Steve Williams (athlete) - Career

Career

He won the 100 meters at the 1977 IAAF Athletics World Cup in Düsseldorf whilst representing the USA. He was also anchored the 4x100 meters USA relay team to a new world record time of 38.03 seconds,alongside Bill Collins, Steve Riddick and Cliff Wiley – an event statistician Mark Butler for the IAAF puts in his top 10 men's World Cup moments. Williams also received a bronze medal as a member of the 4x100 meters USA relay team at the 1981 IAAF World Cup in Rome.

At the peak of his career he was claimant to the title the world's fastest man. He recorded four 9.9 seconds hand-timings for the 100 metres, so equalling the then world record. He also jointly held the world record for 220 yards (with Don Quarrie) at 19.9 seconds (achieved in 1975).

Recognised as one of the favourites, his chance of winning the 1976 Olympic 100 metres title was ruined by injury at the quarter-final stage of the USA Olympics trials (the injury suffered was a repeat of the muscle pull he had suffered at the AAU meet earlier in the season). Williams' injury emerged in the qualifying heat in the morning, he grabbed at his thigh 15 metres from the finish line. In the afternoon quarter-final, he could only run 20 metres before pulling-up. The crowd gave him a warm ovation as he sadly left the stadium. The injury also forced him to withdraw from the 200 m trial.

Williams attempted to qualify again for the Olympics in 1980 (finishing 6th) and 1984 (eliminated at the quarter-final stage) but failed to make the team by finishing in the top three finishers.

Williams emerged as a formidable talent in 1972 with impressive times in the 100, 220 and 440 yards events (9.3/20.3/45.7 respectively). However, an injury suffered at the quarter-final stage of the 200 m event at the Olympic Trials cost him a chance of going to the 1972 Munich Olympics. He first came to the world's attention in 1973, first by tying the world record for 100 yards (at 9.1 seconds), next by winning both the 100 and 220 yards events at the AAU meet (the first person to do this since Ray Norton in 1960), and then defeating the great Valeriy Borzov on the final leg of the sprint relay at the USA versus USSR meet in Minsk. He also set the world's best year performance in the men's 200 metres that year on June 16 at a meet in Bakersfield, clocking 20.33.

In 1976, after completing his studies at San Diego State University, majoring in English and journalism, he moved to Florida. Here he worked with his coach, Brooks Johnson, at the Florida Track Club, to help achieve his Olympic dream and a "9.8 and 19.6 kind of human excellence". Williams himself has commented on what Brooks was able to show him about his then running style, "I was shocked....I never realized how bad I was. I had been winning by accident." His style was once described as a "quaint, bobbing-and-weaving, shoulder-rolling style that seems to have been choreographed by Bo Diddley" and that in any race he won he "accomplished the feat with soul, style, lousy starts and great finishes" His equalling again of the then world record for 100 metres early in the 1976 season showed that he was on course to achieve his Olympic dream but sadly it would remain unfulfilled. Both Hasely Crawford, the gold medallist, and Don Quarrie, the silver medallist, in the 1976 Montreal Olympics 100 m event have expressed the belief that with Williams there a faster time, possibly a new world record, would have happened.

His disappointment at being denied Olympic glory was only somewhat assuaged by success at the 1977 IAAF Athletics World Cup - 'This is as close as I can get', he is reported as saying. His narrow victory in the 100 m over Eugen Ray (representing East Germany) was followed by a world record as the anchor for the USA team in the sprint relay. Williams has reported that he was troubled with a painful bone spur in one foot leading up to the competition. This meant he had to limit his races, and caused him to lean prematurely with pain at the finish of the 100 m. Williams has also admitted his decision to swap the baton between his hands after the final exchange of the relay may have cost the team the distinction of being the first to run under 38 s, but he also counters that it was a movement that was natural to him, and is a tactic shared by other great sprinters, including Carl Lewis. He also offers the opinion that being a one-off race meant the team did not get to practise under the competitive conditions of running in a heat and semi-final first. This would have allowed the team to further finesse the exchanges that would have allowed the two fastest runners, himself and Steve Riddick, the maximum possible length of the track to run in.