B
Bailey, Donovan
Identification Canadian Olympic champion
sprinter
Born December 16, 1967; Manchester, Jamaica
Bailey set multiple world records and won multiple Olympic
gold medals in short distance events, most notably the 100-
meter dash, and became an international celebrity, emerg-
ing at a difficult time when track and field had been rocked
by doping scandals.
When Jamaica-born Donovan Bailey came to On-
tario, Canada, at the age of thirteen to live with his fa-
ther, he had never run in any organized event. In-
deed, although he competed as a sprinter on his
high school track team in Ontario (he ran the 100-
meter dash in a remarkable 10.65 seconds), his in-
terest was in basketball: He played power forward for
Sheridan College (Ontario) while he completed his
degree in business administration. Intent on begin-
ning a marketing and investment counseling career,
Bailey ran recreationally in city events until 1994.
That year, while watching Canadian Track Champi-
onships on television, he was certain he could do
better. Bailey was twenty-six years old—relatively late
to begin a running career—but after two months of
intensive training, he began winning international
sprinting competitions, culminating in his world
championship in the 100-meter in Göteborg, Swe-
den, in 1995.
The Atlanta Centennial Olympics in 1996 de-
fined Bailey: He claimed the gold medal and set
both a world and Olympic record in the 100-meter
(9.84 seconds), traditionally the measure of the
“world’s fastest man”; he also won gold as part of the
Canadian 4-by-100-meter relay. Within months of
his Olympic championship, Bailey was challenged
by American Michael Johnson, who had set a world
record in the 200-meter run, to a sprint to determine
the “world’s fastest man.” The unsanctioned race,
set at a compromise 150 meters, was scheduled
for June, 1997, at Toronto’s SkyDome and, with its
$2 million purse, became a much-hyped interna-
tional sports event. Amid the race’s carnival atmo-
sphere, however, Bailey won easily as Johnson with-
drew halfway through with a pulled quadriceps
muscle.
In a sport in which dominance is measured in in-
crements of seconds and in which athletes’ bodies
are subjected to enormous physical pressures,
Bailey’s prominence was short-lived. He finished
second in the 100-meter at the 1997 world champi-
onships in Athens, and after struggling with a rup-
tured Achilles tendon and then pneumonia (he par-Donovan Bailey drapes himself in the Canadian flag as he takes
his victory lap after winning the men’s 100-meter dash in the
1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.(AP/Wide World Photos)