Michael Johnson

All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations.

They don't give you gold medals for beating somebody. They give you gold medals for beating everybody.

One of the main techniques I used was focusing on the goal and visualising myself competing in the race before the race started.

You can't control what the other athlete is going to do; you can't control anything except for your competition and how you execute the race or how you execute the task.

All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it's impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn't left an imprint through the generations. Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me - I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.