Officials at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials headquarters on Sunday began notifying the athletes who had qualified for the competition. They also began dashing the hopes of a lot of people, including the man who lost 200 pounds and claimed to run the 200 meters faster than Michael Johnson.
"The guy came into the office and told us he'd been working out and lost 200 pounds getting ready for the trials," said Carolyn Viator, who along with Melissa Gautreaux, spent the weekend processing the 2,079 entries for the trials June 19-28. "I believed that - he looked good. What I didn't believe is that he ran the 200 in 19.43. I said, `This dude is faster than Michael Johnson.' "Johnson, the top U.S. sprinter in the 200, has a time of 19.88 seconds.
About 1,900 people submitted entries for one or more events. Jackie Joyner-Kersee had five entries. A California man topped the field, entering every field event and every distance race.
Then there was the family of six from Kenner who wanted to know if they needed to submit four separate entries for the members who wanted to comprise a relay team at the trials or if one would do. When told there was no relay event at the trials, they were disappointed, but still entered.
They weren't the only people disappointed with the schedule of events at the trials."Why isn't there an event for running backwards?" one outraged applicant asked on his entry form.
Many of the hopefuls had overcome lack of equipment, and Viator noted that practice methods varied widely. A woman sent in an entry for the shot put and listed her place of competition as "on the corner."
Between 900 and 1,000 athletes will compete in the trials, Viator said. Those who do, like Joyner-Kersee and Carl Lewis, will have qualifying marks that can be substantiated. Midnight Saturday was the final deadline for submitting those marks.
Verification was a problem for many, like the man who timed himself with a stopwatch in the 100 meters. He listed his time as 10.39. However, the qualifying time for the 100 is 10.38. One other problem: It has to be electronic timing. Running with a hand-held stopwatch didn't do it.
A man from the tiny Louisiana town of Napoleonville was still hoping to qualify officially as the deadline approached. The man told Viator he had never run track in high school or college, but thought he could compete in the sprints at the trials.
""The best part was he said he was training against cars and could run at 30 miles an hour," said Viator.
It's not likely - 30 mph is about 3 miles an hour faster than Lewis.