been faster, the difference is obvious.
In his interview with NBC following the 100m, he confessed: "I had to deal with not winning the 100m, which was fine. I felt with what I was doing this year, I was happy to net silver. This has been a tough year. I have not rattled off 9.8s like I used to. I thought anything I got in the I00m was good with me. The 200m is mine to lose."
Funny and articulate, the media liked Ato. In his second race of the season in 1996, he had run 9.93 and gave us the sound bite: "I don't feel like I've gone to the well." In the following year he opened up with a 9.89, "the fastest legal clocking in May," and for the third year in succession, he opened up with a windy 9.89.
The quote that "the 200m is mine to lose" was made on the form of previous years, not the form of 2000. Again, like the100m, the times tell the story. The times of the preliminaries were 20.52, 20.28, 20.20 and 20.20 in the final. His Atlanta times were 20.26, 20.25, 20.05 and the final, 19.80.
Ato had every opportunity to win the 200m but his body did not allow him to do so.
"I knew that I was in trouble because I was tired from the rounds of the 100m and I knew it would be a struggle for me to win on that night," he admitted afterwards.
In the race, he got an excellent start, just as in the 100m. His reaction time at the pistol was .163, identical to that of the 100m. His reaction time was faster than anyone in both races and an in-form Ato would have walked over that field in lane 8.
As things turned out, the judges had problems separating him and Obadele Thompson, the fourth place finisher, with whom he had the identical time.
Luck prevented Ato from gold in the 200m. Or rather, bad luck did. In form in previous years, his lengthy lay-off prior to Olympic year was the culprit. Generally, no one knows what to do after such a layoff, because it is usually a first-time experience.
Responding in a David Robson interview regarding his greatest disappointment in sport, he identified the Sydney 200m, adding that he was unable to run a better 200m after taking second in the 100m, "because a sub 20, which I've done quite a bit, would have won the gold that night."
Nevertheless, his third place finish put him in a category where no Caribbean sprinter has ever been—in the hallowed company of Carl Lewis and Frankie Fredericks, the only winners of four individual Olympic medals in the sprints.
For the full Ato Boldon profile and other articles, log on to http://www.trinidadexpress.
com/olympics.
On Thursday, August 2, we feature Richard Thompson.
OLYMPIAN, written by Dr Basil Ince, was published in 2011. The book examines, in detail, the history of Trinidad and Tobago's Olympic
participation. Included in OLYMPIAN are profiles of the country's eight individual Olympic medallists, between 1948 and 2008. Between July 17 and August 9, excerpts from those eight profiles are being featured in the pages of the Trinidad Express. The
profiles, in their entirety, are being published on the Express website (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/olympics).
