Inside Track and Field

Speed Bump  

Despite another disappointing finish, Maurice Greene says he's still the man to beat in the 100 -- but is he?

By Grant Wahl

Is Maurice Greene done?

That's the uncomfortable question facing one of history's greatest sprinters after a disappointing 2002 season and an even shakier start to 2003. Last year Greene, 28, lost three straight times to U.S. rival Tim Montgomery, who ran 9.78 seconds to break Greene's 100-meter world record by .01. The whispers got louder last Saturday when Greene finished third (10.33) in a Montgomery-less 100 field at the Adidas Oregon Track Classic outside Portland. "There're a lot of people saying I'm on the downside, that I'm done," Greene acknowledged the day before the meet. "But I know what I can do. It's my job to prove those people wrong."

Greene (center) finished behind Collins (right) and Capel at the Adidas. Peter Read Miller

Alas, thanks to the ever-raging shoe-company wars, Greene won't get the chance against the 28-year-old Montgomery at this Saturday's Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. In a sport that's struggling for attention, the world's two preeminent male sprinters will have competed in elite meets only 123 miles and seven days apart -- but not against each other. The reason? After spending eight years with Nike, Greene signed a $1 million-a-year deal with Adidas last May.

His less-than-amicable divorce from the Swoosh ensured that he wouldn't be invited to the company's Prefontaine meet. (Montgomery, similarly, was not invited to the Adidas meet.) "I felt betrayed," says Greene of his treatment by Nike, which refused his request for a signature shoe while creating one for Bob Kennedy (the world's top-ranked 5,000-meter runner in 2001). "I've done a lot of things for that company, but it was as if they didn't appreciate anything I had done. That really hurt."

Responds Nike rep Beth Hegde, "It's unfortunate that Maurice feels that way. We wish him well, but we're psyched to have Tim Montgomery, who's just coming into his prime."

Greene attributes his struggles last season -- his worst year since 1997 -- to the stress resulting from the deaths of a grandmother and an uncle, and his shoe-company switch. With all that behind him, he says he's encouraged by his training this spring, notwithstanding last Saturday's 100, in which he made like Mo Lasses coming out of the blocks and couldn't overcome winner Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis (10.21). "No excuses," Greene said afterward. "Just gotta get the cobwebs out."

There's still time, of course. Greene may not race Montgomery until the European season begins in June, and perhaps not until August, at the world championships in Paris. (As the defending world 100-meter champ, Greene won't need to qualify at next month's U.S. nationals.) For now, regrettably, Greene will battle Montgomery through the media instead of on the track.

Greene still contends that he's the world's fastest human, pointing to his 100-meter victories at the last three world championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "Titles are what make you the world's fastest man," he says. "A lot of people can run a time, but can a person go through everything it takes to win the world or Olympic titles? I've done that time and time again. Until you take my titles away from me, I don't think you've earned [the crown]."

Issue date: May 26, 2003

For more Inside Track and Field see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, May 21. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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