Maurice Greene
Maurice Greene
Maurice Greeneis an American former track and field sprinter who specialized in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is a former 100 m world record holder with a time of 9.79 seconds. During the height of his careerhe won four Olympic medals and was a five-time World Champion. This included three golds at the 1999 World Championships, a feat which had previously only been done by Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson and has since been equaled by three others...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRunner
Date of Birth23 July 1974
CityKansas City, KS
CountryUnited States of America
You have got to believe in yourself every time you go out there and race. If you have no faith in your ability all that training has been a waste of time.
Every race is not perfect; there are obviously a lot of things I can improve on at the end of the race.
I have a God-given talent and I work very hard for what I do. Anybody can run fast. It's how you run fast. I pay attention to technical things now.
If you look at the sponsors who were in the sport 15 years ago compared to now there are a lot fewer. Why? Because those runners who took drugs tainted the sport. They tainted all of us in it.
You'd like more people to recognise what you do is special. But I take the attitude that the best thing I can do for my sport is to be the best at it. The best way people will come to recognise that track and field is a great sport is to see athletes excelling at it. Which is what I intend to do.
I love running in Europe, man, running at places like Zurich and Crystal Palace where the crowd is so knowledgeable and appreciative.
To be number one, you must train like you are number two.
Athens is a great place for me. It is my second home. It's where I won my first world championship medal, it's where I set my world record.
In America, we have three major sports - baseball, football and basketball. They get the most coverage. Then there's things like golf which mop up most of what is left. But track and field? We are way at the bottom of the totem pole.
You have to know this: running a 100m race is an intense experience. You have a lot of emotion at the end of the race. It is not easy to control that when you win.
You have a lot of emotion at the end of the race. It is not easy to control that when you win.
Among the world elite there are a handful of athletes who are physically capable of winning it.
The world record will come to me when I run the world record race. I'm just trying to perfect my race. I'm looking for perfection.
We're going to meet a lot of times this season, and it's going to be a battle each and every time we step on a track. We're all competitors, and we're all going to put on a show.