Bailey-Johnson 150-metre race

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The Bailey-Johnson 150-metre race was a track and field event that occurred in Canada on May 31, 1997. In an effort to settle the dispute regarding who was the world's fastest man, a race was created between 1996 Olympic 100 m champion Donovan Bailey from Canada, and 1996 Olympic 200 m (and 400 m) champion Michael Johnson from the United States.

[edit] Background

The unofficial title of "world's fastest man" typically goes to the Olympic 100 m champion, but in 1996 many, particularly in America, pointed out that Johnson's gold-medal performance in the 200 m (19.32) was faster than Bailey's 100 m performance (9.84) in that 19.32 divided by two is 9.66 seconds. Bailey's defenders also noted that the 200 m time is almost always "faster," and each 200 m gold medalist from 1968 when fully electronic timing was introduced to 1996 had a "faster" time at the Olympics, save one, yet there had been no controversy over the title of "world's fastest man" previously.

In 1997, Johnson began performing television promotions in which he billed himself as "the world's fastest man". Bailey initially refused to challenge, stating that "the world's fastest man was decided in Atlanta". After verbal sparring between the pair, a made-for-TV, 150-metre showcase at Toronto's SkyDome (now renamed as the Rogers Centre) was scheduled.

[edit] The Race

The 150 m distance consisted of 75 m of curving track and 75 m of straight track, a configuration that was unique to this unsanctioned event. Bailey revealed before the race his surprise at the configuration; nevertheless, Bailey opted to run the race anyway.The runners were positioned with Bailey running on the inside track and Johnson ahead of Bailey on the outer track.

The race was billed as a competition for the title of "World's Fastest Man", but it failed to live up to expectations when Johnson pulled up at the 110-meter mark with an injured quadriceps, allowing Bailey to easily win the race (and the $1.5 million prize, Johnson received $500,000). It should be noted that Johnson had been striding as normal until Bailey passed him coming out of the curve. Johnson's pace then markedly slacked as he jogged onward to the finish.

Towards the end of the race, Bailey even looked back at Johnson and waved for him to "come on" because he believed Johnson had simply quit the race. Bailey finished the race with a time of 15.00 sec. Only following the finish did Johnson begin to favor his foot, leading some to question the veracity of his injury; nonetheless, Johnson recovered and won his third 400 m World Champion title that very year.

There is video footage of Bailey during an interview shortly thereafter, clearly annoyed at Johnson's pull up, with Bailey saying "He didn't pull up, he's just a chicken... I think we should run this race again so I could whip his ass one more time."