Michael Johnson (sprinter)

Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, 1967) is an American sprinter who became Olympic Champion four times. Quotes I had already been into my professional career for six years and had not won an individual gold medal at the Olympics. There was a tremendous amount of pressure going into 1996 to get it done. First of all you have to acknowledge the pressure, but you can't ignore it. That's the mistake a lot of athletes make. The image of it was like clinical psychology, with someone sitting on the couch listening to the athlete. The impression was that if you were speaking to a sport psychologist then there was something wrong with you, That perception has changed. One of the main techniques I used was focusing on the goal and visualising myself competing in the race before the race started. The mind is absolutely instrumental in achieving results, even for athletes. Sports psychology is a very small part but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundreds and even thousands of a second. Before the race, if I'm starting to spiral down some negative thought, I've trained my mind to recognise that immediately and be able to make the adjustment to stop thinking about that. Everybody is aware that their mental state impacts on how they do anything, When margins are tiny, people need to be able to control their emotions. Some people are motivated by more pressure, some people perform better under pressure and some people don't. I think it's important first and foremost for an individual to understand themselves and be honest with themselves in that way and then start to make the adjustment and develop a strategy for how you will achieve success. The most important thing is focusing on yourself. You can't control what the other athlete is going to do, you can't control anything except for your competition and how you execute the race or how you execute the task. London 2012: Michael Johnson on coping with Olympic pressure, May 2 2012 This is my final season, I am retiring, I will be going on a farewell tour—and I am not going to the World Championships. During all my career, whenever I went to the start line feeling healthy, I never thought I would lose,I was only beaten once thinking like that, by Frankie Fredericks over 200m in Oslo in 1996. Frankie was the athlete who gave me the most trouble during my career but once I have retired, the 400m will become more open and it will be one of the most exciting events in the world. Every year I have run, I have always set myself targets. But there aren’t anymore, I am going to spend the year going back to some of favourite places and be able to sign autographs, have pictures taken and interact with the crowd. Often, when I am warming up and don’t sign, it is not that I have not wanted to, just that I am preparing for a race. Now I will have the time. It has been a fantastic career. Michael Johnson confirms his retirement for 2001, January 16 2001 External links Category:1967 births Category:Olympic gold medalists Category:Track and field athletes Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from the United States Category:African Americans