Johnson, Greene Out

There is something very wrong with this picture. Three men, none considered among the world’s best in the 200 meters when the U.S. Olympic track and field trials began, are crossing the finish line 1-2-3. About 80 meters up the track, limping slowly toward them while clutching his left hamstring, is reigning world champion Maurice Greene. Farther up the track, writhing in pain while flat on his back, also the victim of an overstressed left hamstring, is reigning Olympic champion and world record-holder Michael Johnson.

Lord, what hath we wrought?

It was billed as the race of the century--in the early months of a new century, that wasn’t too much of a stretch--and the result, as anticipated, will be talked about for decades to come, although for all the wrong reasons.

It couldn’t have been a coincidence that the two men who were expected to turn the event into a match race, the two men who in turn raised the expectations by running their mouths almost as fast as their legs, were the ones who were injured. Could it?

I don’t think so. Johnson and Greene obligingly played the roles assigned to them as modern-day gladiators, fighting to the finish, if not the finish line, and although it would be a stretch to imply that the 24,072 fans at Cal State Sacramento were as culpable as those in the Roman Colosseum, there was plenty of blame to go around.

Switching centuries yet again, Craig Masback, USA Track & Field’s executive director, compared the bizarre ending to a Shakespearean tragedy. Fortunately, no one died. If early reports are correct, no one was even seriously hurt. Johnson’s left hamstring cramped, Greene’s was strained. Both should compete in September in the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Johnson in the 400 and Greene in the 100. But, for a few scary moments, it seemed as if we might have sacrificed our two greatest sprinters in pursuit of a spectacle.

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The first mistake we in the media made as in underestimating the others in the race. Underestimating? How about ignoring them?

Of this, Johnson and Greene also were guilty. Both had to run harder than they expected to win their first-round heats Saturday. Johnson complained afterward of a sore right quadriceps muscle. Greene didn’t talk about any problems--didn’t, in fact, talk about anything for perhaps the first time in his life--it is now clear that neither was physically ready to run two more races--Sunday’s semifinals and final--as fast as it would take to win. “You [ticked] the other guys off,” Johnson said.

Those other guys, for the record, are John Capel, who won in 19.85 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year at sea level; Floyd Heard finished second in 19.88; and Coby Miller finished third in 19.96.

“I ain’t going to let you down, Michael,” Capel, who now has a good excuse not to be playing football at Florida this fall, said when Johnson emerged from the medical tent.

Who did let Michael down?

NBC, which insisted that the men’s 200 meters, hardly a marquee event in past years, should be the climactic race of the network’s second weekend of trials coverage. The USATF officials who obliged them. Most of the rest of us in the media who played it as a winner-take-all grudge match, when, in fact, it was merely a means to a more important end in Sydney. Greene and his HSI teammates who created the grudge by accusing Johnson of ducking him for the last two years. Donovan Bailey, who questioned Johnson’s manhood when he pulled up in a real match race between them three years ago. Yes, Donovan Bailey. Like they say in the South Park movie, blame Canada.

Before the semifinal Sunday, fans lined the practice track as Johnson tested his leg and implored, “Michael, you’ve got to run.”

We all got what we asked for.

“There’s nothing more for me to achieve in the 200,” Johnson said later, sounding as if he wished he had listened to his body and nothing else. “Mo had to lot to gain if he won--he’d be the new king. You guys would have a lot to gain too. We can all learn a lesson about this.”

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Johnson shouldn’t absolve himself completely.

He didn’t start the verbal warfare with Greene, but he certainly pumped up the volume both in his comments over the last two months and in his controversial USA Today column that appeared periodically during the trials.

What hath we wrought?

Johnson seemed to have a premonition as early as the middle of last week, when, still not completely recovered from a fast 400 win a few days before, he began to wish that he had not been drawn into the trash talking.

“It’s getting to be like the Donovan Bailey race,” he told USA Today. “It may be worse. It’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth. . . . It (the hype) keeps building. I don’t want anything to do with it any more.”

But, even though he had a legitimate excuse after cramping on Saturday, he knew it was too late for him to pull out.

“I couldn’t stop,” he told reporters Sunday. “You guys would have killed me.”

He’s probably correct.

Now, in fairness, we should praise him.

“Only the greatest champions would go out and do what he did today,” Masback said. “It took incredible courage, knowing he wasn’t 100% but running anyway. In some ways, that defines a champion more than an Olympic victory.”

Yes, but there’s also the old saying about discretion being the better part of valor. I know that puts Johnson in a no-win situation, but perhaps he risked too much for the wrong reasons. Perhaps a lot of us pushed him.

We cheer when Kerri Strug ignores a throbbing ankle to land the winning vault in the Olympics, when Lance Armstrong overcomes cancer and some of Europe’s highest mountains to win the Tour de France, when Jack Youngblood plays football on a broken leg. Heroism is to be admired. But it should not be demanded because we want a thrill.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com