Where is Bailey’s swagger?
No Canadian sprinter has matched his achievements, but ex-champion sees the potential
By John MacKinnon, Edmonton JournalJune 29, 2011
Two-time Olympic champion Donovan Bailey takes questions from the media at a news conference at Foote Field on June 28, 2011.
Photograph by: Walter Tychnowicz, edmontonjournal.com
A decade after Donovan Bailey ran his last race at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton, his Canadian men’s 100-metres record of 9.84 seconds remains securely chiselled into the national record books.
When Bailey set that record, in winning gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, it was at once the world and Olympic record, also.
And when Bailey anchored Canada’s 4x100-metre relay team to a matching gold medal in Atlanta, with the help of Bruny Surin, Glenroy Gilbert and Robert Esmie, it was the apex of a six-or seven-year stretch of world dominance for that sprint group, the likes of which has not been seen since in our country. Not even close.
Bailey, in town to promote the Edmonton International Track Classic, being held Wednesday night at Foote Field, says it’s not for lack of talent among the sprinters who have come after him.
Now 44, Bailey believes the likes of Canadian 100-metre champion Sam Effah of Calgary, Justyn Warner of Markham, Ont., and Jared Connaughton of Charlottetown, P.E.I., have ample ability but may lack the swagger that Bailey brought in abundance to his races.
Effah has run a 10.06 100 metres, while Warner (10.15) and Connaughton (a wind-aided 10.04) all are on the cusp of going under 10 seconds, as well.
“These guys are as talented,” Bailey said. "The problem that I find is that they’re quite passive.
"I used to yell at Bruny, and I used to yell at Glenroy, and I used to yell at Peter (Ogilvie, Athletics Alberta’s executive director, a former sprinter who is EITC meet chairman). We drove each other.
"I think we have guys in Canada that should be on the world stage, at the Diamond League meets.
“Warner, Sam Effah, these guys should be competing in Europe. I just spent a month in Europe and I saw talent there that these guys should be able to beat every other day.”
The Edmonton meet kicks off the inaugural, five-meet National Track League, which is designed to provide the sort of grassroots, developmental infrastructure Bailey believes is essential to deliver quality talent to the world stage.
All the NTL meets provide Canadian athletes an opportunity to hit the IAAF standards to qualify for the World Championship in Athletics in Daegu, Korea, from Aug. 27-Sept. 4. There is also $75,000 in prize money up for grabs.
During his athletic career, Bailey rankled the Canadian track and field power structure with his point of view and his outspoken way of expressing it.
Now, as then, Bailey makes no apologies for holding strong opinions.
“When I was competing, I was (considered) non-Canadian,” Bailey said. "And then we started a thing called Own the Podium.
“I don’t know, I believe it’s the exact same attitude.”
The federally funded OTP program helped Canada win a record 14 gold medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Bailey acknowledges funding for Canadian athletes has improved since he competed.
Ultimately, though, he believes it falls to the athletes to take ownership of their performance and compete to be the best in the world, whatever the sport, including track and field.
“We need to have a hockey attitude in track and field,” Bailey said. “When the (national) hockey team leaves (Canada to compete abroad) it’s gold. It doesn’t matter, we want gold.”
“The hockey players want gold and the country wants gold. So, I think the athletes themselves, any time they’re leaving Canada to represent Canada in anything, have to say, listen, I don’t want to come back with anything other than a gold,” said Bailey.
In Canadian track and field, that “go-big-or-go-home” attitude is embodied -is it ever -by six-footfour, 310-pound shot putter Dylan Armstrong, by hurdlers Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien and heptathlete Jessica Zelinka, among others.
Armstrong, of Kamloops, B.C., launched a world-leading throw of 22.21 metres on the weekend to win the Canadian championship in his event in Calgary. He’s a headliner at the EITC meet tonight, also.
Both Zelinka and Felicien will compete in the 100-metre hurdles tonight. Edmonton-based Krysha Bayley, fresh from her national title in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.54 metres, gets a chance to compete on her home track tonight, also.
Asked what he’ll be watching for at the inaugural NTL meet, Bailey said: "Because I’m a 100-metre guy, I’d like to see two Canadian guys go sub-10 seconds. That, to me, would be ideal.
"But what I want to see is all the Canadians that are on the cusp of making world standard (or whatever), I’d like to see a bunch of Canadians go under that, so they can graduate, so next week, they can leave and go to Europe, to next week they can be competing against the people they need to beat to get a medal.
“I’d like to see a few guys under 10 seconds, so you guys start talking to them instead of me. I’d much prefer to stay in the background where I can support these kids now.”
jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Where+Bailey+swagger/5022365/story.html#ixzz1Ulke02uL