Greene not on last legs
Suppose you're in the starting blocks when you get caught daydreaming about Beyonce when the gun signifying the start of the 60-meter dash goes off, and there you are, looking at assorted rear ends. You're toast, right? I mean, this is the 60 we're talking about.
"It's not over," asserts Maurice Greene. "I can only speak for myself, but I've been fortunate to have some not-so-great starts, but I've managed to do things right and come out all right in the end. I've stumbled in the 100 and run a 9.82. You can survive as long as you have the confidence to stay within yourself and be patient."
Did he say "patient"? In the 60?
"That's right," says the person who has known the feeling of being hailed as The World's Fastest Man. "What's true of the 100 is also true of the 60. The one thing you cannot do is panic. You must take the time and run your race."
This is Maurice Greene talking. On any list of primo athletes from the past decade, you will find his name. Sydney Olympic gold medal winner in both the 100 meters and 4 x 100 relay, three-time world 100-meter champion, and owner of three of the four fastest 100-meter times in history, Greene is a serious authority on the art of picking 'em up and laying 'em down in short, violent, breathtaking bursts of speed, and he is here for the 2004 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Can you relate to Maurice Greene? As someone who used to go from first to third in the time it takes to negotiate the entirety of 128 (that's Gloucester to Braintree), and who used to live in fear of being thrown out on a single to left, I know I can't. But in every neighborhood there is a kid who can run faster than everyone else. Every once in a while that kid grows up to run a 9.79 100.
"At first, I couldn't beat my older brothers," says the 29-year-old Greene. "We'd race, I'd lose, and I'd say, `We got to race again.' " But it wasn't long before young Maurice was the standard of local excellence. "When I first joined the Kansas City Chargers [Track Club]," he explains, "the coach would tell me to `Go!' and then have the rest of them try to run me down." This was when he was about 8 and the others in question were 11 or 12.
Let there be no doubt: Basic speed is a celestial gift. But to take that gift and exploit it to make yourself an Olympic and multiple world champion and a millionaire is another matter. That takes dedication and an enormous amount of discipline. In order to become Maurice Greene, you've got to have the entire package.
We catch Greene at an interesting juncture in his career. He's been battling injuries since the 2001 season. First there was a quadriceps problem and then a balky knee that reduced him to a most un-Maurice-like state last season (e.g. finishing eighth in the 200 semis at the World Outdoors then not being able to compete at all in the USA Outdoors). Had he succumbed to his increasing infirmity and called it a career, he could have done so secure in the knowledge that he truly was, as the official USA Track & Field bio describes him, "the dominant 100-meter sprinter of his era." And probably the richest.
But that would have put all references to him in the past tense, and he is not yet ready for that. "I've never been about the past," he says. `I'm about the future."
The injuries, he says, are part of that past. "I haven't been this healthy in a couple of years," he reports. "Now I have to get back to the technical aspect of running. I got into some bad habits because I was trying to compensate for my injuries."
This meet is part of his master plan. His goal is to go to Athens in August and successfully defend his 100-meter title. No offense to the indoor circuit, but the 60 on boards is a pleasant running diversion that should not be confused with the real thing out there in the elements.
"Whatever happens here really doesn't matter," he explains. "Someone could go out [today] and break the world's record for the 60 meters and then not even make the Olympic team. This is not what I'm getting ready for. Indoors is just fun. Outdoors is where you make your mark."
Coming from someone else, that could be interpreted as uttering the loser's disclaimer before the race even starts. But coming from a man of Greene's immense accomplishment, the statement must be taken for what it is -- the unvarnished truth. Maurice Greene is pointing to an early August evening, not a February Saturday afternoon in Boston.
And if he does win in Athens, that doesn't mean we will have seen the last of Maurice Greene, either. "I've had a good career," he acknowledges, "but there is a lot I still want to accomplish. I know I can do more. Until I have run as fast as I possibly can, I won't be satisfied. I've done a 9.79, but I know I can do better than that. I have told my coach I can run a 9.6, and until I get to the point where I stop believing I can do that, I will be trying to do it."
His name is Maurice Greene, and he is track and field royalty. If you're the type who would take your kid to Fenway to see, say, Greg Maddux, just because, you might consider a trip to the Reggie Lewis Center today. Maurice Greene is a very big notch on any true sports fan's belt.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.
