Times staff writers take a look back at the Centennial Games

I once drove a Jaguar. I once saw a cheetah. Neither one ran like Michael Johnson. I still believe he will be disqualified, for having a motor. He’d make the Energizer bunny say, “OK, OK, you win, I’ll stop!” I haven’t seen anyone move like this since my landlord when I was late with the rent.

Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Michael Johnson . . . must be the name, not the shoes. I’m thinking of naming my firstborn Michael Magic Jordan Johnson Downey. My greatest moment of the 1996 Olympics? Got to be Michael Johnson, the man who went so fast, it’s a miracle he didn’t get stopped by a Georgia cop.

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Naomi Wanjiku Mugo. Sex: female. Age: 19, Occupation: servicewoman, Kenya air force. Event: 1,500-meter run. Running in third place, Mugo lost her right shoe. She kept going. Around the next turn, a runner stumbled into Mugo, knocked her down. She was trampled, kicked, hurdled. She fell 100 meters behind. Mugo got up, took off, ran the last lap in one shoe. She finished last. Not with me, she didn’t.