United States legendary sprinter Michael Johnson said he was “attacked” and “accused of racism” after questioning the quickness of the times in the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the World Athletics Championships.
The backlash directed at Johnson began after the event’s semi-final on Sunday afternoon, when Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan stunned the field and the crowd in Eugene, Ore. by winning her heat with a time of 12.12 seconds and setting a new world record in the process. Amusan smashed the previous record by 0.08 seconds and led the rest of the particularly fast field into the finals.
However, Johnson was immediately skeptical of the times posted in the semifinals of the event. He pointed out that half of the 24 semifinalists recorded personal bests and that Great Britain’s Cindy Sember admitted after setting the British national record that she thought she was running much slower.
“I don’t believe 100h times are correct,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I throughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked.
“Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not.”
Johnson’s comments quickly became the target of fierce backlash on social media, which resulted in the four-time Olympic gold medalist returning to Twitter with another statement that sought to explain why he pointed out the fast times in the first place.
“As a commentator my job is to comment,” Johnson wrote. “In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned, I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on.”
Amusan went on to win the gold medal with an even faster time of 12.06 seconds, but the mark will not be eligible for the world record because it was wind-aided. Her victory was the first for Nigeria in any event at a world championships.
