Tim Montgomery 1975–

Athlete

At a Glance…

Sources

Sportswriters deemed Tim Montgomery the fastest man on earth after he set a new men’s world record for the 100-meter dash at the Sade Charlety in Paris on September 14, 2002. That day, Montgomery clocked in a run of 9.78 seconds at the Grand Prix Final, a top track and field event of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). He had been attempting to break a previous world record set in 1999 by his archrival, fellow American sprinter Maurice Greene. He recalled in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Tim Layden that, once he hit the 30-meter mark in the race, “there was no one beside me. I thought I’d dig in deeper, and I just ran, ran, ran.”

Montgomery was born on January 25, 1975, in Gaffney, South Carolina, where his family had a farm. He loved to run, even as a child, and during television commercial breaks would sprint around his yard a few times before settling down to watch cartoons again. His speed made him a standout athlete in high school in several sports. “What I wanted to be when I was a kid was a football player,” he told Guardian interviewer Jim White. “But I couldn’t gain the bulk that was needed because I didn’t know the right weight training. I was always way too small for football.” When he broke an arm in a game, Montgomery’s mother urged him to take up track, and he ran his first 100-meter in under ten seconds when he was just 17 years old.

Montgomery studied at Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, and transferred to Norfolk State University in 1994. Located in the Virginia port city of Norfolk, Norfolk State was known for its strong track program. While in school, he competed in several junior track events, and did well in the sprint and relay events. He posted a time of 9.96 seconds at a 1994 event, but after the track length was measured, it proved to be an inch shorter than regulation and Montgomery’s time was invalidated. At the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Montgomery and his teammates won a silver medal for the U.S. Olympic team in the 4 x 100-meter relay. By 1997 he was ranked as the world’s fourth fastest runner, and second in U.S. standings. His strongest competitors were Maurice Greene, another American, and Donovan Bailey of Canada. Bailey had set a new world record in the 100-meter in 1996, posting a time of 9.84; Greene beat that by an astonishing 0.05 seconds at the 1999 World Championships in Athens, Greece.

At a Glance…

Born on January 25, 1975, In Gaffney, SC; two children. Education: Attended Blinn Junior College, 1993–94; earned degree from Norfolk State College, 1996.

Career: Sprinter, Emerged as strong finisher in junior championships, 1992–95; began entering USA Track & Field-sponsored events, 1995, and qualified for world events sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, 1997; signed endorsement contract with Nike.

Awards: Silver medal, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, in 4 x 100-meter relay; bronze medal, 100-meter dash, 1997 IAAF World Championships; earned gold medals, 1999 and 2001, in 4 x 100-meter relay at the IAAF World Championships; gold medal, 2000 Sydney Olympics, in 4 x 100-meter relay; silver medallist finisher, 2001 World Championships, and gold-medal winner, 2002 World Championships; Jesse Owens Award, USA Track & Field, with Marion Jones, 2002.

Addresses: Office— c/o USA Track & Field, One RCA Dome, Suite 140, Indianapolis, IN 46225.

Montgomery, who placed fourth in Athens, was determined to best that time.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Montgomery and his teammates—who included Brian Lewis, a former Norfolk State runner—won a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay event. In 2001 Montgomery posted a 9.84-second finish at a track event held in Oslo, Norway. He began telling sports journalists that he would soon break Greene’s record, and an intense rivalry developed. At one point during the U.S. Championships, Greene was advancing to the finish line ahead of Montgomery, and turned back to shout at him, “This is not a game. This is real,” according to a report by Simon Turnbull for London’s Independent Sunday newspaper. Montgomery confessed he had a difficult time sleeping then. “Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Maurice looking back at me,” Sports Illustrated writer Brian Cazeneuve quoted him as saying.

Montgomery’s new year started with promise. He posted several excellent times in races held in Europe, South Africa, and Japan. At the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Paris on September 14, 2002, he made good on his claims to jettison Greene’s record, and ran a 9.78 in the 100-meter sprint. It was a new world record, but initially Montgomery did not know he had broken it. He recalled being happy only to have bested another top competitor, Dwain Chambers of Great Britain, as he’d wanted to do that day. At the finish, he turned to the crowd and waved his arms. “I didn’t see the time when I crossed the line,” he told Turnbull in the Independent Sunday. “It was only when my coach picked me up and slammed me down that I realised something special had happened.” Even his start had been an impressive one: cameras recorded his takeoff after the sound of the gun at .104 of a second—less than .100 is deemed a false start. Sports Illustrated’s Layden hailed the less-than-ten-second feat as “a stunning performance, a marriage of talent, opportunity and execution.”

Since 1999 Montgomery had been training in North Carolina with Trevor Graham, a Jamaican Olympic runner who had won a silver medal at the 1988 Games. Graham also coached Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones, and Montgomery and Jones became romantically involved. A few months after Montgomery achieved his world-record time, the pair parted company with Graham. In December of 2002 they were snapped by a photojournalist as they prepared for a workout at Toronto’s York University track with Charlie Francis, the disgraced coach who had been banned for life from coaching Canadian runners. Francis had coached Canadian Olympic runner Ben Johnson, who ran the 100-meter in 9.79 seconds at the 1988 Seoul Games for a gold medal, but subsequently tested positive for steroid use. Francis had supervised Johnson’s drug intake, arguing for many years that performance-enhancing drugs were a necessity in the upper echelons of sports, in order to achieve winning results.

Montgomery and Jones were widely criticized by the international sports press for working with Francis in secret, though neither of them have ever tested positive for drug use. Australian and British race promoters rescinded invitations to each of them, and a European league threatened to ban them from future events. Pressure from their sponsor, Nike, was said to have caused them to finally break with Francis, who, despite the Ben Johnson debacle, is still considered one of the world’s best coaches for sprinting. “I really don’t think the publicity was fair,” Montgomery told Guardian writer Duncan Mackay. “I was only 12 in 1988. What happened happened. We are here at this point in time. It’s time to move on. Charlie was very upset that he brought stress on us when we didn’t do anything wrong.”

When word came that Montgomery and Jones were to become parents in the summer of 2003, the press dubbed their progeny “the world’s fastest baby,” for Jones was ranked No. 1 in her gender after finishing the 2002 season undefeated. While the two train together, Montgomery said they don’t compete. “I don’t run against Marion, no,” Montgomery joked in a Guardian interview with Jim White. “She is not someone who likes to be beat.”

Sources

Periodicals

Business North Carolina, April 2003, p. 17.

Guardian (London, England), September 16, 2002, p. 21; October 21, 2002, p. 20; February 3, 2003, p. 15; February 10, 2003, p. 13; May 3, 2003, p. 16.

Independent Sunday (London, England), June 9, 2002, p. 21; September 15, 2002, p. 8; September 22, 2002, p. 14.

Maclean’s, September 30, 2002, p. 10.

New York Times, September 15, 2002, p. 1; December 4, 2002; April 27, 2003, p. 10; May 11, 2003, p. SP9.

Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), June 4, 2003, p. 29.

Sports Illustrated, July 29, 2002, p. 84; September 23, 2002, p. 50.

Sports Illustrated for Kids, November 1, 2002, p. 6.

Time for Kids, September 27, 2002, p. 8.

Times (London, England), September 16, 2002, p. 18; December 26, 2002, p. 33; January 23, 2003, p. 37; April 11, 2003, p. 1.

—Carol Brennan