Name Dennis Johnson Role Sprinter | Height 1.8 m Weight 73 kg | |
 | ||
Olympic medals Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay Similar People Bob Hayes, Gerry Ashworth, Claude Piquemal, Richard Stebbins, Paul Drayton | ||
Full interview with jamaican sprint legend dennis johnson 2015
Dennis Johnson (born 6 May 1939) is a former Jamaican sprinter who equalled the world record, 9.3 seconds, for the 100-yard dash in 1961. Johnson later became a coach and advisor, and the architect of the Jamaican athletics programme.
Contents
- Full interview with jamaican sprint legend dennis johnson 2015
- Sprint legend dennis johnson thinks justin gatlin is taking drugs in 2015
- Track career
- Coaching career
- Awards
- Rankings
- References
Sprint legend dennis johnson thinks justin gatlin is taking drugs in 2015
Track career
Born in Jamaica in 1939, Johnson travelled to the United States for his college education. He studied at San Jose State College, where he was coached by the legendary sprints coach Bud Winter and was a member of the San Jose State Spartans track team.
In 1959, he won a bronze medal at the 1959 Pan American Games in the 4 × 100 m relay as a member of a combined West Indies Federation team.
In 1961, within a six-week period, he equalled the then world record for the 100 yards three times at 9.3 s:
(He also equalled the same time on 1 April at Stanford in a university meet but the lack of a wind gauge meant the time could not be ratified as a world record.)
His season was shortened by injury, and he could not compete for the United States collegiate and national championship titles.
In 1962, he was one of the favourites for the 100 and 220 yards titles at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games but he ended up finishing fifth in the 110 yards and withdrew from the 220 yards event because of a groin injury.
In 1964, at the Tokyo Olympics he finished 4th in the 4 × 100 m relay as a member of the Jamaican team.
Coaching career
After leaving college, Johnson went into a career in sports development and was to become renowned as the architect of Jamaica's subsequent track and field success.
Johnson's dream on leaving San Jose State University was to take what he'd learnt there and develop, for the first time, a US-style college athletic program in Jamaica. Johnson's inspiration was the legendary San Jose sprints coach, Bud Winter - "'Bud' Winter was a master coach. I decided to come back home and bring his methodology to training sprinters in Jamaica", Johnson has stated.
In 1971, Johnson started a sports program at was then a two-year vocational college, the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST), that later, in 1995, became University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), a four-year college. Amongst Johnson's first training group was a then 20-year-old Anthony Davis, who was later to follow Johnson as sports director at UTech.
Johnson has also stated how he was also inspired to emulate the great Jamaican sprinter, Herb McKenley, who had coached Johnson in high school and passed on what he had learned from his time in the United States - "I just wanted to be like him." To help foster the coaching of adult athletes, Johnson and UTech entered a partnership with Stephen Francis and the MVP Track and Field club in Kingston.
Johnson has served at Utech in many capacities: as Chairman of the Sport Advisory Council; as Adjunct Associate Professor of Sport Science; the first Director of Sports; and has headed Special Projects for Intercollegiate Sports. In addition, he was the founder of the Jamaican Inter-Collegiate sports competition.
Commonly known by the initials DJ, Johnson or DJ is world-renowned as a coach and many of his pupils have gone onto coach other coaches themselves.
In 2010, he was able to start a Sports Science degree programme at UTech.
Awards
Rankings
Johnson was ranked 2nd in the world in the 100 m sprint in 1961 according to the votes of the experts of Track and Field News.