50 greatest Summer Olympians in history
By John Buhler
30. Michael Johnson, Track and Field.
During the 1996 Summer Games, few Americans rose to prominence like sprinter Michael Johnson. Four years after winning gold as part of the 4×400 m relay in the 1992 Barcelona Games, Johnson emerged as America’s premier track star in Atlanta, where he won two individual golds in dominating fashion (the 200m and 400m). All the while, his trademark golden shoes helped make him one of the most recognizable athletes of his era, not to mention the flat-out fastest man on the planet.
Johnson would win gold in five different events over three Olympiads (1992, 1996, and 2000), but would ultimately have one of his medals stripped after his his 2000 4×400 teammates were accused of doping. By all accounts, Johnson was the only one of the four to have not taken PEDs.
Thinking back to the last time that the U.S. hosted a Summer Olympic Games, Johnson remains one of the marquee athletes from that decades-ago Olympiad. Even today, he remains one of the best medium-distance sprinters of all time.
Next: 29. Valentina Vezzali.