US Track and Field: More Than 30 Years of Running Backward

1968

--The U.S. track team wins 15 gold medals at the Mexico City Summer Olympics, more than any country in all events except the United States and the Soviet Union. “Dream Team” includes world-record long jumper Bob Beamon, four-time discus gold medalist Al Oerter, pole vaulter Bob Seagren, miler Jim Ryun and decathlete Bill Toomey--each among the most popular athletes in America at the time.

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1972

--University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman devises a waffle-soled running shoe for a small company named Nike, a runaway success that will turn Nike into a major player in the sport. The ensuing divide-and-conquer “shoe wars,” critics charge, contributed to the fractionalization of the sport in America and the erosion of the U.S. federation’s power base at the elite level.

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1976

--As a cost-cutting measure, the NCAA begins capping track scholarships. Over the next two decades, track scholarships for men will be sliced from 34 to the current limit of 12.5 per college.

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1978

--Amateur Sports Act is passed, loosening the federation’s control to dictate when and where American track athletes can compete. Athletes gain new independence, but long-term fallout will be felt by U.S. track meets no longer able to compel top athletes to participate.

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1980

--United States boycotts the Moscow Olympics. Consequently, between Montreal ’76 and Los Angeles ‘84, track and field will spend eight years outside the American public consciousness.

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1984

--The Soviet Union boycotts the Los Angeles Olympics. Carl Lewis wins four gold medals, the U.S. track team wins 16 gold medals, but without the presence of the Soviets, the American victories strike many as hollow achievements.

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Mid-1980s

--Led by superstar personalities Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, popularity of the NBA skyrockets. At the same time, many American track stars vanish from the home front, flocking to Europe to compete for bigger paychecks.

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1988

--Canadian Ben Johnson wins the men’ 100 meters at the Seoul Olympics in a world-record time of 9.79 seconds, then tests positive for steroids, casting a drug cloud over the sport that remains to this day.

--American Florence Griffith-Joyner sets remarkable standards in the women’s 100 meters (10.49 seconds) and 200 meters (21.34)--records that haven’t been approached 11 years later--triggering more suspicion and cynicism. Griffith-Joyner retires from competitive track less than eight months later, having never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

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1992

--American track and field promotion takes a massive hit when Reebok builds a $25-million pre-Olympics campaign around decathlon rivals Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson. Problem: O’Brien fails to qualify at the Olympic trials, forcing a premature--and costly--cancellation of “The Dan and Dave Show.”

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1996

--In Atlanta Olympics, Michael Johnson completes an unprecedented double in the 200 and the 400 meters, shattering the world record in the 200 with a mind-boggling time of 19.32 seconds. Johnson is poised to become the Michael Jordan of American track, a potential public-relations savior. But the stoic Johnson, lacking Jordan’s charisma and PR-savvy, is uncomfortable in the role--and never really able to follow-up on his amazing on-track success of ’96. The opportunity goes by the boards.

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1997

--Michael Johnson, the Olympic 200-meter champion, and Canadian Donovan Bailey, the 100-meter gold medalist, agree to split the difference and stage a 150-meter “World’s Fastest Human” runoff in Toronto. Track purists decry the gimmick as a crass publicity stunt, but the race generates more Stateside interest than the world championships later that summer. Bailey wins by default when Johnson pulls up limping halfway and fails to finish.

--USA Track and Field votes not to renew the contract of executive director Ollan Cassell, ending a 31-year tenure marked largely by promotional inertia.

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1998

--American shotputter Randy Barnes is banned for life for using androstenedione, a body-building supplement also used by St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Mark McGwire. McGwire hits a record 70 home runs, shares Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year” award.

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1999

--Nine domestic track meets are televised live--up from one in 1997. Not so great news: Television ratings for track on ESPN and ESPN2 average 0.66; for track on CBS, 1.4.

--Brian Vandenberg launches the Track and Field Assn., an American professional track circuit with intentions of a five-to-eight-stop tour in 2000. Pilot event is held June 6 in Uniondale, N.Y., draws an announced crowd of 3,148.