Donovan Bailey exclusive: Four life lessons from an Olympic legend

It was billed as the race to crown the “World’s Fastest Man”.

Canada’s Donovan Bailey and the USA’s Michael Johnson were set to race one-on-one over 150m, the midway point between the respective distances in which they had built their careers and names.

Both were Olympic champions, both world record holders.

But for Bailey, who just a year earlier had earned the title traditionally given to the owner of the 100m world record, even the suggestion that the label of “world’s fastest man” was up for debate was an affront.

“You know Michael, if you want to be the fastest man in the world, run the 100m,” the Jamaican-born Canadian said in pre-race clips that were broadcast to 2.584 million people in Canada on CBC.

Johnson himself was equally bullish in the lead-up to the race: “If I go out there and win, which I fully expect to, I consider myself still the fastest man in the world,” said the American, with an extra emphasis on the word “still”.

On Sunday 1 June 1997 in Toronto, on a purpose-built 150m track, the starting pistol finally fired for what was one of the most highly-anticipated races in history.

Starting on a bend, Bailey, who had been given the inside of the two lanes, burst out of the blocks, overtaking the man considered “the greatest turn runner in history” before they had even reached the final straight.

As he stormed to the finish line with victory in his sights, the Canadian turned his head backwards to catch a glimpse of how close his rival was to him.

Johnson was nowhere to be found, having pulled up injured with almost half the race left to run.

It was a controversial ending to what had been a trailblazing moment in track & field history.

However, once again, the Olympic champion, world champion and reigning 100m world record holder had confounded many people’s expectations and proved himself the greatest sprinter of his day.

Lesson 1: Sometimes the only way forward is through disruption

“Michael and I, we’re a team,” says Bailey, reflecting on his race with Johnson in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com. “We don’t get enough credit for being trailblazers and pioneers in the business of sport for - while we were in our primes - deciding to go against each other for the good of the sport.”

Even today, 26 years after that famous 150m showdown, people have not forgotten the impact of the race both in terms of growing the popularity of the sport and also providing a new way of financially rewarding the athletes who were involved.

Both Bailey and Johnson received a $500,000 appearance fee for the race, with an additional million dollars reserved for the victor. It means that Bailey, who finished the race in 14.99 seconds, earned over $100,000 for every second run.

Today, in a time when track & field is said by many to be in crisis, those are the sorts of numbers athletes dream about.

So what can we learn today from the “fastest man in the world” showdown in Toronto? Bailey has an answer.

“The one versus one in Toronto was the biggest broadcasting race outside of the 100 metres at the Olympic Games,” he says. “And also, remember it wasn’t just Michael Johnson and myself, you had Jackie Joyner-Kersee versus Heike Drechsler, Colin Jackson versus Allen Johnson, we had the best of the best.

“It was like an hour and a half of entertainment. Imagine you had the same thing right now and then you have like Jay-Z or Drake in the middle of all that entertaining. And then you have an hour and a half of the one versus one.

“It’s the biggest payday of any athlete ever because we could dictate it.”

Lesson 2: You either choose commitment or regret

Bailey’s journey to the highest echelons of track & field was in no way conventional.

A promising runner in high school, he had given up athletics in college and dreamed of playing basketball in the NBA.

Working as a stockbroker, managing a successful real estate portfolio and enjoying a lifestyle filled with late nights and parties were all highlights of a young man’s journey that could have taken a completely different path to the one he can look back on today.

“I was doing way too many things and I was doing all those things and not training at all,” he says. “And this could be the arrogance of me, or we’ll say confidence for want of a better word, I felt I could work, I could go play basketball, I could manage a real estate portfolio, I could run track part-time and then crush these guys.

“I was running 10.2 on a good day but the issue was that every time I ran faster I would get hurt, because I wasn’t training. There was no base training, zero nutrition. I mean you can’t go to the pub, have a couple of beers and that is your nutrition.

“I had no sleep, no weightlifting, no equipment. So I was really doing this really part-time, giving this an hour or two a week.”

However, a change in environment - and, more importantly, attitude - took the sprinter from an also-ran at the elite level to a position as one of the greatest sprinters on the planet.

“Everyone has one of two things - one is regret and the other is commitment,” the 1996 Olympic champion explains. “And I never wanted to have regret.

“So I thought if I committed, then let me see how it goes. And it was the right timing, I found the right coach, the right environment, I left Canada, moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and I went from being the second or third fastest sprinter in Canada at the time to top five in the world in weeks.”

The race that proved to Bailey that he had made the right decisions came in 1994. At the Golden Gala in Rome, he found himself leading the likes of Olympic champion Linford Christie before turning around, surprised by the position he was in, which dropped him back to third.

By 1995, his transformation was complete, as he moved from a “10.2” runner to completing his first race in under 10 seconds.

Bailey’s choice of commitment over regret had been a revelation - and he was now a leading contender in a World Championships year with the Atlanta Olympics just another 12 months away.

Lesson 3: It’s not how fast you get out of the blocks, it’s how strong you finish

“Linford always talked about going out on the ‘b’ of the ‘bang’. Man, I was going out on the ‘g’ of the bang every single time,” Bailey says of his start in the 100m races that often saw him trailing his rivals right from the off.

However, as proven both in the 100m finals at the 1995 World Championships in Sweden and in the Olympic final a year later, it doesn’t matter how you start if nobody can live with your speed when you really get going.

In both races, Bailey was markedly slower out of the blocks than his rivals, but this wasn’t something that surprised him. He knew his strengths and he knew his weaknesses, and by the time he lined up in the most important races of his life, he’d trained for every possible scenario.

“One of the things that we worked on was no matter what start I had, all I had to do was stay relaxed,” he says. “If I stayed relaxed and got into my race pattern early I would beat everyone in the world and I would eventually break the world record.”

That world record did finally fall in the 100m final at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, as Bailey sprinted past his rivals in 9.84 seconds.

In some ways, his racing craft is a metaphor for his own life. From a slow start in the sport where he lacked commitment to beginning with the basics such as training, sleep and nutrition, the changes he implemented saw him reach the highest goals he set for himself - even becoming the fastest sprinter in history.

Lesson 4: Put the hard work in and everything else will follow

Nowadays, Bailey is a statesman of the sport, so when he gives advice, aspiring athletes - and even those pursuing other walks of life - would do well to listen.

One thing he is clear about is the importance of prioritising hard graft.

“You probably should not look at someone with their material accomplishment and then let that drive you,” he explains. “Understand that you need to be passionate about something. And frankly, I don’t care what it is... You have to have passion and you have to put the work in.”

At times, choosing to work hard also means being truthful with yourself about your reasons for doing something. Are you doing it for the love of the endeavour itself or is it because of what you think you will receive from it?

For Bailey, the answer is simple: put the work in first and everything else will follow.

You can learn more lessons from the life journey of Donovan Bailey in his new memoir titled Undisputed: A Champion’s Life, which launches on 31 October 2023.