Michael Johnson is pushing back on accusations of racism after he questioned the accuracy of some finishing times at the World Athletics Championships.
The former U.S. track and field star was not happy in light of Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan setting a world record in the 100-meter hurdles semifinals with a time of 12.12 seconds. What’s even crazier is that she was faster in the wind-aided finals.
Prior to this weekend, she had previously finished fourth at the Olympics last year and fourth at the world championships in 2019.
Johnson took to Twitter and said that he didn’t believe the record was correct given some of the time adjustments he had seen throughout the day.
“I don’t believe 100h times are correct. World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I throughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked,” Johnson tweeted. “Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not.”
“Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not,” Johnson tweeted later.
Social media ripped him for his statement, and even accused him of racism.
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Johnson would get back on Twitter and push back his detractors.
“As a commentator my job is to comment. In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned, I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson won four Olympic gold medals in the 200-meter, 400-meter and 4×400-meter relays over the course of his career.
