Will this be the last time Americans dominate the Olympics?
The story goes back a ways, back to the mid-1980s, when Michael Johnson was still in high school.
The famous sprinter was years away from winning gold medals at three consecutive Summer Olympics. He wasn’t yet known for those glittering golden spikes.
A nerdy kid, Johnson was running track at a small magnet school in Dallas. The team’s coach, Joel Ezar, who taught health class during the day, knew only a little about technique but could spot raw talent.
“No one was paying attention to me,” Johnson recalls, “until he started writing letters to all these colleges.”
Baylor University offered the unpolished athlete a chance to hone his skills with a coaching staff versed in speed and strength training.
“It was a critical moment for me,” says Johnson, who wonders whether he might otherwise have fallen through the cracks and never become an Olympian. “I made a huge leap when I got to college.”
This story might sound quaint but it shows how college sports have served as a vast feeder system, helping the Americans dominate every Summer Games for the past 25 years and making them favorites to again win a lion’s share of medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
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