Читать книгу Gold Rush - Michael Johnson - Страница 5

I would like to thank the following people who have helped to make this book possible. First, my wife Armine for all of her support and understanding, and my son Sebastian, who inspires me with his love for reading and his own dream of becoming a writer; my agent Sarah Wooldridge at IMG, whose tireless search for the right publisher and her belief in my ability to write an insightful and informative book has resulted in Gold Rush; Jonathan Taylor for understanding my vision for this book and helping to shape that vision; and Linden Gross, my writing coach, who kept me on task and whose energy and excitement about the project were crucial in getting me to the finish line. Thanks to Steve Burdett and Nick Canham at HarperCollins for picking up the ball after the project had started. Thanks also to Nadia Comaneci, Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, Usain Bolt, Sally Gunnell, Sir Steve Redgrave, Mark Spitz, Lord Sebastian Coe, Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Daley Thompson for sharing wonderful stories of success, failure, lessons learned and, perhaps most importantly, revealing their personal weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take this time to also thank the people who were instrumental in my own career success. Writing this book brought back many fond memories of challenges, wins, losses and very valuable life lessons learned. My coach Clyde Hart was the only coach I could ever have had. Clyde’s approach to coaching as a teacher was a perfect match for my approach to training and competing. I was always trying to learn more about myself as an athlete and Coach taught me everything he knew until the point that we started to learn together. He remains a friend, a coach and a role model. Thanks to my manager and agent, Brad Hunt, who helped me during my career to capitalise on the opportunities that my success on the track afforded me. Thanks to my parents Paul and Ruby, my brother Paul Jr, my sisters Regina, Cheryl and Deidre and our friend Brenda Harris for all of their support and for being the ultimate travelling fan club, following me around the globe and being there for me during all times, good and bad.

And finally, thanks to all of my fans around the world who followed and supported my athletics career over 11 years, and those fans who follow me now as a television pundit and encourage me to continue to share a frank and straightforward perspective on sport.