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| - Fewer and fewer people ask Jeremy Wariner how a white guy can be so fast, and under most circumstances that would be a relief. Only now people are wondering something almost as indelicate about Wariner, the slender Texan who in 2004 became the first white American to win an Olympic sprint medal in 40 years. Essentially, people want to know if he’s nuts. “What in the world is he thinking?” Deon Minor, Wariner’s business manager, said recently with a grin. “Why did he leave Clyde? “ … That’s what people want to say, but they won’t say it around us.”
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| abstract
| - Fewer and fewer people ask Jeremy Wariner how a white guy can be so fast, and under most circumstances that would be a relief. Only now people are wondering something almost as indelicate about Wariner, the slender Texan who in 2004 became the first white American to win an Olympic sprint medal in 40 years. Essentially, people want to know if he’s nuts. In January 2008, Wariner parted ways with Clyde Hart, the coach who trained him while he won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Olympics, captured back-to-back world championships and entered 2008 as a heavy favorite to win gold again in the 400 in Beijing. “What in the world is he thinking?” Deon Minor, Wariner’s business manager, said recently with a grin. “Why did he leave Clyde? “ … That’s what people want to say, but they won’t say it around us.” After the 2007 season, his best yet, Wariner grossed approximately $1 million in prize money and endorsements. Yet Wariner asked Hart to take a pay cut, according to the coach. It went over about as well as Hart asking Wariner to run in high heels. The partnership was over. “I regret that it came to this,” Hart said. “It’s a bittersweet deal.” Sporting diamond-studded earrings, a thick gold necklace and mirrored sunglasses, Wariner still cuts a figure of supreme confidence. Nearly two weeks ago in France, the 24-year-old clocked the fastest 400 of the year (43.86 seconds) to reestablish himself as the man to beat at the Olympics. But it’s clear Wariner has lost more than a renowned coach. Gone is his aura of invincibility, too. He qualified for the Olympic team with ease as one of America’s top three runners in the 400, but in the final at the U.S. Olympic trials, Wariner lost to LaShawn Merritt. It was Wariner’s second defeat to Merritt since he split with Hart. Before changing coaches, Wariner had won all 12 of his head-to-head matchups with Merritt. Suddenly, Wariner finds himself headed for an unexpected showdown with a fellow American in Beijing and entangled in an unwanted soap opera. This story, however, is about more than a coaching change because Clyde Hart was far more than Wariner’s former coach.
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