Greene, Boldon Seek Harmony on the Way to Sydney

It’s a long sprint, New York to Sydney, but after the first leg, Maurice Greene was right where he wants to be come September, Australia and the Olympic Games--in first place.

Greene opened his 2000 competitive season Friday night by winning the 60-meter sprint at the Millrose Games in a time of 6.45 seconds, outpacing a field that included some of his main challengers for the 100-meter gold medal in Sydney, including HSI teammate and training partner Ato Boldon.

“The Millrose Games is the start of my season,” Greene said before the race. “If it starts off good, I believe it will finish good.”

Greene fell short of his 60-meter world indoor record of 6.39, but set a Madison Square Garden record en route to his victory over U.S. rivals Jon Drummond, Brian Lewis and Tim Harden and Trinidad and Tobago’s Boldon, who was fifth at 6.68.

Boldon, who rarely competes indoors, was using the race strictly for tuneup purposes. “I can count the number of 60-meter races I have run on one hand,” Boldon said. “The purpose of me running indoor races now is that I’ve got to get back into competition. Because of my [hamstring] injury, which wiped out the end of my ’99 season, I couldn’t wait to get back on the track.”

Two intriguing story lines for Sydney are developing in the sprinter’s starting blocks:

* Greene versus Michael Johnson at 200 meters in the race everyone wanted to see last year but were denied when Johnson pulled out of the U.S. championships, last-minute, saying he was injured.

* Greene versus Boldon at 100 meters, carrying the subtitle: They Were the Best of Friends, bbut Could Their Relationship Survive the Run-Up to the Olympic Final?

Strain seemed to be setting in last month when Boldon gave an interview to the Trinidad Express indicating that the Greene- Boldon partnership was on hold, if not on ice, because of the rigors and the pressures of trying to outleg the other to the Olympic gold medal.

Boldon, however, maintains his comments were misconstrued.

“I gave an interview to the Trinidad Express, which I usually do around this time of year, kind of letting the people whom I represent in Trinidad and Tobago know what’s happening,” Boldon said. “The question was posed to me: ‘What do you think about the Michael Johnson-Maurice Greene relationship?’

“My answer to that was: ‘This is an Olympic year, which is very special in terms of the life of a sprinter. Therefore, there will be no tag-teaming this year. It’s every man for himself. And I am going to go about the business of making sure that when the Olympic final goes off, that I am ready. Which means that I will also do things independent of what [Greene and I] do on the training track.’

“Seventy-two hours went by and I saw a story from Reuters basically saying that I was leaving HSI and that HSI was going to crumble. Don’t ask me where that came from. Because at no point did I make any reference to me leaving HSI. What I did say was this is the year where sprinters have to get self-centered--and will get self-centered, because it’s not about anything else other than gold medals. That’s how we have to be.

“That’s basically how the whole brouhaha came about. I thought it was really unfortunate because it got really blown out of proportion. It got to the point where we had to issue a retraction for something that really wasn’t said, but unfortunately was reported.”

More pressing than the retraction: a detailed explanation to Boldon’s mother that everything is still cool with Maurice.

“It was pretty funny,” Boldon said. “I had my mother calling me to ask me what was wrong with me and Maurice--and Maurice was sitting on my floor watching the Sugar Bowl.”

NOT SO FAST IN SYDNEY

Greene and Boldon will race again in Birmingham, England, later this month, followed by a short promotional tour in Australia before beginning their outdoor seasons at the Mt. San Antonio Relays in April.

Looking ahead to the Sydney Olympics, Boldon believes anyone hoping for world-record times in the sprints is in for disappointment.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as fast as everybody thinks it is,” Boldon said. “I’ve been to that stadium. They have a wind problem already. The wind is blowing the wrong way. I’m hearing some reports about the weather and so on.

“I think it might be similar to Barcelona [site of the 1992 Olympics], where maybe only one or two people break 10 seconds. That’s why I say the time this year doesn’t matter. You run to win this year.”

KWAN GOES FOR FOUR

An upset runner-up to Russia’s Irina Slutskaya at last month’s International Skating Union Grand Prix Final in Lyon, France, Michelle Kwan begins preparations for a rematch this week at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Cleveland.

Kwan, heavily favored to win her fourth U.S. championship, is expected to get another shot at Slutskaya at the World Championships, scheduled for late March in Nice, France.

Kwan, who won the nationals in 1996, 1998 and 1999, will try to become the first woman since Linda Fratianne (1977-1980) to win four U.S. titles when the women’s short program commences Friday, followed by the long program Saturday.

Defending champion Michael Weiss and Timothy Goebel, the first American to successfully land a quadruple jump in competition, are the top contenders in the men’s division.

WHAT SCANDAL?

Wasn’t 1999 supposed to be a cautionary tale for cities around the world pondering bids to host future Olympic Games? Hadn’t the potential for international scrutiny and global humiliation been enough to scare smart- minded politicos away from the campaigning process?

Either memories are too short or dollar signs flashing in front of glazed eyes too big, because a near-record 10 cities have submitted formal applications to host the 2008 Summer Games.

Along with Beijing, China, which finished a controversial second to Sydney in the scramble for the 2000 Games, others who filed applications this week were: Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo; Havana; Istanbul, Turkey; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Osaka, Japan; Paris; Seville, Spain, and Toronto.