Good As Gold

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By Mark Starr

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IT'S NOT ENOUGH THAT HE'S THE BEST runner of his era. It's not enough that his style is so distinctive that it can be spotted on any track, his torso as erect as a Beefeater's, a gold chain bounding against his weight lifter's chest, his legs jutting forward, swallowing his lane. It's not enough that Nike has plastered his face on billboards from Goteborg to the Ginza, swaddled him in Lycra, shod him in purple, filled his pockets with bearer bonds. It's not even enough that he persuaded the hidebound International Olympic Committee to change its schedule to accommodate his quest for gold medals in the 200- and 400-meter dashes.

Now, Michael Johnson has to win.

And he will. Barring injury or a recurrence of the food poisoning that knocked him out of the Barcelona heats four years ago, Johnson is as good as gold. And he's not alone. Over the next eight pages, NEWSWEEK names 20 sure things, athletes and teams so superior that they enter the Games as prohibitive favorites. Note well, though, the case of Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, the greatest pole vaulter in recorded history. He's a certain winner, too. But that's what he seemed four years ago. Going into the 1992 Games, Bubka was the defending gold medalist, the world-record holder and a five-time world champion. But on one chilly Catalan day, he didn't clear a single bar and left the stadium empty-handed. No gold is truly guaranteed.

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At 28, Michael Johnson is the rare athlete whose performance peak appears to be coinciding with the biggest competition of his life. Last month at the U.S. Track and Field Championships he ran the third fastest 400-meter race ever, and four days later -- after seven races in the Atlanta swelter of 90-plus heat and 90-plus humidity -- Johnson blazed to victory in the 200 meters. His time, 19.66 seconds, broke the sport's longest-standing (17 years) world record. Minutes later, Johnson was assessing his triumph in typically understated fashion, pronouncing himself ready for the Olympics. ""I'm happy first of all to have made the team, and secondly to win, and third to break the world record.''

Johnson has always shown a certain disdain for the pursuit of world records, though some believe it was the disdain of a man who had never broken one. But even now, Johnson insists it is far more significant that last summer he became the first man ever to win both the 200 and 400 at the world championships, a double gold that he now intends to replicate in Atlanta. ""I don't want to downplay what a world record means, but there are a million people who can say, "I was a world-record holder','' said Johnson before a midday workout in Waco, Texas, where the spring weather was a perfect prep for a Georgia summer. ""But nobody else in the world can say, "I'm a double gold-medal winner in the 200 and 400.' I'm going to do it at the Olympics because no man has ever done it before.''

And few doubt that he can. Johnson is the dominant sprinter of this decade. British track officials banned him from an Olympic tuneup in London, to avoid demoralizing their runners. Entering the Olympic trials, he had not lost a 200 in two years, a 400 since 1988. But it turns out that Johnson is only human; his 200 streak ended two weeks ago in a nipped-at-the-tape finish in Oslo, Norway. He lost to Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, a world-class sprinter whose explosive start that night was almost too good to be true. Johnson didn't complain, however. He just went out and won his next 200-meter race. He had started another streak. Everything was under control.

With Johnson, everything is always under control. A reserved man, he guards himself and his schedule with iron precision. He is continually confronted with people who want a piece of him and his time; relinquish control and he loses a piece of himself. For visiting photographers he will flex, or squat, or posture, until their allotted time is up. Then he leaves, immediately. With reporters, he will correct their last mistakes, then patiently answer more questions. With fans, he will wave, sign a few posters, then leave under the baleful eye of a bodyguard twice his girth.

On the track, his running is just as precise. His unusual upright running style has begun to redefine the conventional wisdom surrounding sprinting. For many years, running with a forward lean, emphasizing length of stride, was considered the most efficient way to translate energy into distance. Johnson's stride is several inches shorter than that of most of his rivals, but he strides more often (essentially, the human equivalent of more rpms). Johnson believes that he has the advantage, upright, of being ""more on top of myself and more in control.'' What else?

His only weakness is his tendency, after he explodes out of the starting blocks, to get upright too fast, negating his natural explosiveness. But while other 400-meter men flounder and flail in the stretch, his form is consistent from start to finish. ""The 200-400 double is so demanding because the body can only take so much,'' says Erv Hunt, the Olympic men's track-and-field coach. ""But this guy is almost superhuman.''

He works at it, which explains his chiseled 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame that boasts less than 3 percent fat. His longtime coach, Clyde Hart, now seeks only incremental improvement. ""We've stayed with what has been successful,'' says Hart of Johnson's secret regimen of weights (he can bench-press 325 pounds) and hard sprints (but no calisthenics). ""What we're looking for, though, is 1 percent improvement over last year -- 1 percent harder, 1 percent more of everything. It's a realistic goal, and if it translates to 1 percent better on the track, he'll have world records in both his events.''

Not bad for a runner who never won a Texas schoolboy championship. When Hart recruited the Dallas teenager to Baylor University, he envisioned him as a cog in its powerful relay team. ""I wish I could pretend that I knew then that Michael would be one of those runners who come along once in a lifetime,'' says Hart. Even as Johnson became first a collegiate champion, then a national and world champion, he still seemed to run in the shadow of cross-state rival Carl Lewis. Now Lewis's star has faded. Johnson has become the man to watch.

Johnson works out less than a dozen hours a week, spread over five or six days. ""I don't believe those people who say they train 40 hours a week,'' says Hart. ""That's impossible. What we believe in is quality time. We're not here to socialize.'' Johnson comes down from Dallas to train in Waco three days a week, and his training sessions are intense, with virtually no downtime. A typical week might be ten 200s on Monday, two 500s followed by five 400s on Tuesday and ten 300s on Wednesday -- all at brief intervals and at 80 percent or more of maximum speed. One midafternoon workout in mid-90s temperatures entailed 21 separate sprints, ranging from 40 to 200 meters. As for a training diet, Johnson says he eats what he wants: ""If you work as hard as I do, you can do that.'' In Waco he balances that effort by getting plenty of sleep and relaxation. ""No distractions here,'' he says. Which, of course, is what he wants in Atlanta: a fortnight of heat, hard work and control. The victories will follow in due course.

WHAT TO WATCH: Johnson's double can likely survive most anything except a bad start in the 200.

WHAT TO WATCH: Can Devers's oft-injured hamstring handle eight races?

100-Meter Hurdles (In Seconds) 1985 13.16 1986 13.08 1987 13.28 1988 12.61 1991 12.48 1992 12.55 1993 12.46 1995 12.61 1996 12.62

The current world record is 12.21 secs.

WHAT TO WATCH: In a pool of thrashers, Franzi has the smoothest--and most efficient--stroke.

Back home Tamura's a fixture in popular television commercials, usually throwing men over her shoulder. She got hooked on judo in second grade for that very reason: girls could upend boys. ""I thought, "Cool!' and decided I wanted to do that on the spot,'' she says. Tamura had to settle for the silver medal in '92. That was the last time she settled for anything. Since then she has won 80 consecutive matches and the last two world titles. She won 60 of those matches by tossing rivals cleanly onto their backs or holding them down for 30 seconds -- an ippon gachi or ""total victory.''

WHAT TO WATCH: Will Tamura be too cautious in her medal pursuit?

WHAT TO WATCH: How the mighty Romanians do in their poor, early time slot.

WHAT TO WATCH: Can Vitaly improve on his performance in his weakest event, the horizontal bar?

WHAT TO WATCH: After Barcelona, will Sergei begin at lower heights?

SERGEI BUBKA'S WORLD RECORDS

Outdoor Pole Vault

1984 19'5.75" 1985 19'8.25" 1986 19'8.5" 1987 19'9.25" 1988 19'10.5" 1991 20'.25" 1992 20'1.25" 1994 20'1.75"*

*Current World Record

WHAT TO WATCH: If Dolan is close at 300 meters, he'll win with his freestyle leg.

WHAT TO WATCH: The gold should be decided in their match with Brazil's best.

WHAT TO WATCH: The start of the course is wide open, so an early lead is key.

WHAT TO WATCH: A winning jump begins with a powerful run to the bar.

WHAT TO WATCH: Is she close enough in the stretch to rely on her kick?

WHAT TO WATCH: Can the team beat the point spread every time out?

WHAT TO WATCH: If U.S. hurlers are sharp, they will strike out 70% of batters.

WHAT TO WATCH: When Fu dives well, her entries are splashless.

The diver swings her oarms out, then brings them in toward her body to twist faster.

She twists 3 1/2 times, then swings her arms out wide.

At the last half of the somersault, she goes into a pike, then extends her body for a headfirst entry.

WHAT TO WATCH: Bruce's rematch against top rival Andrei Shumilin of Russia.

WHAT TO WATCH: In the 100, she should take charge by the 50-meter mark.

1960 11.30 Wilma Rudolph(USA) 1968 11.08 Wyomia Tyus(USA) 1976 11.01 Annegret Richter(FRG) 1977 10.88 Marlies Oelsner(GDR) 1984 10.76 Evelyn Ashford(USA) 1988 10.49 F. Griffith Joyner(USA)* 1996 10.82 Gwen Torrence(USA)

*Current World Record

WHAT TO WATCH: Will any of his opponents be able to last three full rounds?

The latest problem developed last week when pitcher Rolando Arrojo heard a soft knock at the door of his motel room in Albany, Ga., where the Cuban baseball team was training. It was 2:30 in the morning, but Arrojo was wide awake. He got up, gathered a few belongings and -- careful not to disturb his sleeping roommate -- slipped out the door. Outside, he looked across the street toward a funeral-home parking lot. There, hidden between hearses, sat sports agent Joe Cubas in his Mercedes 420. Cubas flashed his lights, signaling all clear. Within minutes, Cuba's best pitcher was bound for Miami -- and for the negotiating table with major-league teams.

Absent Arrojo, Cuba is still favored to repeat as the baseball gold medalist. The team arrives in Atlanta with a nine-year, 120-game winning streak in international competitions. Arrojo will be missed -- he dominated U.S. Olympians in an exhibition on June 29. But Cuba's squad is deep in talent and experience. ""I don't see them losing the gold even with Arrojo gone,'' says Arturo Polo, executive sports producer for Miami's Spanish-language Channel 23. What Arrojo's flight does do is turn a potential cakewalk into a contest, giving the United States and Japan a better chance at an upset win. Those odds will improve even more if other Cubans defect.

Don't be surprised if some do. Sources close to the Cuban team tell NEWSWEEK that at least three players could ditch the team in Atlanta. Little wonder why. Since 1991, six top Cuban pitchers have signed lucrative deals with major-league clubs -- this at a time when crushing economic conditions in Cuba have forced the government to curb already meager perks for star athletes. The guiding hand behind most of those signings? Sports agent Cubas, who began courting Cuban players four years ago. For the past month, Cubas has shadowed the Cuban team during its exhibition tour of the Eastern United States, dangling the prospects of major-league jobs to potential defectors.

Cuban President Fidel Castro -- a pitcher himself once -- last week denounced Arrojo and other defectors as Judases who ""sold themselves for 12 coins.'' But it's not just money drawing Cuban players to the States. After years of success on an amateur level, many Cubans are eager to test their skills against the best in the world. Arrojo says he saw his first big-league game on TV during a trip to Nicaragua in 1986. ""I knew then I didn't measure up, but I [saw] possibilities,'' he says. ""Now I'll see if I can do it.'' And he will be rewarded with gold.

WHAT TO WATCH: Shortstop Eduardo Paret, touted as the next Cuban superstar.

WHAT TO WATCH: If he retains his speed into the final jump, he could hit 19 meters.

Athletes run to a takeoff line and hop...

landing on the same foot from which they took off. Then they step...

and land on the opposite foot. Then they jump...

and land in the sand pit, falling forward.

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