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Hello ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcap. I am your favorite UK Shannon sharp Key's your favorite Number eighty five, the rock Runner Extraordinaire, the Bengal Ring of Fame, Artery, the Pro Bowl of the Allpro, the Legendary you know it from Samo Juco, the Oregon State, all the way to the Bengals where he made a name for himself, and from Liberty City. That's chad Ocho Cinko Johnson, but you can
call him Oho. Please make sure you hit that like button, Please make sure you hit that subscribe button, and guys, make sure you go subscribe to the Nightcap podcast feed wherever you get your podcast from. Every subscriber counts, and remember you are the reason we enjoy a level of success that we've enjoyed thus far.
Thank you. With no further ado, we got no more introductions to make.
Harry Is is the current world's fastest man Olympic gold medalist in the one hundred meters. He's a three time two hundred meters champ at the World Championship. He anchored the world the gold medal winning team in the World Championship last year. Harry Is, Ladies and gentlemen, no, allow, no, how you doing, bro feeling good? Feeling good? That race leading into it, you ran your fastest time leading that Diamond League meet.
I think you ran nine to eighty one.
You know, Kashane Thompson has run nine to seven seven, and everybody's talking that's the man to beat, that's the man to beat. And you had never run sub nine to eight to run it in the finals when you absolutely had.
To have it.
Tell me what was your strategy going into that race and how were you able to pull it off?
To be honest, I have many strategies. They all kind of you know, were thrown out the window. The closer and closer we got to the finals. You know, in the first round, I'm like, okay, you know, I'm gonna work on my first sixty. I'm gonna get out. But you know, you know I have add so my brain is working on overdrive. It's like, well, we could we could get out easy and then hit it hard, or we can get it hard and then shut it down,
or we could run fast all the way. And the problem was I thought too much and then I underestimated my competition. It's like, nope, seek now you had to you messed up. I'm like, all right, all right, I need to call my brain down. I needed to get it set on one goal. So we get to the semifinals.
¶ Noah Lyles joins
Now I'm like, all right, aggression, mindset, power, everything like that. And it produced, you know, a really good time eighty three. You know, it tied again my second past the time which was my pr before London. So I'm like, all right, you know, I'm good. I'm good, but you know I feel I can go even faster. You know, I didn't want to get beat you know, so here I am coming getting second in the semis. I'm like, you know what's going on. So my my therapist calls me and
she's like, you're running with aggressing. You're running with a Noah. That is not you. And I'm like, okay, fair enough that that's not me. You know that that's an older way of thinking. That's just not how I run. It's like, you need to run free, need to run with no pressure. Just go out there and run. And I'm like, all right, cool, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna just run. And she said, if you control the crowd, you control the race. And I know
I'm like, well, shoot, that's that's how I do. I'm gonna show me. That's that's what I do. You know, all I gotta do is be new. That's all that takes. I'm gonna win the race. We get you know, we're getting out there, I'm just like, just be me, Just be me, Just be me. We get out there and you know, they're doing the intros and you know, Kashane comes down, Kashane he ends up, yeah, and I'm like, oh, hold on, that's that's me.
That's what I need.
But I didn't hold them for it. I liked it though, because I love to see more personalities come up than just look at the camera say hi, walk out and it's like, nah, Noah, bring that energy, like get me excited to run. So you know, there's another YouTube video that NBC put out where it's like you can see us in the back of the car room, you know, Fred and on the side, you know, banging on the wall. It's like, let's go.
You know.
Case Shane's doing is yelling. I'm over here singing dreams the nightmarees. I'm like, yeah, this this is an Olympic final. This is an Olympic finals. So you know, I go out. I'm jumping around, I'm running past the cameras, I'm yelling at the crowd and they over here like yeah excited. I'm like, yeah, this is this is my race now. And you know, from that point on, it was just repeating you know, you know, God got me, God got me, got me because at this point I've done everything that
I need to do to win this race. Everything that I needed to do has been done in months in advance. You know, we're already here.
Now.
It's just a believing in myself that it's gonna get done. And it's not about running fast times. It's about running to win. The times will come when you run to win. No, I think you got a lot of pushback. You run the World Championship last year and unprompted, you said, you see these hats and they have World champions on it, which we've always called the basketball players. We've always called the NBA.
The NFL, the Super Bowl champ we've always called MLB, we've always called the World champs. And I think that's where a lot of the blowbacks, because it seemed like one of America's best athletes were taking another was taken a shot at some of the America's best athletes. And I think it kind of put you under the eye because then you know, basketball players said what they said. Some football players chime then also, and then for the first time I actually saw some of these athletes like
openly rooting against you. I mean you might not. I mean something you were probably never seen another country. You're not going to see the Dutch, somebody from Dutch rooting against Fimka, a rooting against our Carston Needs from Norway or Inger Britsin. We're not gonna see that. Do you think you brought some of this on yourself with that comment, or what were you open to accomplish by making that comment.
I think the last question that you asked, what was I trying to accomplish by making the comment, is the most important one. Everybody sees the clip, everybody sees the thumb. Now, everybody sees the sixteen seconds. But did anybody decide to ask what's the question that he that was asked to me? The question that was asked to me is how do you feel knowing that when you go back to your
own country? Unlike these other countries that celebrate their athletes on such a humongous stage, when Tobojo won his gold medal, he went back to a stadium filled with thirty thousand people celebrating. Yes, when I showed up back home on my flight, of course some people recognized me, and I'm very thankful for that. There was no thirty thousand people. There was no animal driver ready to take me home,
there was no bus waiting. If I had my mom, I had my pops and they were ready to take me home, and I was ready to go to bed. That was none of that. That was none of that, But that the difference. I can understand the difference because we have a different way in America of seeing our sports. The problem that I had was you were given the title of a world champion the people who weren't facing
the world. That's where I drew the line and said, that's hurtful because you already have those but you're giving the title the people who aren't doing that. Nothing wrong with being They are great here, they just didn't have the title. Is NICOLEA Jokic one of the best players in the world.
I'm gonna be outside of that, is okay, Luca Luka, Doncic ah, is he not one of the okay?
Jannisathaumpo, Yes, he's okay. What's the going are they? They're great, they're great players, great players.
But they're world players. They're not from America. And the problem that you're going to run into, Noah, is that Botswana doesn't have a whole lot of athletes to celebrate as opposed to Americans. If you look at probably Kenya and Ethiopia and Sedaan in some of these other countries, the Dutch, the North Norwegian, we got NBA, we got MLB, we got football, we got baseball and so yeah, teams they have parades. Nobody is getting for the most part,
even Michael Phelps. I don't know if they did they have how many people showed up at M and T. I don't know if Michael Felts were the eight goals, I don't know if he had thirty thousand show up.
I know they might have had a big contingent cheering him on.
I just think that the difference is Noah is that in a sport, in a in a in a country like Botswana, or you're talking about a country, he's their hero. He is he is to both Swanna, he's Lebron James. Yeah, that's what he is to both.
Smart Yeah, I agree, Uh.
You saying both what he is to Jamaica Peeve Peeve? He is there Michael.
Jordan's I agree.
I agree.
Michael Jordan went Chicago, they showed out for the parade, but but probably when he went back to Wilmington where he was from, ain't no thirty thousand show up for Yeah?
No, I agree. No, I agree one hundred percent that I'm not expecting that. I'm not expecting the parade. I'm just showing that the difference of how our sport is shown, and because the question that was asked again was how does it feel knowing that when I go back home it's not with somebody like to Bojo's getting when he goes home.
And again, I know what it is.
I know what it is. I know we have you know, football and basketball, baseball, golf, those are all above my sport.
I know that.
I'm cool with that. Of course I want to make that better, but I understand that. Again, the only problem I had was you have world champions, but you're giving the title to people who aren't facing the world. Yeah, and you're giving them the title of world champion. That's the only thing.
No, can you provide some context.
There's this Time magazine story that came out that revealed that while you were negotiating your contract with Adidas, they offered you an invite to a shoe release for Anthony Edwards. And I think everybody's read the quote quote. Can you provide context?
Yeah? But what transpired?
I mean, look, we don't need to get into negotiations, but what transpired is what's being reported.
How accurate is that?
So?
What what was going on at the time? I was in negotiations for over a year with Adidas to get to get the contract, them offering me, you know, to go to ants for shoe release. Who had nothing to do with the contract. They just thought it would be cool that I would show up as one of their Adidas act. Unfortunately, they agree for it very late. They asked for it probably about two weeks in advance, and I was already scheduled to walk in the Hugo Boss Show in Milan, which was a day and a half
before his shoe release. So at first we were trying to figure out ways that we can get there, and it was like, yeah, this this, this isn't good. This isn't gonna work. There's no way that I'd be able to walk and then get on the flight and have energy enough to be able to go to this Evan because it wasn't just the shoe release. They were also gonna, you know, have us go to a little baby concert and we were gonna be just signed. It was gonna
be a lot. It was gonna be a lot, and I was already drained from you know, flying over, already doing the fashion shows, doing the walks, you know, going to other advents. You know, I was already drowned like this, there's no way that I'd be able to physically do this.
Well, I know, I agree with you flying overseas and then it's someone that's flown overseas and then come back you kind of jet lag, but you probably shouldn't lift it?
Is that?
Is that the other stuff where you get into trouble were people is picking apart what you say it is because like, oh no, I'm the world champ and he's getting this and you have the wherewithal the forward thinking to see that he's going to be special, and why can't you guys see that with me?
Now?
I will say, being very vulnerable in this moment, I felt very unheard. At that moment with Adidas, I felt very unheard and we and and to give an example, people do a lot of things. What do you do when you feel on herd? You try to shout louder yes, And I felt that I have had many conversations trying to shout and it hadn't gotten through right. And unfortunately that was one of my moments where I felt I had to shout to even get them to look my way.
Okay in that time article, because they asked me if I wanted to take it out, and I decided I was not going to because I had to stand on my decision. At that moment. I felt that I had to shout to get even a conversation about what I wanted to happen or what was going on at that point.
I mean, that's that's to be to move forward.
Could it be handled? Probably? Was there more ways to do it, probably, But in that moment I felt that I had taken so many steps in other ways that I had to shout at this moment.
Do you regret your decision not to have that removed from the article?
I don't believe so at the moment. This conversation could be had in a year and I could have a different answer at this moment. I do not feel so, because I still still. If I did not shout at that moment, I would not have had the preamble to oh he is serious. And when I said it at the Olympics, they knew it was still on my heart.
In track and field, there's only been two men that's ever had a shoot Michael Johnson and you saying.
Two. Yeah.
Michael Johnathan had the world record in one hundred and the two hundred and he don't know anything but gold medals. I think he's a four time world champ in the four hundred, two time world champ in the two hundred, he's a two time champ and the four and he's a one time champ in the two hundred.
And you say, I just say you saying boat, I don't need to.
Say anything else. Why do you believe that you deserve to be in that category? With those guys looking at their accomplishments, not to say you're not done yet, but looking at their accomplishment accomplishments, looking at yours, Why did no allows believe he deserves to shoot?
The reason I believe it is twofold one. We look at Michael Johnson. Michael Johnson, he is a He's a track guy, through and through. That's all. He's track and he loves track, and that's what he decided his lane was going to be. I don't feel that in his time period, we had the social media, we had the marketing, the self marketing to be able to push it forward. Of course he had Nike, and Nike was doing very well,
but they wanted to keep it. You know, I don't think that they really wanted to keep pushing it, and I don't know if Michael Johnson wanted to do the work or not to market it as well as No, I don't know how much they had in their contract to keep that shoe alive. That's where I'm going to leave it with that. The time period wasn't right with you saying both the CEO that actually gave the bolt
his shoe is now what it did is. And I've had conversations and I think you saying was very excited in the moment, and then he got excited about something else when it was time to do you know, the underground work, the marketing, the commercials and stuff like that, and that scared a lot of companies I think in that moment. Also you saying is Jamaican. The marketing in the US is different. I feel in the US is it turns out when it comes to marketing, entertainment and
marketing is the US is bread and butter. We know how to do that, like that's just our thing. So now that I'm an American in a time period where it's self, marketing is very popular and it's very you know, it's strong. You know, everybody wants to do it. Everybody's looking at it. They want the brand, They want the identity. You know, a person's identity is more marketed sometimes than a brand at times, and now we see them as brands. I know that I can do the work, I know
that I can get the metals. But at the end of the day, I think that it comes down to guys. You now have the title of the world's fastest man. What do you do with that title? You tell them, don't you want to have the shoes of the fat world's fastest man. Don't you want to put those shoes on your feet. I'm wearing the same shoes as the world's fastest man. It's gonna make me so fast. It's the same thing, but the shoes. But the shoes that the world fastest man wears track spikes. The only wears
track spikes on the track. He trains in tennis shoes, and we am out he's in tennis shoes. And when people go out and run their goons, they wear tennis shoes. And when you're in the gym, you wear tennis shoes. Guess what you're wearing tennis shoes. Everybody wears tennis shoes. And the only reason that you don't see more marketing for tennis shoes and individual runners is because they just haven't done it.
Tyreek, you want you know, I can't believe you know who Tyreek kills. Don't do that, Noah, you know who kills the treat.
I'm gonna be honest. I forget his name all the time. I'm gonna treat it. If it's not about track and it ain't about legal legends, my yeah, I got I got man. Get this, Tody Reek. It's just chasing cloud the man. Anytime somebody fast comes up, he says he wants to raise him. If he really wanted to race people, he would have showed up like DK Metcap and the man raced in the sixty meters this year in the master's division. The man does to smoke. I don't got time for that.
Hey, Riki call out care.
Hey, you know what, Let's get a couple of fay Let's see if we can get some sponsors. Would you be willing to race or one hundred if we got some sponsors to put some money up.
He's challenging me for racing in one hundred. We can race if he if he's serious about it, if he's truly serious, about it. I'm not talking about you just talking on the internet and you ain't actually coming to me and talking to my agent and saying, let's say something else. You are seriously about it. I like that. You'll see me on the track.
He's a two time Olympic champ at fifteen hundred meters. He's a one time Olympic gold medalist at eight hundred meters, and he won the silver medal in the eight hundred me in the parish. He swam swam at the University of Florida under the Great Anthony Nesty, and he saved the men because had he not won a gold medal, there'll been the first time since nineteen hundred no individual man had won a swimming gold medal. Welcome to the show, Bobby Me Bobby, how you doing.
I'm Dan good.
Thank you for having me.
And over one hundred years, had you not did what you did, the men would have been shut out of the individual goals.
Did that add pressure to you? Oh yeah.
I mean I'm someone who personally likes reading all the comments and everything, so I'm.
Like, he's like major news site. I was.
I was going through like every article, reading every comment and everything, and like there's a bunch of comment says saying like Bobby better be listening to like Lose Yourself on repeat right now or something, because he's a last chance. I knew about the record going in before I knew how hard it was going to be, and you know, I'm just fortunate enough I was able to get it done because I did not want my name attached to that for that to be no down.
So yeah, we got it done.
Though, Are there any mental strategies that you go through to prepare for a high competition race, especially like for one represent an entire country, the Open, Paris Is, the Olympics. None of us have meddled in all the pressure in the eyes of riding on you. Are there are there any mental strategies that you do, any superstitions.
Yeah, I don't know if I really got I call them like superstitions for me, but everything is really just how I prepare her for the race, especially over at the Olympic village. I don't know if you guys have heard about, Like the food was very controversial.
A bit.
Food wasn't the best, but I had so much pasa just in the days leading up. I was carb looading, like crazy and I hate Pausa right like I oh my god. But like in the day leading up to that fifteen hundred, a lot of it was motivation of how angry I was after the hundred when I lost.
Because a silver metal is great and everything. I understand that, but like for me to down out was pissed after that race because I didn't win, and I needed that kind of fire in me to be motivated for the fifteen hundred because I want to stand on top of that podium. I want to hear the national anthem. I haven't heard much all meat and I need to hear it and I need to do it for our team.
And you know, behind the blocks, I was just telling myself to stay calm, but the not like a power is in you, but like you know what to do and you know how to swim, You've done it one hundred times. It's really a whole mental game you're having with your brain is just telling yourself that you know you've done it, you.
¶ Bobby Finke joins
Can do it again. It's nothing new to you.
When you look at the situation and when you broke the world record, you really and you didn't get normally when people break world records, they're getting pushed. You finished four seconds ahead, But I mean, what the hell, let me just like you have, like you have a motor boat and they had paddles, And so I'm watching you and I'm seeing your stroke and it's so smooth when
you're swimming in a race of that distance. Obviously, you know, you got the fifty meters and you got one hundred meters, you got the different strokes, but when you're fifteen hundred meters, there's a lot of time for you to be in your own head.
What are you thinking about when you when you're swimming fifteen hundred meters.
Yeah, So I normally race my competition and I'll start behind them for the most part, or I'll stay right next to them. So I like the one hundred the two hundred, when I had like a body like lead, I was kind of like, what's going on right now because there's just so abnormal for me. But I could kind to see the scoreboard a little bit when I was racing, and on the scoreboard they were showing the world record line. So I was kind of mentally racing
back the whole time, and I was mentally racing. Yeah, I saw the world record line like three times during the race, and that kept me going in the race so hard. But also like I'm very aware of like what is going around me. So I knew Greg Pationary, the Italian who was in lane five, two lanes over, I knew he started to inch up on me a lot. And same thing with Daniel Within, the Island representative who won the eight hundred previously. I knew he started to
catch Greg a bit. I was kind of peeking over there, but I knew as long as I stood or stay ahead of Greg, that I would be able to stay ahead of Dan. So I was kind of keeping it. That mental is just like just stay ahead of them. I don't have to be too far away from them or like drop back to be at their pace. I just needed to stay right ahead of them, and that that was.
Really a big mental game for me.
It was just trying to, you know, be aware where they are even though they're behind me, make sure I have a safe distance from them. So that's really what I was smoking on.
I just wanted on behalf of a shade. She Media and Nightcap. We're very proud of you here. I know my subscribers as proud of you I know the US is proud of you, and to show you how proud we are of you.
I don't know if you can see that. Can you see that in your screen?
Kind of? I don't know. Make sure you can see it. I can take my take my glass off.
Okay, here, gon zoom in my camera. Guy gonna zoom in. We're gonna zoom in. We're gonna make sure you see this.
Can you say, god, oh my god, we got we got the information.
So by the time oh wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, Bobby not in order to get that, In order to get that in its entirety, when you come back to Florida, we have to race.
Whatever you want to do.
You guys want.
Hey, if you can beat me, it's all yours. Oh congratulations, though, man, get us something, get us something.
But I'm proud of you, bro. Congratulations what you've been able to accomplish thus far. Stay healthy, good luck down the road. I mean the world's the next year. Uh and then in two years after that you got the Olympics in l A. So we look forward to follow your career. Continue success, bro, and congratulations again on your com Schmid.
No, you got.
Guys. Oh wow, you guys are amazing.
Yeah, Jesus, you know you're writing, you're writing clear Water right, Yeah, yeah, you know.
I live in Miami.
How far are you from me?
Uh about four and a half hours.
Oh see you more?
You more like Orlando down that way?
Uh yeah, yeah, I'm near.
It's just because sorry, I.
Think it's just because of the way you have to get to Miami, right right, because you gotta like not straight through the other everyblades you have to go to like Naples first, and then.
Yeah, yeah, we catch up.
We'll catch up. We gotta we gotta, we gotta gotta.
Yeah.
I mean, you guys are already legendary in your sport, but you guys are legendary for this.
I can't think you got any success. Then enjoy you, know, and I appreciate you stopping by this morning. We appreciate you stopping by Nightcap this morning, and look forward to talking to you down the road.
Bro.
Yeah, no, thank thank you.
I appreciate everything you guys have done for your sports and then obviously for the Olympic Games. It's time you special for the athletes. Yeah, as a dream. This is a dream and you guys are well part of it. And thank you, thank you so much.
We have a very special guest joining us, the reigning two hundred meter Olympic champ. She's a member of the winning World championship four by one. She ran a blistering third leg. They qualified this morning with the fastest time, even though they had a little hiccup between t T and herself with the exchange. They're gonna correct that, gonna on another gold medal. We're going to talk about her possibly running on the four, running a leg on the four by four.
Welcome us, ladies and gentlemen.
Gabby Thomas has a undergrad degree and neurobiology and she has a master master's degree in epidemiology.
Is that correct?
And she's currently at the Austin where she serves underprivileged underprivileged women.
Is that correct? Also?
Yeah, Yeah, I volunteer at a healthcare clinic where I provide healthcare services to people who.
Let me ask you this, how much pressure? Because you got the bronze at at the last Olympics, you got the silver. If I'm not mistaken at the past Worlds, you're the face of this big ad with Toyota. You're the face of this now, Jerika Jackson, she steps out. That's even because there was pressure on you to do better than what you did at the last Olympics. Now Sri Rika has withdrawn. Now there's a ton of pressure. We had Justin Gallan, who the a world champion and
an Olympic champ. We had Michael Johnson, the world champ and an Olympic champ. He said, sometimes the things that can wait an individual of an athlete down is expectations. How much what type of birden were the expectations. You're the face of this Toyota ad. Okay, gabble you out there. Okay, we see you. You better bring home going.
I know everyone kept texting me talking about, oh, I see you on Toyota everywhere, like before trials.
Even before I even made the Olympic teas.
Yes, you know, they were showing my face on the Toyota ads everywhere. So I hadn't even become like the Olympian yet. So there is definitely a lot of pressure. And for me in twenty twenty one, like coming from Harvard and not having any you know, medals or having made any USA team, it was just a lot of fun for me. Like I was going out there and running and no one had any expectations. So I was
having a great time. I was like, all right, let's go, let's go line up next to Alison Felix, Let's go see what happens.
It'll be great.
And then as soon as I made the Olympic team changed, and then as soon as I got a bronze medal, right, it changed. Now suddenly people are talking about, Okay, if you don't meddle, now you know that's an L. Right, if you don't make this team next year, you know that's a big L. And so it immediately changed my mindset.
And then even going into this year, yeah, I'm going in as a favorite and there I mean, I was telling people before I even stepped up to the line for my prelim, I have never felt this type of pressure before in my entire life. I mean, you walk, you walk out there and you're just you're by yourself, like you don't have a team to take that loss with you. If someone messes up, there's no there's no redo,
¶ Gabby Thomas joins
there's no next play, there's none of that. It's like, all right, you're gonna go out there by yourself in front of eighty thousand people, and then you know the millions of people watching at home. And if you don't get it right in this one moment, especially in the short sperence, it's over. So it's definitely a lot of pressure. But for me, I practice like I meditate. I practice
like focus. So if you can dissociate in that moment, you know that separates the good athletes from the great athletes. If you're over there on the line thinking about how many people are watching you, you're gonna mess up, and you can you can see it in people's faces when they line up to the line. You can see you can tell when you're watching an athlete. You look in their eyes and you can see like, Okay, this person has figured it out. They're about to knock this race out.
And someone who's scared and like, all right, this is going to be they don't have to fight for this.
Are they anymore world records that the Americans can get?
Will you guys challenge that that forty point eight two that the women ran in Beijing?
Is that possible?
Can we see sid in film cabol Lord that fifty point sixty five in the four hundred meter hurdles for the women. Will we see Carston Warholme, Rob Benjamin, you have Alison dos Santo's, we have a samba of tutter. Will we see anybody go up on the world record in any of the remaining sprints? American?
I think so.
I think, I think you're definitely. I think y'all are going to have to open up your wallets a little bit because.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're spending our money, Gavin.
I hate, I hate to say it, but I do think. I mean, I think the four by one girls we can definitely challenge the world record, the previous world record team. They spoke to us just last week about it, and I think we are very capable. And the hurdles, yeah, it's a rap. It's a rap tonight. I don't know if it's gonna be some there Sydney, but I think it'll definitely go down.
Somebody's gonna have to run low fit.
If if Filmkua beat said she's gonna have to go low fifty, maybe even sub fifty.
Sydney is ing.
I'm talking about in great form. She's in great shape, she's a flawless I mean, she can run, she can run the one team. She can run the hurdle the lower for the women and be good her technique thing she wants. She has tremendous sprint coming into it. That twenty two oh seven. That's still like what the eighth or ninth best time run at two hundred meters. She's run forty eight seventy five at four hundred meters. She's probably if you run a work at it, get a
start right. She might be sub eleven at one hundred meters. And I know film is unbelievable. She ran a blistering sub forty eight split on the anchor leg. We've seen the win the world indoor at forty nine seventeen, but see it is a different. If this is an upset, I don't care what anybody tells you. If Film Cabo beats sending mclachland Levroni in the four hundred meters hurdles, this is a huge upset.
Ain't happening.
Ain't happening in Captain, oh sir, one thing sid gonna do. Like you said, it's all about moments, and whenever that moment has been good, she shows up to the cave. Yeah, already shows up.
That's one thing Bobby.
The one thing if you go back and study Bobby Cursey's history, his runners at big meets, they perform, if they if they if they line up, they run, they run well. And so that's not the short change Filmica, because she's been unbelievable. I actually kind of want to see that thing come down in the four hundred meters, the four by four. I won't see it in film. Could have get the baton at the same time, and
let's see what happened. Let's see what really about. Oh Joe, I told you we're gonna try to make this thing the real Olympics. We're gonna have people that actually participated in the Paris Olympics, and we're gonna get we were gonna going to have former greats. The guy that's gonna talk with us for about forty five minutes today is a former two time world champion two hundred meters. He's a former four time champion a four hundred meters.
He was a.
Former world world record holder at two hundred meters, at three hundred meters at four hundred meters. He's still the current American record holder at three hundred meters and four hundred meters and he ran the anchor leg on.
The world breaking.
World championship four hundred meter relay team of two minutes fifty four. He's a two time Olympic gold medal in four hundred meters. He's a one time Olympic champ at two hundred meters. He's the only man to successfully depend his four hundred meters crown and back to back Olympics in ninety six and two thousand and he's the only man currently to win the four hundred and the two
hundred in the same Olympics. One of the greatest printers in the history of sprinting, arguably the greatest printer in American history.
Michael Johns, good to see vote Man, good to see you.
I haven't talked to both of you guys in a while.
Mike.
When you hear the accolades, you know, four time world champion four hundred meters, two time world champion two hundred meters, a two time Olympic champion, four Olympic champion, two back to back, nobody into history. The game's been going on since eighteen ninety six. And we see some young guys come in and they win the four hundred. Early in their career at eighteen, I mean nineteen twenty years of age and can't replicate that you did it later in your career. Why has it been so hard for men
and women to repeat? I mean it's more common in women repeating, But why has it been so hard for men to repeat.
The four hundred?
It's some difficulty event, man, It's difficult for people to get consistent in that event. You'll see somebody come out run forty three seconds, become a forty three second a four hundred runner, But then you'll see them in some races running forty four high, forty four mid, not consistently under forty three seconds. The four hundred meters is one of those races where you need to be consistent in order to deliver that type of performance when it counts
at the Olympic Games. And what happens is is you have somebody run the Olympics, they get it right then, and then if you see them in those races outside of the championships being very inconsistent running forty four highs and that sort of thing, then there's a likely chance that when they get back to that next championship, they're going to run worse not better, it's just the way that it goes. You have to try to get consistent with that event. It's a really difficult event to run
because it's such a long sprint. There's a lot of room for area. There's a lot of ways to make mistakes in that race. It's hard to get it right, easy to get it wrong.
How different is running a four hundred as a two,
¶ Michael Johnson joins
because we understand two is half the distance of four, But what's the difference? Because you were able you kind of started like at a two hundred. You won the first world championship at two hundred meters in ninety one, if I'm not mistaken, and then built up, and then you got the courage to say.
I can do both.
I can in the Olympics, buddy, You know how what kind of brass cohoonas you.
Gotta have to say I could beat the world's best.
At four and two in the same Yeah, it's probably never gonna be done again on the man's side.
Yeah, So a couple of people have tried since since I did it. Nobody even tried before I did it. You couldn't even the schedule wouldn't even allow for it. So I had to get them to get them to change the schedule. But yeah, I started as a two hundred meter runner, but when I was at Baylor, I was on the fourth by four and I was always splitting forty three. So I knew I could run four hundred.
But like in college, you always you can't really go back and forth between the two and the four very much because you're always preparing for got to qualify for nationals. You gotta get ready for conference, you know, in dooring, then the same thing I'll do in the Both of those seasons are pretty short. But I knew I could
run the four hundred. Then when I when I started my professional career, I was primarily two hundred, but I was running four hundreds at meets on the Grand Prix circuit, and I was running low forty twos bring number one in the world. But the first couple of championships, like that ninety one championship, like you talked about Sharnon, so I chose the two hundred, major team in the two hundred,
won the world championship in the two hundred. But I'm sitting there in the stands and I'm seeing Antonio Pettigrew win the four hundred meters. I'm like, I'd been beating him all season. I should be the world champion in the four hundred, but I can't run the four hundred. Now somebody else's world champion. So I was telling my coach then like, you know, I want to run both, and he was saying coach was like, yeah, we can do both. We just got to get him to, you know,
work out the schedule for us. So over time that became, you know, my thing, I'm gonna go to the championship. I'm gonna run the both to two and the four. Nobody had done that before. The races are very different the two hundred meters as are all I sprint. For most people, there's you know, some of the guys that's one hundred meter runners that's not really don't have that type of speed endurance to be able to a hole
that they can't run the whole thing. But if you come from like me, like having a four hundred background as well, I can run the whole thing. So the difference, you know, is there's less room for marchin marchin for era in the two hundred. You may be able to make one adjustment in that race because it's so short nineteen seconds, whereas in the four hundred you can make all kinds of adjustments. The problem is there's more room for error. In the four hundred. You're gonna make it.
You can make a lot of mistakes, and you probably will. Where's the two hundred, it's much more technical.
In ninety three, I think that was the time that you guys broke the world record at the World at the World Championship in the two in the four hundred, in the four by four, Andrew Vahman led it off. I think he ran split forty four to five. Uh, he passed the Quincy Watts. I think Quincy ran sub forty three to five.
He passed it.
The Butcher rentals and then with you with nothing to prove, Mike, you got it.
You guys have got this.
You already got a thirty minute, you got already got a thirty meter lead.
They hand you the baton, you go, what's going through your mind?
Because that was the first time in the history that somebody had a sub forty three split into four hundred meters.
You stepped on the gas. I think you ran forty two nine.
What's going through your mind as you're going around the track and you got nothing. You got a thirty to lead, Mike, What possessed you to do what you did?
This is a story. This is crazy.
So we broke the world record the year before nineteen ninety two, right, we just broke it by a little bit. Nineteen ninety two Olympics. I ran the two hundred. I didn't run the four hundred at the trials. I make the team in the two hundred. There's a debate about whether or not I should be on the four by four hundred meter.
I'm gonna tell.
You go back the year before that, nineteen ninety one, my first world championship in the two hundred, US lost the four by four hundred meter relate to Great Britain because they did put me on that reading.
Yes, the herd ran down, ran down you exactly right.
Chris Akabusi ran down. Pettigrew, the team coach that year, didn't like me, so he said, hey, we don't need Michael Johnson on our by four hundred meter relay. He didn't run the four hundred meters at the trials. We don't need to put him on. We can win it without him. I'm raating number one in the world undefeated for two years. Right, he does not put me on the four by four. They lose The next year in nineteen ninety two, I'm on the four by four. I
got food poison right before the Olympics. You remember this, Shannon, we talked about this, so I do back then what happened. So I got food poison, didn't make the final in the two hundred. They's like, we still need you on the four box four. I'm like, man, I'm not. I'm I'm not even I'm a shell of myself. I can't even run that fast right now, they're like a seventy
five percent Michael Johnson is better than anybody else. So let's go each on the street lift Like, okay, So my split in ninety two when we broke the world record, I was the weak leg on that relay.
I still remember. I remember lost weight.
I'm still feeling I think I split like forty four nine or maybe even forty five flat. It was horrible, but we still broke the world record. So fast forward to what you're talking about. Ninety three. I had just won the four hundred, beat all of those guys. Now we're coming together in the four by four. Yeah, at that point, it's like I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
make up for last year. And then also if we broke the world record last year with me at forty five flat, if I can put it down like what I'm normally used to doing, We're gonna put this world record to a point where I ain't know we got anybody gonna break it for thirty years. And that's where we are today. Nobody else still broke that record because those guys a grand fast man, I ran forty two nine on the anchor.
What are your thoughts on the current state of track and field right now? And how do you see it evolving based on where we are now? Because you did just say it comes in waves, it goes and wave. Do you think we're right on the on the on the right track to kind of dominate in the sport again? And maybe the one, the two and obviously the four.
Yeah, it's good of course. Oho.
So look, the Jamaican has been taking it to us for the last city, you know, I mean you got to give them credit. I mean this is a nation of less than three million people and they go toe to toe and sometimes, like I said, and for the last sixteen years they've been handing it to a nation of three hundred million people. That's crazy. What else does that. It's amazing. That's why the Jamaican brand from a sprint standpoint is so significant. They're known around the world as
the sprint Capitol. They got great coaches, they got a lot of talent, and it used to be back when I was in college, all of the Jamaican athletes will come to the US for better training in facilities. Around two thousand and six seven they stopped.
They started.
They got some great coaches down there and they started saying, hey, just stay at home, we'll train you here. And that's when you saw that explosion. So you know, and it's just been it's been. It's been amazing. But you know, for us as the US, we saw what happened here in Paris. You know Noah Spread you know those guys, I mean, it's not in him. And look to Jamaicas have found some new talent. Shane Thompson, Vicolo Bleak, Bigsville,
those guys, they got some talent. You know, they had a little bit of a boid after Boat left, but now they got some more talent. But us got some too on the men's side. On the women's side, the Jamaicans have been it's been ridiculous. I've never seen a situation where they had two of the greatest sprinders of all time and then found another one on top of that with Shrikan and converted her from a four hundred meters to a one hundred two hundred meters sprend and
then now you got another one. It was just it's been crazy that that's that doesn't happen all at the time. So now what we're seeing is okay, those they you know, Elaine is pretty much done. Her body's just not going to be able to former coach you even said that her body's just not gonna be able to do that anymore. So she's probably on out and I'm probably going to retire here soon. Shelley Anne is done. She's the greatest of all time. She's done enough. She's retiring after this year.
And so so this is the first time like in this women's two hundred last night the other day, I mean, Gaby Wantaby, there was no woman Jamaican woman in that in that final, and a Jamaican woman has I saw this stat the other day a Jamaican woman has medaled in the two hundred every year, every Olympic year since nineteen seventy six. So it goes in stages and goes in ways. I think the US is at a position where, I mean, we're always at the top of the medal table.
But the events you talked about, Ocho, the sprints a bit of an employ for US in the last few years. But I think it's yeah, it's coming back. That's coming back.
We got the world record silver medal winning four by four mixed relay Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadman, Kylen Brown, and Samir little Burn. I'm gonna start with you, you the elder statesman here going into that, Did you guys think you could set the world record and qualifying and what was your strategy going here? Obviously you want to qualify, but did you think world record was a possibility.
To sin We already talked about it like before. Once we saw the lineup and the talent that we had, we was like, oh yeah.
We world record gone.
Because we knew world record was going to win the race anyway, so we like we just go out there and do our thing. I mean, from me starting all getting into Shamir to Bryce the KK I.
Mean, I already knew wor record was gone.
So and then we heard y'all comment about you know, y'all coming out with this cave.
They're trying out that easy look look because the line, I said, O, yeah, I might hear him out right now.
Tell that to the guys.
Did y'all know Bryce that when he got back to his room, he d M me about running my mother.
Yeah, that man, that man DM me right here.
I don't know, no you, I said, town, I heard y'all was talking about a little time on the show.
I was like, man, hold up, man, let me see them boys come to the world. I'm like them boss from around the waist. So I known they're gonna come through. And then y'all asked you came down like damn, y'all some real ones.
Man preciate.
And then there's a mutual friend he hit up a mutual friends said, man, I'm trying to get it unk.
I don't know if you go see my DM. Hey, yeah, y'all, Hey, it's all love. Hey, y'all, good, y'all come down to that roode. I got y'all, God, you got some love. The crew at Nightcab here and myself and Ohow and all of our subscribers and listeners and followers. Man, we wanted to show you guys that we really appreciate what you do.
The hard work, the.
Sacrifices, the time away from your family, the times that you don't feel like training, that you go out there and you push yourself other than you ever thought you could. And so for us at night it was an It was easy because to run a world record that.
Means everybody contributed.
Everybody did their part, and we wanted to hear at Nightcap wanted to say thank you, not only not only for your effort, but for what you've given before that race, because the race is the easy part. The hard part is the training up to the race. And so from us, from the bottom of our heart here at Nightcap, thank each and every one of you.
Every last.
Makes makes su y'all get some McDonald's with that money, now.
Hit me up, burning money. I ain't rocking like that, man. I'm telling you that.
¶ The 400 mixed relay team join
He's been chasing Carston Warholme, the world record holder, for the better part of three years, and he finally tracked down the Norwegian and the Rye here you, ladies and gentlemen, your four hundred meter hurdle champ with a time of forty six. Right, Benjamin Sir, Obviously you have an outstanding season. You have been performing really really well. Give us your
mindset going into the Olympics. You had raised him. I think you raised him once before at a Diamond League meet pre Limpic, and so you had.
To feel good because you.
Beat him, and you had beaten him three times since he last beat you, I think at the at the Olympics.
Yeah, in Budapest, they won Budapest last year, and then we went to Prefontaine.
I won that meet. Then we went to Monaco before the Olympics. That was a big one. We were all there. I won that one.
So going into the Olympics, I was I felt really confident. I was calm. I really trusted myself. I think mentally I was in a way different place.
Than I was.
Yeah, I CONTU had previous years and previous seasons, so I mean I just I went in. I had the confidence, you know, like I felt good. Energy in the stadium was ridiculous. It was actually like.
I've been to a lot of football games.
I've been to win the death Valley lsu okay, and I have never heard a stadium get that loud in my entire life. It was crazy. So it was it was. It was a phenomenal, phenomenal experience. So just you know, I went in with a completely different mindset and I was like, yeah, like I'm I'm the guy to beat and the only person that's going to beat me is me.
So yeah, I have a question speaking of that race at the Olympics, did you understand his strengths and weaknesses and did you have any type of strategic game plan going into that race and knowing what to do and when when the kind of hit it, when the back off.
I think the three four years we raced so much so I have seen every single race plan, every race strategy, and I think for me, right, uh, were the three of us are so good that very little separates us, and it's it's about who could be on on that day,
who's going to get it on that day? And I think, you know, throughout the entire cycle of the Semis, I mean the heat Semis finals, you know, I got dealt the right hand and and those guys were now ran fast like the first two rounds, So I knew being out in lane eight, I was going to be the one to kind of dictate what the race would look like. So in my head I was like, all right, like I need to I need I need to really push the pace, but not do too much so I have
enough to come home that last one hundred and meters. Yes, when when when? When we got out, like he gets out really really hard, so he covered me a little bit, and my whole thing was all right, just run in lane eight, like focus on your your ten hurdles and your lane and get off that turn, like put your foot in the ground and just go. And then coach Watts coachy watch. He has a we have this we joke around sometimes and he's like, yeah, if it's leaving,
I'm leaving. So we got off. We got off hurdle seven, and I was like, all right, man, I'm out of here. Man, So whatever happens happens. And I don't know if you guys saw, but like I was coming out yet off of seven and I stumbled a little bit. I was running so fast that like the centrifugal force pulled me out to the outside of the lane and I kind of like stumbled a little bit and I think that kind of costed me like maybe forty six flat. But at the same time, like I just had so much momentum,
I just kept going. So that was just that was my uh, that was my game plan going in. To be honest with you, just run my pattern. Do what I've been doing in the entire season. I mean, Uncle, we talked, you know, Uncle, send me a message sometimes after the race, even if it went good or bad.
So I mean, yeah, it was, it was. It was phenomenal, man.
I am.
I'm on cloud nine right now.
Right.
We had Michael Johnson on and I remember in Stutgart when they broke the world record into four hundred meters, they ran two fifty four to twenty nine.
And I can go back in my head.
I know Andrew Bauman laid off with forty four five and he went to Quincy, your coach, and I think he ran forty three three, forty three five. He had it to the world record holder at the time, Butcher rentals and he ran low forty forty three.
The race was blown over.
¶ Rai Benjamin joins
Michael Johnson got the baton and he said, because we had almost broke the world record where we broke it, but I ran like mid forty four, almost forty five. Because I was asking him, I saying, Mike, you do realize you ran sub forty three with a thirty minute lead, with a thirty of me to lead. And I said why. He said, because I didn't want to hear their miles. He said they had talked about me so bad, so he ran forty two nine. Did you think you guys
had a chance going into that race? Did you think this was going to be the second fastest four hund into history?
I thought we could have broken it last year. So after the past, like if you if you go to my Instagram, you look at my last relay post from Budapest, I was like, let's go after the world record next year because we had all we had all the pieces. Quincy's running well, V's running well. I mean I could get on the relay and give you a really hot split.
Michael Norman, he was coming back to run well, Chris Bailey, Bryce Deadman, and then we had a little Quincy just like you know, just shoot up out of I mean, I'm not gonna say out of nowhere, but like no one was expecting him to run forty four low and it's just phenomenal.
So we had all the pieces.
The issue is it's figuring out who to put on what leg to maximize those legs. And Okay, I think because Quincy had that little tweaking his hamstring in his final, like, we had to reshuffle the order. But I knew we still had the pieces because V had split forty three because.
Twice in the mid and I knew well three times because he ran to mix Relay D Life and he opened and the qualify.
Yeah, so V had the forty three in him.
I knew. I knew Bryce had forty three in him as well too, because he was consistently running forty forty four lows. So I knew if if if Bryce lights come on, he's gonna bring that stick around because he's from TEXTA and M, so he's gonna run. And and it just all came down to what my leg would be. I actually wanted to run second this meet because I knew if I ran second, I would run forty two eight or forty two nine on that wow, because I.
Yeah, I just know second leg is the best.
It's the best leg because you can on that tangent when you cut in, you can kind of cheat some meters if.
You do it right all them second legs. But fast.
I mean you still got to be fast to be on that second leg. But like, if you do it right and you run a good tingent, like I'm telling you, you can cheat it a little bit and you can get that split. So initially, so when that happened, you know, you know, coach Mike marsh came and was just like, hey, man, like, I need a.
Dog on anchor leg because.
Yeah, you you had to be on ankle. So I don't know, Roth.
I don't mean to cut you off, but r I don't know if anybody could have hold Tobe could have held Tobago off other than you because you, like you said, you had a strategy. He didn't put you under the gun because of your pace. I think somebody else.
Would have panicked.
And if you panic in that situation, he gonna chase you down like the Great Britain did. Antonio Pettigrew. We saw low a good friend of mine, Angelo Taylor. Same thing in the Olympics if you panic on that anchor leg, because everybody got their board dog with an anchor right, so everybody can go. Sub forty three could go so a sub forty four on an anchor.
Leg, gone it every single day as the first leg was forty three.
Then them boys came to run. I ain't really can't. They were not playing out man, they were not playing around.
So, oh, Joe, you didn't know this. But Ry was a quarterback, right what they play?
I was a wide receiver. Yeah, my dad said the wrong thing. Yeah, I played wide receiver in free safety in high school. And I okay, yeah, yeah yeah, I was so what, okay.
So why why did you give up football and went.
To the track Because I'm from New York and people in New York don't get good scholarships.
To go to big D one schools.
Okay, yeah, So I was like I ran track and it was like, you know, like I wasn't really getting we weren't getting good recruits or recruiters coming out to my high school because we were small high school in Westchester County in New York. So you know, we had one or two guys like you know, go to big universities, but it wasn't like we were going to like l s U or or USC or a Clemson, you know
what I mean. So it was just one of those things where you know, that was my avenue out, you know, and uh and I was really good at track my freshman year, so I just stuck with it.
So you originally went to u c l A transfer.
I thought about walking on, to be honest with you, but they were like, yeah, you gotta give it your trash scholarship because the title nine no way in hell. But uh yeah, like a part of me wish I played in college. To be honest, yeah, I'm not gonna pull a Tyreek and say like, you know, I'm fast and no or I could go catch a Yeah.
How you know I'm after that? How you go ask you that.
You believe that on the show. I'm tired of the no allowed slander. Man, that's my.
Guy, Okay, we'll talk to him, talk to him about slander.
I'm not saying like I can go out and do what you guys do and catch a ball across the middle.
I know how hard it is.
I know how hard it is to read plays and and and and memorize stuff and and go out there and put.
Your body at risk every day. But Tyreek, you're not beating no in a hundred. Man.
There's just no way. And you probably won't even beat the top collegiate guys man like they now.
When it comes to men's skateboarding, there's no one more accomplished than this gentleman that we're about to sit down and have a conversation with now. He's from Davis, California, his name. You talk about world championships, you're talking about X game. When it comes to men's skateboarding. He is the de facto guy. He has his own Nike skateboarding shoe and Harry is Ladies and gentlemen, Niga, Houston, how you doing, Nija? You your first two rounds flawless, You
land some huge tricks. You're in the moment and at that moment, tell us what's going through your mind? You got one more run to make, You're you're right now, you're in gold medal position. You just got one one more round, one round to go. What what's going through your mind at that moment? And then the pressures did you start to tense up? Did you start to feel the pressure.
I mean, I like to say that I'm sure you guys feel this too. Is like anytime someone is very competitive and you care, you're gonna get gonna You're gonna feel the pressure, you know, that's just a part of caring about what we're doing, having that passion for what we do. So yeah, I mean I definitely felt the nerves out there, but I feel like I was handling it pretty well. Qualifiers went smoothly. First run in the finals, I landed my last trick sketchy, which really bummed out
because I got eighty seven. If I would have landed the clean, I would have got a ninety. So the second run, I definitely had the pressure on me, was
able to pull through. And then when it comes down to the trick section, it's I mean, it's I like to say that you go out there with with confidence, but you can't ever go out there expecting to land these tricks every single try because the stuff we're doing is just too technical and too difficult, and like so many things need to go right every time to land them every try. But it was it was going really good for me. I was in a good spot. I
landed my first trick. I landed my second trick, which got a little bit of a low score because I also landed it a little bit sketchy. You could see that my backfoot was hanging off the board a little bit okay, but I still got a ninety three for that one since I was solid. And then that last trick, man.
I was going for.
It's called a switch hill cricket grinding down the hubba Hubba is a down down ledge and it's a trick that I've been looking forward to trying ever since I saw the design of.
The course a few weeks before.
Yeah, the trick I've been practicing a lot lately throughout the past couple of years. And man, I felt I felt really confident going into it. The first one didn't go so well, second one got a little closer, and then when it got down to the third one, that's when I got bumped down from being.
In first to second, then to third.
And honestly, I think back on it, and when I was dropping in, I got my headphones in. I like listening to house music, so good vibes, got the hype going.
I felt.
I felt good. Man, I felt really confident dropping into it. I felt like the energy was right. I didn't feel my legs shaking or anything like that. So it's hard to really pinpoint exactly what goes wrong in those situations to not be able to put down the trick, but man,
really you can't. You can't think back on it too hard, and it'll just torture yourself because, like I said, the stuff we do on the skateboard is so technical that, like you know, it could be your your foot being in a slight wrong position, leaning back a little too much, going a little too fasts, going a little too slow.
There's a lot of things that come into play there, and I feel like that's something about skateboarding that's really uh man, it's frustrating because I feel like, like what you guys do in football, it's like you make I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you make a wrong a wrong play or a wrong move and you kind of know what you did wrong.
Yeah, yeah, important.
Man.
It's just it's so frustrating because if you just play it back in your.
Head, you're like, damn, what went wrong? What could have done differently?
But when it comes down to it, man, it's it's it's hard to stuff for doing out there, and it's not easy to land those trips.
Every time.
You've been credited with taking skateboarding from what Tony Hawk started four decades ago and making it more mainstream making it more popular. What was that transition like? Because everybody knows Tony Hawk is the godfather. I mean if there's a godfather of anything, he's the godfather of skateboarding. And you were you credited with like, Okay, it's mainstream. Now, we see it on television, now we see kid, it's
¶ Nyjah Huston joins
in the Olympics. What more can you ask for? Because it's it's a global sport. Now what when you hear that? What does that make you feel?
Nigic?
I mean just being in the same you know, conversation or compared to it all to a guy like Tony Hawk is a is a true honor.
My first skateboard ever was a Tony Hawk board. I grew up to with.
His demos and being like, oh ship Tony, Like even though even though he wasn't a street skater, he was a bird scared the big rand, right.
He was such an inspiration And I.
Guarantee skateboarding would not be where it's at now in the Olympics if it wasn't for Tony Off. And yeah, I've heard some people say a similar thing about about me, you know, pushing the progression and getting more eyes on street skateboarding. Man, skateboarding is a special thing, especially when it comes to the street skateboarding, because it really, it really is what it's called. It comes from the streets.
You know.
People first started skateboarding on the sidewalk cruising around here in southern California, and then people started flipping the board, and then they started skating little curves, and then they're jumping down handrails, and then there's contest, and now it's in the Olympics. So I think the I think that's the most special part about skateboarding is it's it really is so different from any other sport out there, to the point where it is it still feels weird for
me to call it a sport. I see it more as away of life. We away of life and you know, a lifestyle fativity.
That's the gold medal winning four hundred meters. He just ran the second fastest time in Olympic history. He won the goal put us back on top of the podium for the first time in the four hundred meters since two thousand and eight.
That is Quincy Hall, Chris Bailey.
It was reported that you're dealing with a little hamstring issue, a leg issue, and you weren't able to run. So they laid off with Chris Bailey who handed the vernon Norwood, Bryce Demon and Rod Benjamin. And if burning Norwood, he's had an unbelievable because he's ran extremely well at the mixed doubles, and yesterday he ran us back into qualification running forty three to five.
Today he split another one.
But it came down to that ancor leg and you know you got to be a boy dog to stand tall on that ancor quincy. You got less Low tobac Lesla Tobogo run forty four, and you got Rod Benjamin, the reigning Olympic champ at four hundred at the hurdles when they got the baton. Tell me what would have been your strategy and what did you like about how Rod played it?
Rob played this move man.
Rod knows that Toboga is a quicker running, so Tobogo can't really like trail him as much. But if I, if I was Roby, would have took him out a little bit faster and made him chase a little harder. But Rod played the smart man right had a long week Rose champion, So Rob played the smart and if if Tobogo would have tried. I feel like Roy would have ran a little faster, but yeah, Rod played it real smart, Rose a good dude.
I thought Roy didn't stepped on the gas because he wanted to make sure he has something left at the end. Because Tobogo ran the third last fastest split that's ever been run. He ran forty three three. Ry ran forty one forty three one three, which is the fifth fastest.
Only two men.
Have ever run sub split forty three obviously, that's Michael Johnson Jeremy Warner. Tobogo has the third. In the ninety two Olympic Quincy Watts ran a forty one one of forty three. I keep saying forty one, ran forty three one and then ride today. So what we saw today, it doesn't normally come down like this. Well boy, that was that's what we want to see because normally we just run away with the thank you.
Yeah we already were just run away with But I kind of seen it from the uh from the pre Lims and then from the from the go to good that Boswana got a good team.
You know what I mean, it's just now you has just got some dogs.
Boswana got a strong team and they got like five six guys at the run. Forty four men and forty four mini translates to forty three in the split. So now we knew Boswana was gonna be strong and stuff like that. But without me being on the relay, I knew we could win it just because we got some dogs too. I mean, I know Quincy Wilson, he split forty seven, but it's his first time being out here.
On the global stage.
And uh, I say, he's been dealing with some hamstring injury too, But it's it's just like I said, it's learning experience. But any anything we put out there, I had my money on our team.
You do know, if y'all, if you run on that relay, y'all, that royal record might be two fifty three.
You know that, right? You ain't right.
I've been seeing a lot of comments about it, but I don't like to think of it what it could have should because I'm not that type of guy.
I'm a I'm a what happened? You know what I mean? So I don't like to put myself. It's not about me right now.
It's about them four guys that step up line and ran that race and wanted so it's not about me.
I run, I won a four hundred. Yeah, that's cool.
But I didn't step out the day because I didn't feel I didn't feel comfortable with my hamstring.
I didn't want to.
I didn't want to be tight or like happen to stop running in preventing the USA from being the gold medal. So that was just a business move and just being being a bigger person, being a good teammate.
I'm curious, how did you we saw the four hundred, Yeah, we saw come off that last curve.
Who you are? Forget that part.
I need to know how did you mainly prepare for the pressure of competing on the world biggest stage. I just want to know that first. Then we'll get to the to the race and the end results.
Well.
Uh, like I said, man, I don't, I don't. I don't really like talking about the track. I don't really like talking like that. But I consider myself like being one of the mentally strongest pressons out there, and I don't know, I don't think there's no.
Pressure on me.
Like every time I go out there, it's like me racing in the small meat of somebody else. I don't really I don't feel no pressure like that. I don't know about the mother. I don't feel no pressure. All I feel is that I practiced by myself. So when I'm out there and i'm out there grinding, I'm out there doing my my my my meters, and I'm out there doing my heels and all of that stuff. And I just feel like if I'm out there by myself, because my coach is always Califorida cars own, and I'm
out there by myself. So when I'm out there just putting me in my work and do my ground, I'm out there telling myself to like, come on, cute, let's go. You know, you gotta get up, let's go. So if I don't want it myself, then nobody's gonna want it for me. So it's not really a mental standpoint.
It's just me.
I got bills to pay, you know what I mean, I got daughter.
I'm just keeping it real with you know, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
I look at it like as the bills every day on the first. So I pick myself up, I tell myself to do it. I encourage myself. You can't encourage yourself. Nobody else cancurage it for you. So it's not really a mental standpoint on how I can get myself ready. It's just that do all mentality, you know what I mean. You gotta you gotta want it yourself.
Man.
The volume