So according to the Gleaner, American athlete Michael Johnson believes Asafa, along with the rest of the current crop of top athletes is too boring. He states in his column in the Telegraph,
‘But the new generation, talented as they are, lack the individual personalities that add the extra spice the sport needs, particularly in years like this when there is no major championship.’
(see links to the articles at the end of the post)
Johnson seems to believe athletes like Asafa hurt the ‘viewability’ of the sport. Hurt it by being excellent in their field?!! Is he on something?!!!
Why him don’t leave the man alone eeh? It seems as if he wants men of Asafa’s ilk to create excitement off the track, when he creates more than is necessary in the place that counts, on the track. An athlete’s exciting performance in his field of endeavour is enough to hook viewers; he/she shouldn’t be expected to jump through additional hoops to get attention. My job is writing tenders in order to get my company business. If I translate Johnson’s point of view to my job it would be like saying in order to get a potential client to read a tender I need to deliver it in a gold lame batty rider, wine up myself, make an opinionated pronouncement on some current affairs issue and argue with a competitor about who’s tender is better!
Fair enough, some athletes are also outgoing, but some aren’t, and if like Asafa, they are quietly dignified while performing outstandingly, then leave him to be himself. I believe Johnson’s point is ridiculous and smacks of him trying to egg on some sort of rivalry between Asafa and Gatlin in the hopes of some sparks being created. Not everyone performs best in a spirit of animosity, real or staged.
Leave Asafa to do what he does best – run – extremely fast.
Links
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/05/03/sojohn03.xml
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060504/sports/sports1.html
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