To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today’s memory.
Charging around the Sydney 2000 athletics track with his gold necklace swishing around his neck and gold Nike spikes on his feet, US sprinter Michael Johnson stormed to Olympic glory in the one-lap dash.
Exuding class, swagger, poise and athletic prowess, the superstar from the Texan city of Dallas raced to victory and set a new Olympic record in the 400m.
He clocked 43.84 seconds and beat his closest chasers, fellow US sprinter Alvin Harrison and Jamaica’s Greg Haughton, by more than half a second.
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Hurtling around the track with his renowned upright gait, short stride and pumping arms, Johnson also became the first man to successfully defend an Olympic 400m gold medal.
After bursting over the finish line in front of a raucous crowd of 112,000 people at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, the then-33-year-old raised his arms above his head and soaked up the electric atmosphere with a calm smile.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see Michael Johnson win 400m gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics!
His 400m victory was one of many glorious moments on a night that become known as “Magic Monday”, having also featured Cathy Freeman’s heroics in the one-lap sprint, Haile Gebrselassie’s 10,000m win over Paul Tergat in a pulsating sprint finish, Stacy Dragila’s triumph in the pole vault, which set a new Olympic record, and Anier Garcia’s victory in the 110m hurdles, among other track and field magnificence.
In the Spanish city of Seville a year before the Sydney Games, Johnson had claimed the 400m world record with a time of 43.18 seconds, which stood until Wayde van Niekerk’s amazing run at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Johnson’s Sydney 2000 triumph capped an incredible period of about a decade by the African-American champion, which yielded eight world championship titles and four Olympic gold medals.
He won his first Olympic gold medal as a member of the US’ 4x400m relay team in Barcelona in 1992, before clinching gold in the 200m and 400m at Atlanta 1996.
He strung together 32 consecutive wins in the 200m between 1990 and 1992, as well as 58 consecutive wins in the 400m between 1990 and 1997.
The curtain came down on a legendary career in 2001.