I was in Atlanta with Radio-Canada. The victory of the Canadian relay in the 4 x 100 m particularly marked me.
Johnson’s shadow
On July 27, there was first Bailey’s triumph in the 100m. In a burst of national pride, eight years after Seoul and the disqualification of Ben Johnson, a Canadian rider again won the premier event.
For good measure, Bailey added a world record to her victory that looked like it had been engineered by a PR firm.
The raised finger of Ben Johnson at the finish line in Seoul had marked the collective imagination.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Fred Chartrand
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9.84 seconds was serious, solid, believable, but without going into science fiction, we thought, like Johnson’s 9.79 in 1988.
Restraint
The Canadian delegation in Atlanta, including the media, celebrated the victory in moderation. Once again, we remembered that in Seoul, we had quickly become disillusioned. It had not been easy to put the champagne back in the bottles.
In Atlanta, the days have passed. No disqualification this time.
And a week later, the new victory, in the relay, released the tensions.
At the enemy
Let us remember the context. The four members of the Canadian team, Robert Esmie, Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey, were not best friends in the world. Bailey himself admitted, a few years later, that he had the attitudes of a tyrant.
Robert Esmie was only a replacement for Carlton Chambers, holder, but injured and disappointing in qualifying.
Donovan Bailey, Bruny Surin, Robert Esmie and Glenroy Gilbert celebrate their victory in Atlanta on August 3, 1996.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Denis Paquin
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In addition, the Americans would run at home, in front of their audience. They had never been beaten since 1896. In a century, only lost witnesses and disqualifications had deprived them of Olympic gold.
And they were hungry!
None of them was on the podium in the 100m final.
Boom!
Before that of the starting gun, there was the one for the highway.
On the day of the event, as they drove to the stadium, the Canadian quartet suffered a traffic accident. No injuries, fortunately. But we had to wait for the police who, once the report was completed, served as an escort to the stadium. It would have been too stupid to arrive late.
Reboum!
And in a full stadium, at the agreed time, it was the start.
I leave to Olympic memories the care of making you relive the race.
Bruny Surin throws her arms in the air after passing the baton to Donovan Bailey in the 1996 4 x 100m final in Atlanta.
Photo : Reuters / Oleg Popov
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All the same, allow me to remember Bruny Surin’s relay, the third. I remember with emotion the perfect curve he crossed like the wind to give Bailey, with the witness, an insurmountable lead.
And at the finish line, the immense joy of the Canadian runners, ours too, in an almost silent American stadium.
It didn’t last
The silence did not last. I have bitter memories of the editorial comments of some American columnists who, as soon as the race was over, questioned the legitimacy of the Canadian relay made up of four runners born outside the country.
Robert Esmie and Donovan Bailey were born in Jamaica, Glenroy Gilbert in Trinidad and Bruny Surin in Cap-Haitien.
Okay. But we still did not hire them before the Games as free agents! All of them came to Canada as children and grew up there.
And as far as I know, American torchbearers John Drummond, Tim Harden, Michael Marsh and Dennis Mitchell did not arrive in the United States aboard the Mayflower. In these times troubled by demonstrations and riots south of the border, is it necessary to recall their origin?
Pure meanness on the part of the American chroniclers of the time! Big wins sometimes make small losers.
And it was a great victory. Perhaps the most beautiful in the history of Canadian athletics.
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