Painting a sprint masterpiece

There had been strange times for Justin Gatlin. First he was given a two-year ban after testing positive in 2001 for a drug Gatlin had been prescribed since childhood to treat attention deficit disorder. Then the ban surprisingly was shortened to a year, which led him to leave the University of Tennessee for the pro track circuit, and he immediately became world indoor champion in 2003.

Bad news. Good news. Then more bad news. In one of his first outdoor races last year, Gatlin tore his left hamstring. It frightened him into rethinking his approach to a sport he almost had abandoned after high school because of his talent as an artist.

“I remember coming in as a professional that I wanted to conquer everything I got into, to beat every record I could beat,” Gatlin said. “After I got hurt, it settled me down a little bit because I got scared–for my health and well-being.

“I never knew when I could get injured again. I never knew the extent of my injury. It could retire me for all I knew.”

Bad news became good news, telling him to slow down, that he was going too fast. He took time off before finishing last season by winning a $500,000 purse at a 100-meter race in Moscow.

A year later, Gatlin became the fastest man in the fastest 100-meter race in Olympic history. “I’m here to make history,” he said.

Gatlin won Sunday night’s final in 9.85 seconds, with Francis Obikwelu of Portugal second in 9.86 and defending champion Maurice Greene of the U.S. third in 9.87. Gatlin’s training partner in Raleigh, N.C., Shawn Crawford, was fourth in 9.89 and Asafa Powell of Jamaica fifth in 9.94.

Never in an Olympic final had more than two men bettered 9.9 seconds or more than four broken 10. “This,” Gatlin said “is why I shoveled snow off the North Carolina track.”

The kid who grew up jumping fire hydrants in Brooklyn had become, at 22, the youngest 100-meter champ since 1968.

“He ran a remarkable race,” Greene said.

Gatlin started well, accelerated better and held his form all the way to the finish. His controlled lean was a big change from the wild lunge that helped Greene beat him at the Olympic trials.

“I couldn’t even feel the race,” Gatlin said. “I felt like I was 100 miles ahead.”

One hundred miles, 1/100th of a second, it’s all the same in the end. Gatlin was able to take off on a victory lap during which he carried one American flag and autographed another and had his head adorned with an olive wreath that he soon gave to a friend because it itched.

“I was just shocked my dream came true,” Gatlin said.

There is nothing like the anticipation of the final seconds before the gun goes off in the men’s 100, when the crowd falls silent and the runners settle into their blocks for a race completed in less than 10 seconds. For 10 minutes before that, the atmosphere at a sold-out Olympic Stadium was part rock concert, part wrestling match.

As loudspeakers blared the Syrtaki dance music from the film “Zorba the Greek,” with its ever-faster tempo, Greene stuck out his tongue and stomped in front of the blocks, Aziz Zakari of Ghana rocked his shoulders and head to the beat, and Crawford chest-bumped with Gatlin. Powell finally lay down in front of his blocks to conserve energy.

“The electricity was enormous,” Greene said. “If you weren’t prepared to run, they got you prepared.”

Crawford had looked best prepared in winning his three races leading up to the final. Gatlin was struggling to put all the pieces together.

“Justin had a few problems that we talked about,” said Trevor Graham, who coaches Gatlin and Crawford. “Then he came out in the final and executed.”

Graham’s bigger job with Gatlin came after he tore the hamstring 16 months ago in Mexico City. “He had never been injured in his life,” Graham said. “I just kept encouraging him.”

The suspension after testing positive for the stimulant Adderol was an even lower point. “He cried,” said his mother, Jeanette.

The international track federation cut the suspension in half after accepting Gatlin’s medical explanation for using the drug but told him a second offense would bring a lifetime ban.

Everything had come easily to Gatlin until then. He had not even begun to take track seriously until his junior year in high school in Pensacola, Fla.

Gatlin was more interested in art and said he eventually turned down two art school scholarships to accept a track scholarship at Tennessee, where he won the NCAA 100 and 200 as a freshman.

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One of his portraits, using wire and burned wood, is of a kid in a concentration camp. Another is of Christ rising.

“When I do art, I like to touch the world, make people see what is going on in the world today.”

In the track world, what is going on is a doping scandal. Six athletes who have trained with Graham have tested positive. He also formerly coached Tim Montgomery, world record-holder in the 100, and Marion Jones.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is seeking a lifetime ban of Montgomery and investigating Jones on evidence from the federal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the California lab at the center of the biggest scandal in track history.

“All sports have some kind of tragedy,” Gatlin said.

Graham admitted publicly for the first time Sunday that he had given the USADA the syringe that triggered the scandal. It contained traces of a previously undetectable steroid, THG, that was linked to BALCO owner Victor Conte, one of four men indicted for supplying banned performance-enhancers to athletes.

“I was just a coach doing the right thing at the time,” Graham said. “I have no regrets.”

Funny how things work out. After THG was identified and urine samples retested for it, European 100-meter champion Dwain Chambers tested positive and was banned. Montgomery struggled to fifth in the U.S. trials after being implicated in the scandal.

Gatlin made history, perhaps because Graham may have changed it. Strange times, indeed.