{"id":9657,"date":"2012-07-27T08:20:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T08:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=9657"},"modified":"2012-07-27T08:20:24","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T08:20:24","slug":"espn-names-michael-johnson-one-of-the-top-five-u-s-summer-olympians-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2012\/07\/espn-names-michael-johnson-one-of-the-top-five-u-s-summer-olympians-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN names Michael Johnson one of the top five U.S. Summer Olympians ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MichaelLeading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, ESPN.com counted down its ranking of the top 30 U.S. Summer Olympians of all time. Coming in at No. 5: Baylor graduate Michael Johnson<\/a>, BBA ’91.<\/p>\n

Johnson ran track at Baylor from 1987-90, winning five NCAA titles, then went on to claim four Olympic gold medals across three Olympics (4\u00d7400 relay, 1992; 200 meters, 1996; 400 meters, 1996 & 2000). He was elected to the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2000, the\u00a0U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2004, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2009, and will be inducted as part of the international IAAF Track and Field Hall of Fame<\/a>‘s inaugural class in November.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Johnson has served as a volunteer assistant coach and consultant<\/a> for Baylor’s track and field program, and the program’s annual home meet is the Michael Johnson Dr Pepper Classic<\/a>. Today, he serves as an agent<\/a> and motivational speaker<\/a> and oversees a training facility<\/a> in North Texas. Johnson even had the privilege of carrying the Olympic torch up to Stonehenge<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s Olympic legacy was carried on by another Baylor alum, Jeremy Wariner<\/a>, who won two gold medals in 2004 and then a gold and silver in 2008. Wariner is part of the 4×400-meter relay pool for this year’s games<\/a>. All told, Baylor alumni have won nine Olympic gold medals — more than 161 of the 204 countries competing in this year’s games.<\/p>\n

Sic\u00a0\u2019em, Michael and all Baylor Olympians!<\/p>\n

You might also like:<\/em><\/strong>
\n*\u00a0Michael Johnson voted into U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame<\/a>\u00a0(July 2009)<\/em>
\n*\u00a0Bears leave Beijing with three more Olympic medals<\/a>\u00a0(Aug. 2008)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, ESPN.com counted down its ranking of the top 30 U.S. Summer Olympians of all time. Coming in at No. 5: Baylor graduate Michael Johnson, BBA ’91. Johnson ran track at Baylor from 1987-90, winning five NCAA titles, then went on to claim four Olympic gold medals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-honors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}