Gold Rush

Оглавление

Michael Johnson. Gold Rush

Gold Rush

Michael Johnson

DEDICATION

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. MY QUEST FOR GOLD

2. CATCHING OLYMPIC FEVER

3. TECHNIQUE AND DNA

4. DOING WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN

5. MENTAL GAMES

6. NO SHORTCUTS

7. THE HEAT OF BATTLE

8. LIVING AND COMPETING IN THE LIMELIGHT

9. COACHES, HEROES AND MENTORS

CONCLUSION

Picture Section

SEARCHABLE TERMS

Copyright

About the Publisher

Отрывок из книги

What Makes an Olympic Champion?

Title Page

.....

Although they were no longer selling the shoe I liked, Nike had taken all of the plates (which are the bottom part of the shoe that actually holds the spikes) that they had left in my size and held them in order to make the shoe just for me. Then, at the beginning of 1995, they approached me about a project to highlight the fact that they had overhauled Nike sprint shoes. In our first meeting about the project, they asked me what I liked about my current shoe and why I liked those attributes. ‘What would you want in a shoe if you could have anything you wanted with no limitations?’ they asked. After I answered, they set out to deliver just that.

Throughout the two-year process the focus was on developing something that would not only be unique to me but would help me perform better by being based on my specific needs, given my body mechanics and the events that I competed in. At one 200-metre race Nike set up high-speed cameras all around the track that were focused on my feet from start to finish. The cameras allowed us to view the actions of my feet during a competition at 1,000 frames per second. This allowed us to really understand the movements of my feet and how the shoe interacted with my foot and the track. We found that the interaction was different on the bend from what it was on the straight. We found that it was different for the left foot versus the right foot. We found that it was different for the 200 metres versus the 400 metres. So we accommodated for all those particulars and developed one pair of shoes for the 200 metres and a different pair for the 400 metres. In both pairs of race shoes, the left shoe differed from the right.

.....