The extraordinary Olympic journey of Michael Norman – East Bay Times

TOKYO – Michael Norman Jr. is specific.

“Very, very specific,” he stated.

Even with regards to rental vehicles.

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

The colour?

“Crimson, after all,” Norman stated laughing.

“I drove it via 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 inside the sport that the previous Vista Murrieta Excessive and USC standout would be the first individual to interrupt 43 seconds.

“Not. At. All,” Norman stated. “By no means, critically, I feel our mentality is extra of actually specializing in coaching and perfecting our race and changing into one of the best Michael Norman you could 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 determine that.”

Few, nevertheless, could be shocked if when the Olympic Video games 400 ultimate is set, Norman, 23, crosses the end line at Nationwide Stadium simply previous 9 p.m. native time on August 5, changing into not solely the Olympic champion but in addition a world file holder, beating the mark of 43.03 South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk set in profitable 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 group 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 little one of an African American father and a Japanese mom, Norman is considered 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 airplane 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 probably not presentable proper now.’”

As a young person, 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 symbolize 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, considered by many as saviors of a sport that at instances appears incapable of saving itself.

“Comfortable being described because the savior of the game,” Norman stated. “It’s humbling. (However) you solely really feel as a lot strain as you apply to your self. When it comes to the strain, do I really feel obligated to stay as much as these hypes? I don’t really feel obligated to stay as much as them. I want to stay as much as them.”

Sub 43 potentialities

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

“He’s going to be the primary man below 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 lots quicker than we’ve ever seen it, that’s for certain.”

The sub-43 hypothesis began nearly 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 normally related to such a mark.

“It was all fuel,” Norman stated.

Within the ensuing two years, Norman has improved his velocity. Final summer time he was clocked within the 100 in 9.86, changing 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 group—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 objective,” Smith Gilbert stated.

“Now we have targets to be one of the best Michael Norman you could be versus chasing historical past,” Norman stated. “After all now we have targets of doing particular issues, issues which have by no means been achieved. However I feel if you begin specializing in chasing data on a regular basis then you definately begin shedding your self and what’s extra vital.”

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

“One thing loopy quick,” he stated.

Pace within the household

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 group at Los Angeles Valley School. Norman Sr., a local of Chicago (“large White Sox fan” his son stated), had already achieved 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 dad and mom 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 will match him was a ladies XS.

Whereas his dad and mom didn’t coach him, they had been greater than prepared to supply recommendation.

“My mother would micromanage me like loopy,” Norman stated laughing. “I might have a meet like Arcadia (Invitational) and wouldn’t get dwelling till 11 at night time 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.’ Ensure you have your protein earlier than you go to mattress. But it surely was good micromanaging. It helped me turn out to be the athlete I’m as we speak.”

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

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

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

“Modified my mindset for my total 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 reliable contender for a spot on the Olympic group.

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 important to run to beat me.

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

“Made me notice you possibly can’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 following spherical.”

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

“Before everything he discovered he can truly run with these guys,” Norman Sr. stated.

Challenged at USC

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

“I got here into my freshman yr with the load of the world on my shoulders. This man goes to be superb, NCAA champion as a freshman, you recognize, yada, yada, yada,” Norman stated. “That strain received 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 need to observe, I didn’t need to be forgotten within the observe world, I didn’t need to be oh, this man was such a terrific highschool athlete however what occurred to him in school? 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 understand school is way completely different than highschool and you’ll’t hold 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 might redshirt.

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

“Hamstring, oh my gosh, I believed the world was going to finish,” Norman stated. “I’m achieved. I used to be so pissed off, 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. After I received to lastly compete it was a sigh of aid. Nearly PR’d within the first race and I’ve barely skilled. Meaning this program is fairly good. It hasn’t even tapped its potential.

“Did it drive me to develop up? After all. The largest lesson I discovered from that’s you possibly can’t run away out of your issues. You must 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 greatest. Norman duplicated the feat that spring on the NCAA Out of doors meet, profitable 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, quicker than the non-public 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 might lastly be an actual rivalry.

“We each push one another to be higher athletes day-after-day. When it comes to the rivalry I feel 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 nervous, principally for my well being,” he stated.