“Consistency Is Often Undervalued”: 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson Expresses Concern for Track After Kenny Bednarek’s 200M World Lead

In many ways, track and field differ from other sports. The sport also receives a lot of criticism because of several management failures and the way the structure has remained stagnant for a long period of time. American track great Michael Johnson has always been a critic, keeping the track world informed of the issues and occasionally posting his own perspectives based on his broad experience on his X page.

This time, the former athlete emphasized how consistency has never been given the importance it deserves in the sport. He noticed this problem in track when watching Kenny Bednarek win the 200-meter sprint race in the Doha Diamond League.

The 25-year-old competed against his own teammates on the Qatari grid and was the only athlete to set a time below 20 seconds, clocking in at 19.67, securing a world lead, meet record, and personal best. Naturally, Johnson praised Bednarek’s incredible achievement and also talked about his consistency, saying,

“Underrated! Not the fastest, but consistently shows up winning 200m medals. ’21 Olympics and ‘22 World Champs.”

Johnson noted that, while Bednarek is not as popular as other American competitors, he maintains consistency in the 200-meter category. There is a significant difference between the track classifications, but the athlete strives to make the most of them every season he competes in.

The American icon also mentioned how the 25-year-old won an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo and another silver medal at the 2022 World Championships. Aside from these major events, Bednarek has demonstrated enormous promise in other track meetings, whether conducted on US soil or a global scale.

However, because Bednarek has never won gold at a major tournament, like the Olympics, he has never attracted a lot of public attention, and this needs to change. Johnson made an important statement about the track community, as he wrote:

“Unfortunately consistency is often undervalued in this sport if you’re not winning [gold]. We need to change that!”

The Olympic gold medalist signifies how the community should come together to respect all types of athletes. These track stars go out there to represent their country, so being unaware of them, even if they don’t perform as expected, is not something expected. Johnson further emphasized that getting into the sport requires a lot of hard work, and these individuals deserve respect for their constant performance for Team USA.

The 2024 season is a big one for the athletes, and after seeing how the American track stars are performing, Johnson is even more enthused about the forthcoming Paris Olympics.

Michael Johnson predicts the 200-meter grid for the Paris Olympics 2024

Michael Johnson frequently predicts future event lineups for Team USA athletes. When Citius Mag’s founder, Chris Chavez, wrote on X about Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek, Erriyon Knighton, Courtney Lindsey, Fred Kerley, Christian Coleman, and Kyree King going all out to secure a place in the 200 meters at the Paris Olympics, the gold medalist took notice.

Johnson said that out of all these USATF athletes, the first three—Lyles, Bednarek, and Knighton—will try their best to be picked for the Olympics. The officials in charge will want to send a potential medal and will be extremely critical of their choices.

All of the aforementioned track athletes have shown a lot of promise this year, but they must push themselves past their teammates to secure an opportunity at the major event.