Michael Norman was learning Japanese before the Tokyo Olympics. To talk to the relatives of her Japanese mother, who used to be a runner during her growing up years in her homeland. The son of an African-American father, a runner, and sprint mother, Michael seemed set to take gold in Tokyo. “He’s going to win it,” his father would say, a sentiment shared by American media and fans. “He’s getting a little bit popular in Japan,” his mother would tell KSL Sports. As it turned out, he crashed in the final.
The American media was shocked. A columnist for the LA Times could not hide his satire. The first was brought up before the ‘Bran’ tag turned into a knife: “Norman offered an explanation for his 44.31-second disaster in the Olympic 400-meter final without breaking the stride, specified post-race interview Whip through the zone. Or even looking up. It’s a shame she didn’t run the second half of her race on purpose. Without saying a word, the lowest achiever in recent history The most disappointing athlete on the US sprint team just disappeared.”
Michael Norman of the United States won the gold medal in the 400 meters race. He had the stadium rocking. pic.twitter.com/rRR1AuyF79
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) 23 July 2022
Grenadian Kirani James, who won Olympic gold in 2012, was taking her mother to the hospital in 2019 when she died in a car. His world began to crash only a few years before that. During a race, shortly after the Rio Olympics, he couldn’t muster his energy, finishing sixth in a race of eight. “What was the worst point? When I was not feeling like myself,” he would say later.
It was diagnosed as Graves’ disease, which made his thyroid overactive. He will lose 20 pounds. He took refuge at home with his mother. Fortunately, her coach remembered a famous female athlete from the past who suffered from the same ailments, who had lost 3 years due to illness, but returned to take gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The coach requested Devers to speak to James. Confidence, inspiration floated. Found a way out of the disease.
But his mom, whom he used to call from all over the world for how his “rice, curry chicken, stew chicken, macaroni pie doesn’t come out like mom”, wouldn’t be there to see his return from hell. Last year he had said, “I had a disease. It is still going on, I have to be on medication for the rest of my life. 2019 I lost my mother who was the patriarch of our family…, wish she was here to see me back would have been.”
In Oregon, Norman was trying, with redemption, to prove to himself and the world that he was no bran. That he was the fastest in the world even under pressure. To make your mother proud.
In Oregon, James’ goal was to prove to himself and the world that a rare disease could be fought, that a mother’s dream didn’t have to go to waste.
The two fled, with varying urgency. Norman, in an inner lane, with Kierani James to the left. Commentator will meet Norman’s challenge. “Michael Norman has everyone looking out for him, but there’s Queen James inside him, and the Grenadian finishes incredibly fast.”
And so it was proved. At the final turn, just as the final 100 meters was about to begin, James started kicking. He gets next to Norman, and for a fleeting second it even seemed like he was moving, a shoe-climb in the front. At least, both were definitely on level. Norman, flaunting his white headband, pumps forward, and just as he is about to cross, the white label bearing his number rips off his shorts and flies behind him. As if it was the bran tag that flew off.
Other than that, on that final lap run, we can see that James is doing his best to catch up with the man trying to get rid of his demons. But focus on his left foot for a moment while you catch the replays.
The left foot is wide, to the left, a sight that a decade ago puzzled her coach Harvey Glens, the 4 x 100m relay gold medalist at the 1976 Olympics. Worried that it would slow him down, Nazar had a word with a young James. “He (James) said it was a family feature. I kept this in mind. I didn’t try to change it. The bottom line was that I was seeing results,” Nazar had said then. After winning the 2002 gold, James would say of that left leg, “It could be better but it could make me worse. Why take that risk? I’m already doing some great work. which it is.”
It is what it is. Just deal with it, his approach was, as he did with serious illness, the death of his mother. Like Norman did with assumptions about himself. Two men in pursuit of greatness, two men trying to leave the recent past behind, two men trying to hold on to each other. It was some race. Perhaps, the man who needed one particular victory more than the other, won.