New Schedule No Good for Lewis, Johnson

Due to a change in the track and field schedule for the Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Michael Johnson can enter an event that he does not want to enter and Carl Lewis cannot enter an event that he wants to enter.

Johnson, ranked No. 1 in the world in the 200 and the 400 meters the last two years, says he will not run both events at Barcelona despite the schedule change engineered to accommodate him.

Originally, the finals for the 200 and the 400 were scheduled for the same day. But the International Amateur Athletic Federation requested that the 200 final be postponed for one day so Johnson could run both.

COOB resisted, as did Lewis, whose Santa Monica Track Club manager, Joe Douglas, wrote a letter to the IAAF explaining that the revised schedule would place the 200 and long jump finals only 10 minutes apart.

But when IAAF persisted, COOB finally relented. But Johnson had already made up his mind.

“They are too late,” he said after the change was announced Wednesday, two days after he announced that he will run only the 200 in the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I would have needed to know last week so that I could get ready to run two races.”

But an IAAF source, who did not want to be identified, said that Johnson promised that he would not make a final decision until today. Johnson was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Appearing at a news conference to discuss the Olympic trials, Lewis could not be drawn into the controversy. But those close to him said that Lewis is irritated by COOB’s decision.

“He’s not on the Olympic team in any event yet, so he doesn’t want to sound presumptuous by talking about it,” said David Greifinger, a Santa Monica Track Club lawyer. “But after the trials, I think he’ll unload.”