WEBVTT - Nightcap - Hour 2: Michael Johnson joins the show 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:08.000 The volume. The eighty two game preseason is in the books, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.200 and it is finally time for the real season. Don't 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.640 miss out on any NBA playoff action at DraftKings Sportsbook, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.560 an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From the 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.720 play in tournament through the finals. Draft Kings Sportsbook as 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.320 you covered with same game parlays, live betting, ods, boost 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.720 and much more. Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app. Use 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.840 code Shannon. New customers can bear five dollars and get 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.680 two hundred and bonus bets instantly. That's the code Shannon 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.720 only on DraftKings. 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Bonus beets expire one hundred and sixty 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:07.440 eight hours after issuans see DKNNG, dot co slash b 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:18.840 ball for eligibility and depositive restrictions terms and responsible gaming resources. 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.960 Guys, as O, Joe and I, we told you earlier 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.640 we had a great conversation with the legendary Michael Johnson. 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.600 And here's the here's our interview with Michael. We hope 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.120 you enjoy it. Oh Joe, I told you we're gonna 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.080 try to make this thing the real Olympics. We're gonna 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.240 have people that anticipated in the Paris Olympics and we're 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.240 gonna get we were I'm gonna going to have former greats. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.920 The guy that's gonna talk with us for about forty 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.840 five minutes today is a former two time world champion 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.360 two hundred meters. He's a former four time champion the 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.880 four hundred meters. He was a former world world record 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.120 holder at two hundred meters, at three hundred meters, at 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.960 four hundred meters. He's still he's a current American record 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:06.120 holder at three hundred meters and four hundred meters, and 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.240 he ran the anchor leg on. 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:09.520 The world breaking. 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.840 World Championship four hundred meter relay team of two minutes 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:21.919 fifty four twenty nine. You know, and he's a two 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.480 time Olympic gold medal in four hundred meters. He's a 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.120 one time Olympic champ at two hundred meters. He's the 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.680 only man to successfully defend his four hundred meters crown 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:32.839 and back to back Olympics in ninety six and two 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.720 thousand and he's the only man currently to win the 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.800 four hundred and the two hundred in the same Olympics. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.919 One of the greatest printers in the history of sprinting, 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.600 arguably the greatest printer in American history. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:46.360 Michael Johnson, Mike's. 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.359 Going on, guys. Good to see both man. Good to 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:49.880 see you. I haven't talked to both of you guys 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:50.400 in a while. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.600 I appreciate that, man, Mike, when you hear the accolades, 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.760 you know, four time world champion four hundred meters, two 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.000 time world champion two hundreundred meters, a two time Olympic champion, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.760 four Olympic champion, two back to back, nobody into history. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:07.920 The game has been going on since eighteen ninety six. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.000 And we see some young guys come in and they 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.359 win the four hundred early in their career at eighteen, 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.760 I mean nineteen twenty years of age and can't replicate 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.320 that you did it later in your career. Why has 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.960 it been so hard for men and women to repeat? 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.480 I mean it's more common in women repeating, But why 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.160 has it been so hard for men to repeat the 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:29.680 four hundred? 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.440 It's some difficulty event, man. It's difficult for people to 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.880 get consistent in that event. Like you will see somebody 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.760 come out run forty three seconds, become a forty three 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:44.280 second four hundred runner, But then you'll see them in 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.760 some races running forty four high, forty four mid, not 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.680 consistently under forty three seconds. The four hundred meters is 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.520 one of those races where you need to be consistent 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.720 in order to deliver that type of performance when it 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.640 counts at the Olympic Games. And what happens is is 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.760 you have somebody run the Olympics, they get it right then, 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.160 and then if you see them in those races outside 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.400 of the championships being very inconsistent running forty four highs 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.800 and that sort of thing, then there's a likely chance 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.880 that when they get back to that next championship, they're 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.560 going to run worse, not better. It's just the way 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:20.799 that it goes. You have to try to get consistent 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.719 with that event. It's a really difficult event to run 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.039 because it's such a long sprint. There's a lot of 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.160 room for area, there's a lot of ways to make 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.400 mistakes in that race. It's hard to get it right, 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:33.840 easy to get it wrong. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.800 When I think about the four hundred race, obviously from 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.320 the start you exert so much energy I would say 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.240 from some zero zero to fifty. And then you have 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.080 another phase that you kick into where it's kind of 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.200 not a transition phase where you slow down, but where 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.000 you build up enough energy where you're moving as fast 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.320 as you can will not allowing that lacktic acid to 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.040 build up where you're not able to finish and kick 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.200 towards the end and when you the first thing you 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.000 said was about being consistent. How difficult is it to 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.560 be consistent when the field of competitive change is consistently 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.360 each time you race, and some people push you, some 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.960 people don't. So how do you find that happy medium 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:13.800 where you can always run your race but still have 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:14.840 a chance to always win? 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.160 Yeah, it's it looks like when you look at track, 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:20.919 it looks like you're just going out there, and you 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.920 hear most people talk about just executing their own race 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.120 because you're in your own lane and other people are 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.920 in their lane. But you have to know your competitors. 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.120 You have to know they are what they're capable of. So, 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.400 like if I'm in a four hundred meter race, for example, 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.920 and that part you talked about OCHA, where you know 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.479 you come out sixty first sixty meters or so, you 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.360 want to run its as hard as you can get 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.760 up to your place, not slow down, but just hold 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.640 that pace. It's like in your car, if you push 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:49.840 your foot all the way down on the accelerator, you're 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.760 using a lot of gas. But let it up for 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.200 a little bit. Now you're not slowing down. You're just 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.880 maintaining that speed, right right, Don't keep mashing on the 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.520 gas is the thing that key down the backstretch. But 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.600 in that position, when I'm going down that backstretch, if 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.920 I see one of my competitors who typically doesn't get 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.880 out hard, but today they get not hard, and now 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.080 they're getting a little bit of distance too far away 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.360 from me, I have to make a decision, right then, Okay, 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.599 do I make an adjustment in my race based on 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.000 what they're doing. But I have to know them. If 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.000 I know that he's not gonna be able to hold 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.120 that so I'm then I might decide I'm gonna let 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.120 him go. But you have to be able to make 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:28.840 those decisions. So you have to know your competitor. You 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.200 have to be able to execute your own race, but 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.159 you have to be really good at making decisions in 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.000 the moment in the race, in real time. You got 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.120 to make those decisions quickly because you can't just kind 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:41.480 of think about it because the race is going to 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:41.839 be over. 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:45.600 Mike, when I look at you and I go back 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:47.280 and little start of your career and you look at 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:49.200 the runners, say I have to make split's take a 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.440 decisions to what I'm gonna do. You look at some 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:53.440 of the runners you ran against Steve Lewis, you ran 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.200 against Quincy Wash, you ran against Antoine Maybank, you ran 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.640 against Anton Pedigree, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, got Washington Everett. 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.719 There was such a vast range of four hundred meters 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.760 and all these guys could go sub forty four. And 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.360 when you're racing these guys, you go into your mind says, Okay, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.760 obviously Steve Lewis is an Olympic champ. Quincy Watts was 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.960 an Olympic champ. A lot of these guys you ran 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.560 in the relay with. So when when you're trying to 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.000 break down, when you and coach Heart your coach when 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.000 you guys were breaking down a race says the world championship, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.120 Olympic trials, the Olympics and so forth and so on. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.520 How different I'm gonna turn it over to you, o Joe. 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.680 How different is running a four hundred as a two? 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.240 Because we understand two is half the distance of four. 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.320 But what's the difference? Because you were able? You kind 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.000 of started like as a two hundred. You won the 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.320 first world championship at two hundred meters in ninety one, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.800 if I'm not mistaken, and then built up and then 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.280 you got the courage to say I could do both. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.720 I can in the Olympics. Buddy, you know how what 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.360 kind of brass? How long has you gotta have to 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.080 say I could beat the world's best at four and 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:02.680 two in the same Yeah, it's probably never gonna be 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:03.080 done again. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:03.520 On the metis. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.400 Yeah, I saw a couple of people have tried since 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:08.560 I did it. Nobody even tried before I did it. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.440 You couldn't even the schedule wouldn't even allow for it. 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:11.600 So I had to get them to get them to 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.840 change the schedule. But yeah, I started as a two 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:15.800 hundred meter runner, but when I was at Baylor, I 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:17.840 was on the fourth by four and I was always 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.240 splitting forty three, So I knew I could run four hundred. 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.520 But like in college, you always you can't really go 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.480 back and forth between the two and the four very 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.240 much because you're always preparing for got to qualify for nationals. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.800 You gotta get ready for conference, you know, in or it, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.440 and then the same thing I do in the Both 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.360 of those seasons are pretty short. But I knew I 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.640 could run the four hundred. Then when I when I 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.679 started my professional career, I was primarily two hundred, but 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.240 I was running four hundreds at meets on the Grand 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.920 Prix circuit, and I was running low forty two's rank 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.640 number one in the world. But the first couple of championships, 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.920 like that ninety one championship, like you talked about, Sharnon, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.880 so I chose the two hundred. Major team in the 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.160 two hundred, won the World championship in the two hundred. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.160 But I'm sitting there in the stands and I'm seeing 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.160 Antonio Pettigrew win the four hundred. I'm like, I've been 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.520 beating him all season. I should be the world champion 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:05.760 in the four hundred, but I can't run the four hundred. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.400 Now somebody else's world champion. So I was telling my 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.240 coach then, like, you know, I want to run both, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:12.679 and he was saying coach was like, yeah, we can 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.200 do both. We just got to get them to, you know, 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.080 work out the schedule for us. So over time that became, 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.320 you know, my thing, I'm gonna go to the championships. 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:20.720 I'm gonna run the both to two and the four. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.680 Nobody had done that before. The races are very different. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.760 The two hundred meters are all I sprint. For most people, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.040 there's you know, some of the guys that's one hundred 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.640 meters runners that's not really don't have that type of 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.600 speed endurance to be able to hold it. They can't 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.640 run the whole thing. But if you come from like me, 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.199 like having a four hundred background as well, I can 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.160 run the whole thing. So the difference, you know, is 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:45.800 there's less room for margin or margin for error. In 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:47.800 the two hundred, you may be able to make one 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.600 adjustment in that race because it's so short nineteen seconds, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.400 whereas in the four hundred you can make all kinds 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:59.120 of adjustments. The problem is there's more room for error 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:00.840 in the four hundred gonna make it. You can make 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.680 a lot of mistakes, and you probably will, whereas it 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:04.440 two hundred. It's much more technical. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.679 I think one of the most interesting things about about 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.320 this and everything you've accomplished, the accolades, the four Olympic 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.280 gold medals, the eight World championships. I think with people 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.920 that are going to watch the show, like, what initially, 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:17.920 Let's let's go back to the beginning, because we know, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:19.840 we know the finished product, we know if you've done, 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.520 we know if you've accomplished, But what initially Drew drew 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.840 the track and field, and how do you discover your 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.040 passion for sprinting. Let's let's go back and take us 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.679 where it all started so we get a better understanding 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.040 on how everything came to fruition to where you are now. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.439 Yeah, I just always loved running man. I played all 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.920 sports growing up in Dallas, played soccer, football, basketball, baseball. 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.880 We were always outside playing right, and always I was 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.120 always fast. I was always faster than everybody else. So 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.719 of course, going up in Texas, you know, got to 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.840 play football, and so all my friends, you know, and 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.480 I did not like football. I love watching football, hated 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.520 playing football, hated did not did not like football. Then't 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:03.959 like getting hit, didn't want to get hit in like contact, 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.559 and so I so they wanted me to play receiver. 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.559 This is in middle school. They wanted me to play receiver. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.360 I was like this, that's not happening. Now I want 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.760 to get hit. And uh so then they want me 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:20.640 to play running back like same difference, you know. So 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.040 I ended up So I ended up being free. I 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.600 played I played safety. I played free safety some Roman 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:27.720 and I was like Dionne. I was like, I'm going 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.400 I'm going for interceptions. I'm catching interceptions, gonna hit nobody, right, 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:35.320 And and then so I played football just because all 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:36.280 my friends are out there. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:36.959 I liked it. 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.960 And and then I remember I had one game where 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.840 I have great game, two interceptions, ran one back for 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.480 a touchdown, and uh and we lost. And I mean 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:47.560 we on the bus going back home after the game, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.600 like everybody said, and I'm like, sure, why am I sad, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.040 I should you know, if I have a good day, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.120 I want to win. That's how I know individual sports 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.959 is the path for me. Team sports I'm too selfish, 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.400 but uh but yeah, so so you know, so high 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.040 school just track and and then uh and then I 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.200 started getting scholarship off as chose Baylor, went to Baylor, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.280 and I didn't realize until I got to Baylor that 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.840 I could even have a professional career and track. Then 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.760 he realized and so yeah, so so that was it 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:19.080 for me. 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:19.319 Man. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.240 And then once I got to Baylor started running times 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.400 that it got real coaching for the first time in 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.800 my life, real treating. I realized that I had the 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.160 potentially be world class because I was running some of 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.120 the same times that the guys that was going running 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.640 in the Olympic Games and running professionally were running. 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.160 Mm hmm, Mike. 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.199 When you when I go back and study you a 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.400 couple of years, you're only about a year older than 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.280 I am. And so I was a track and field 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.880 guy too, but I noticed, but you weren't tough. When 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:51.080 in Texas when you talk about runners, Roy Martin, Roy 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:53.320 Martin from Dallas Rose, I learned here's from every weekend. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.000 He could run against him every weekend on the four 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.480 by four hundred, two hundred. Crazy, my my, he was 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.560 a year old older than me. You're older than me. Yeah, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.199 my junior year, now my sophomore year. Sophomore year nineteen 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.720 eighty four, he was all Tonant in the two hundred 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.200 for the Olympic team in La We in high school. 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.640 Yep, and I'm having to read a movie like that. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.840 Oh yeah, yeah, what do he was? He ran like 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.520 a set the high school world record. And then also 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.000 in one hundred. You were in ten ten ten o sumthing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:30.600 a lot. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.400 I didn't get out of district, so you got you 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.280 got finished top two to get out of the district 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.600 to advance the regionals. Then top two out of regionals 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.160 go to state. I didn't get out of state until 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.480 my senior year because of Run and those guys. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:48.880 And then my school we. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:50.800 Didn't really we didn't have it, you know, we didn't 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:51.760 take sports seriously. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:52.559 You know, it was it was. 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.839 It was an academically focused school that you had to 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.320 apply to get in and everything I got in and 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.320 sports was just like I after thought, you were in 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.880 the hardest district in the country. 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:03.320 For track. 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:05.960 I mean the kids in that the district ten five 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.920 A in Dallas, Texas was the hardest district and we 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.800 in there with it was crazy. So yeah, I mean 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.400 so I didn't and I didn't, and then I got 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.839 out of district my first time as a senior one 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.720 in one regions, got to State, got second behind Derrek Florence, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.120 who broke Royan Martin's high school record in the two hundred. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.840 So yeah, that's what I was up against as a 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:29.800 high schooler. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:35.040 Right, Mike, When did you realize Because I'm I'm looking 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:36.880 at your career and like I said, I love track 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.440 and field, and I'll know a lot about the two 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.480 hundred meters. I was at the trials in Atlanta when 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.520 you broke phr A. Menino's record. He ran nineteen seventy two, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.280 I think it in seventy two and you ran nineteen 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.920 sixty six. When did you know that you could break 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:53.520 the world record into two hundred and. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.320 The four so you were claim, yeah, you were close. 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.120 He bro it was nineteen seventy nine. He in nineteen 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.760 seventy three in Mexico City at to Do and that 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.160 record stip for a long time because I was nineteen 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.560 ninety six, right, yeah, so nineteen six when I broke it. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:13.360 He broke it in nineteen seventy, nineteen seventy seventy nine, 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.240 So yeah, I knew when I was in college. I 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.200 knew when I was in college. My sophomore year of college, 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.200 I ran twenty point eight, I mean twenty point eight 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.680 and and I remember that race. That was the first 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.760 time I really dropped the time, and I remember all 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:31.520 the mistakes, and me and my coach were just talking 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.800 about all of the things that we could improve in 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.360 that race, and he said then, he was like, like, 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.920 you can break the world record. I was like, I know, 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.320 and that's what we just kept We just kept working 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.000 on it from there. But I had a lot of 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.080 injuries in college that kind of helped me from from 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.920 reaching my potential. And I had to you know that 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.560 I didn't like it was my fault. I was getting 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.040 injured because I didn't like stretching, didn't like lifting weights. 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:57.720 I just wanted to go out of the practice run 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.920 every day, run and do it. So I wasn't strong, 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.240 you know. And then I realized, you know, I got it. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.040 I really and my coach have been really telling me, 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:07.200 you know, and I was just, you know, a hard 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.480 headed kid, thinking I'm gonna do it my way. Don't 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.680 really like weight. I'm fast, I can just be fast. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.720 But the fundamentals are the fundamentals. It takes what it takes, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.480 you know. There's not a lot of choices when you 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:18.480 want to be successful. And I had to realize that. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.880 And once I did committed myself to the weights in 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:28.400 the string training program, that's when I started seeing the results. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.600 You had some battles man, you and Butch. When Butcher 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.680 said butch, Butcher said, broke the world record. He broke 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:39.320 Levans world record eighty eight in nineteen eighty eight. He 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:44.000 ran what forty three twenty nine? Uh, And so you 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:48.000 and him had battles. You him, Steve Lewis, Danny Everett, 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.720 Quincy Watts, guys. You guys were both going back and 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:55.200 forth because all of you guys could sub forty four seconds. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.800 He breaks that record in eighty eight, and you ended 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.720 up breaking the record. Mike, you didn't break the record 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.240 until two thousand, nineteen ninety nine, so that was eleven 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.960 years later. And you, I think, if I'm not mistaken 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.040 like you in your thirties, that's unheard of for a 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.800 guy your age to keep pr and pushing the record. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.080 How were you able? Like you said, you had some 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.399 injuries earlier, and maybe that what saved you is that 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.600 you didn't burn your legs out early and you had 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.800 some juice still in the tank late. So what was 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.600 the process of going through and breaking that world record? 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:30.560 Because you knew you were gonna have to have the 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:34.240 perfect race, the perfect conditions, and the perfect people in 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.120 the race to push you to that world Yeah. 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.600 So my first year as a pro nineteen ninety, I 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.440 ran forty three. I was running forty three two every 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.240 time I stepped on the track, but I was That 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.239 was my first year running the four hundred. I had 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.000 never run, you mean forty four two. I had never 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.200 really been running the four hundred, and at that point 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.880 I was really a two hundred meter runner. So the 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.920 first six years of my career I was focused on 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.480 mostly the two hundred, primarily, even though in ninety six 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:05.600 I ran both. In ninety five I bought won world 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.400 championships in both. Ninety three I won the world championship 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:09.160 in the four hundred. 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:10.000 I would run. 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.240 I would probably run my races every year. I'd probably 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.080 be like, seventy five percent of my races are two hundred, 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.439 twenty five percent of my races are four hundred, So 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.960 I wasn't running a lot of four hundred. So I 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.040 probably would have broken that four hundred meter world record 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.600 a lot sooner had I been focused on that race. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.239 But I was focused on trying to break the two 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.439 hundred meter world record first, and so I did that. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.840 Once I did that in ninety six, then I shifted 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.840 my focus and started started running seventy five percent of 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.359 my races were four hundreds, twenty five percent of my 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:40.240 races were two hundred, because then once I had the 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.479 world record in the two hundred, then I started focusing 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.560 on breaking the world record in the four hundred. So 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.720 it was like nineteen ninety six, I ran forty three 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.400 thirty nine, which was a tenth of a second off 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:52.640