The extraordinary Olympic journey of Michael Norman – Orange County Register

TOKYO >> Michael Norman Jr. is specific.

“Very, very specific,” he stated.

Even on the subject of rental automobiles.

So when the quickest American quarter-miler this century was in Monaco for an awards ceremony in December 2018, he simply needed to lease a Ferrari 480 Spider.

The colour?

“Crimson, after all,” Norman stated laughing.

“I drove it by way of the tunnel,” he continued referring to the long-lasting a part of the Monaco Grand Prix F1 course. “Drove alongside the harbor, drove to Good.”

However when requested how briskly he drove Norman, an F1 fanatic, took the Fifth.

“I can’t say, can’t say,” he stated. “Quick.”

That’s one other factor Norman is specific about — he doesn’t speak about speeds.

So Norman, the inheritor obvious to Lee Evans and Quincy Watts and Michael Johnson and a decades-long lineage of American 400-meter runners who’ve dominated the occasion on the Olympic Video games, steadfastly refuses to hitch the widespread hypothesis throughout the sport that the previous Vista Murrieta Excessive and USC standout would be the first particular person to interrupt 43 seconds.

“Not. At. All,” Norman stated. “In no way, critically, I believe our mentality is extra of actually specializing in coaching and perfecting our race and turning into one of the best Michael Norman you might be versus chasing historical past.”

Stated Watts, the 1992 Olympic 400 gold medalist now head coach at USC who continues to educate Norman, “We’ll let observe and subject resolve that.”

Few, nevertheless, can be stunned that when the Olympic Video games 400 remaining is determined, Norman, 23, crosses the end line at Nationwide Stadium simply previous 9 p.m. native time on August 5 he is not going to solely be Olympic champion however have damaged the world file of 43.03 South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk set in successful the Rio de Janeiro gold medal.

A victory in Tokyo would cap a five-year journey that has seen Norman narrowly miss making the 2016 Olympic crew as a highschool senior, overcome accidents and doubts at USC to win 4 NCAA titles and set the collegiate 400 file, flirt with the world file in 2019 solely be eradicated within the World Championships semifinals in Doha, undone by a lingering hamstring damage.

When Norman received the Olympic Trials 400 final month in Eugene his father, Michael Norman Sr. was struck by the expression on his son’s face.

“It was one thing I had by no means seen earlier than,” the elder Norman recalled. “There was sigh of aid after he crossed the end line. Like ‘lastly.’”

Norman involves the Olympic Video games with two further burdens. Because the baby of an African American father and a Japanese mom, Norman is seen by the host nation as a local son. He’s as recognizable in Japan and as he’s in Eugene, Tracktown USA, his rock star standing confirmed the second he stepped off a aircraft in Osaka in 2019, hungry, sleep-deprived, hidden away in a hoody, when a Japanese TV reporter caught a microphone in his face and requested for an interview.

“Fairly loopy to me,” Norman stated laughing. “I used to be like, ‘I’m not likely presentable proper now.’”

As a youngster, Norman had the selection of competing for the U.S. or Japan. He selected the nation of his delivery. The Olympics, he stated, are “a method to characterize my tradition and her tradition on the identical time.”

Norman, together with fellow sprinter Noah Lyles and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin, are the faces and way forward for American observe and subject, seen by many as saviors of a sport that at occasions appears incapable of saving itself.

“Blissful being described because the savior of the game,” Norman stated. “It’s humbling. (However) you solely really feel as a lot stress as you apply to your self. By way of the stress, do I really feel obligated to reside as much as these hypes? I don’t really feel obligated to reside as much as them. I want to reside as much as them.”

Which brings us again to his refusal to interact within the sub-43 dialogue.

“He’s going to be the primary man underneath 43,” stated Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist and now an NBC analyst. “It’s not matter of if, it’s solely a matter of when.

“He can take it rather a lot sooner than we’ve ever seen it, that’s for positive.”

The sub-43 hypothesis began virtually as quickly as Norman crossed the end line on the Mt. SAC Relays in April 2019, his time of 43.45 the fourth quickest in historical past. Nobody had run that quick that early in a season. And he ran the time with out the kind of sharpening work often related to such a mark.

“It was all gasoline,” Norman stated.

Within the ensuing two years, Norman has improved his velocity. Final summer time he was clocked within the 100 in 9.86, turning into the second man to interrupt 10 seconds within the 100, 20 within the 200 and 44 within the 400.

Questions in regards to the world file to Norman’s teaching crew—Watts, former USC head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert, Trojan assistant Joanna Hayes, herself an Olympic hurdles champion — are met with shrugs and the slightest of telling grins.

“That’s the aim,” Smith Gilbert stated.

“We now have objectives to be one of the best Michael Norman you might be versus chasing historical past,” Norman stated. “In fact we have now objectives of doing particular issues, issues which have by no means been carried out. However I believe once you begin specializing in chasing data on a regular basis then you definitely begin shedding your self and what’s extra essential.”

When pressed in an interview at his downtown Los Angeles condominium about what time he thinks he may run, Norman smiled

“One thing loopy quick,” he stated.

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For years there’s been a operating debate between Norman Sr. and his spouse Nobue Saito Norman over the place their son will get his velocity from.

“I say it’s me,” Norman Sr. stated. “Spouse says, no, it’s from her.”

The pair met on the observe crew at Los Angeles Valley Faculty. Norman Sr., a local of Chicago (“massive White Sox fan” his son stated), had already carried out a stint within the Navy. Saito Norman had set nationwide junior highschool dash data in Japan.

Their son, nevertheless, wasn’t pushed into the game by his mother and father a lot as he adopted his older sister Michelle, later a sprinter and jumper at UC Irvine, into it. When he ran in his first race in fifth grade he was so skinny the one compression go well with that might match him was a ladies XS.

Whereas his mother and father didn’t coach him, they had been greater than keen to supply recommendation.

“My mother would micromanage me like loopy,” Norman stated laughing. “I’d have a meet like Arcadia (Invitational) and wouldn’t get house till 11 at evening and she or he would say it’s good to take your ice bathtub and I hated it a lot.

“She was all the time, ‘Eat your greens.’ Be sure you have your protein earlier than you go to mattress. However it was good micromanaging. It helped me change into the athlete I’m immediately.”

It was Norman Sr. who first advised his son, beforehand a brief sprinter and lengthy jumper, strive the 400.

“Dad (stated) it’s good to run this,” the youthful Norman stated. “Tried the 400 a few occasions earlier than highschool, hated it, harm rather a lot, didn’t actually prefer it, didn’t wish to decide to it.”

However he had a change of coronary heart when he broke 50 as a freshman.

“Modified my mindset for my whole profession,” he stated.

The summer time between his freshmen and sophomore years, he grew from 5-8 to 6-1. As a junior he ran the quickest 400 ever in highschool solely competitors—45.19. By his senior season he was not solely the nation’s prime prep quarter-miler however a reputable contender for a spot on the Olympic crew.

However he did not make it out of the primary spherical in Olympic Trials 400.

“That first spherical 400 in Eugene was an eye-opener,” Norman stated.

“LaShawn Merritt was in my warmth,” Norman continued referring to the 2008 Olympic champion. “I believed simply observe them, you’ll be OK.  That was the place I made my mistake I ought to have gone into the race (pondering) it’s a must to run to beat me.

“I believe I used to be in all probability star-struck and not likely coherent. I gave them an excessive amount of credit score and undermined myself. After I acquired knocked out, I used to be like, ‘ what? By no means once more.’ I don’t care who’s on this race.

“Made me understand you may’t give folks credit score. They need to earn it. My first (race towards professionals) and I gave them credit score, an excessive amount of credit score and respect and I paid the value by not making it to the subsequent spherical.”

Norman took that angle into the Trials 200, the place he simply missed making the crew, ending fifth in 20.14, simply .14 behind the third and remaining spot on Staff USA.

“At first he discovered he can really run with these guys,” Norman Sr. stated.

However as a Trojan freshman he was suffering from a collection of accidents—shin splints, a stress response, hamstring points.

“I got here into my freshman yr with the burden of the world on my shoulders. This man goes to be superb, NCAA champion as a freshman, , yada, yada, yada,” Norman stated. “That stress acquired to me after which as I used to be coaching and I used to be getting injured it was robust as a result of I didn’t wish to observe, I didn’t wish to be forgotten within the observe world, I didn’t wish to be oh, this man was such an excellent highschool athlete however what occurred to him in faculty? That was my worry. It took lots of rising up as myself and studying who I used to be as an athlete to beat these challenges, to comprehend faculty is way totally different than highschool and you may’t preserve doing the identical issues as a result of that’s not going to work out. Your coaching program has modified. You’ve modified as an individual and the quantity of stress you placed on your self has modified.”

When he injured his hamstring, Norman requested Smith Gilbert if he may redshirt.

She responded with a agency no. As an alternative Smith Gilbert requested him, “How are we going to get by way of this collectively?”

“Hamstring, oh my gosh, I believed the world was going to finish,” Norman stated. “I’m carried out. I used to be so annoyed, so offended. At that time I used to be like, ‘Did I make the best resolution coming to USC? Ought to I’ve gone to a different college?’ All that doubt got here into my thoughts. Once I acquired to lastly compete it was a sigh of aid. Nearly PR’d within the first race and I’ve barely educated. Meaning this program is fairly good. It hasn’t even tapped its potential.

“Did it power me to develop up? In fact. The most important lesson I discovered from that’s you may’t run away out of your issues. It’s important to method them head on.”

The following winter he received the NCAA Indoor title, operating the quickest 400 ever indoors, 44.52, then later coming again to anchor USC’s 4×400 relay to a collegiate file and world finest. Norman duplicated the feat that spring on the NCAA Outside meet, successful the 400 in a collegiate file (43.61). Shortly thereafter he signed knowledgeable contract with Nike.

Norman adopted up his 43.45 at Mt. SAC in 2019 by knocking off Lyles within the 200 on the Golden Gala, a Diamond League meet in Rome. His time of 19.70 was the twelfth quickest in historical past, sooner than the private bests for all however two Olympic champions (Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Johnson), together with Carl Lewis (19.75), Italy’s Pietro Menna, the longtime world file holder at 19.77, and Tommie Smith (19.83).

It was additionally his first win towards Lyles, who additionally graduated from highschool in 2016.

“There’s all the time been this hype between us like, ‘Oh, Noah vs Michael,’” Norman stated. “I couldn’t see it as rivalry but as a result of I hadn’t beat him. So it was good to lastly put a quantity on the board so it may lastly be an actual rivalry.

“We each push one another to be higher athletes each day. By way of the rivalry I believe it’s nice for the game, nice for everyone.”

However because the season wore on, Norman started having hamstring points. He was second on the U.S. Championships later that summer time.

“Going into Doha I used to be apprehensive, largely for my well being,” he stated.