Former American sprinter Micheal Johnson has come under heavy attack from Nigerians on Twitter over a tweet he posted in the wake of Tobi Amusan’s record-winning display at the 2022 World Athletics Championship in Oregon, USA.
Following Amusan’s world-record finish of 12.12 in the 100m hurdles semi-final, Johnson in a tweet questioned the timing of the race.
He tweeted, “I don’t believe 100h times are correct. World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR “I throughly I was running slow!” All athletes looked shocked.
“Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not.”
In response to the pushback from Nigerians on his initial tweet, Johnson posted, “The level of dumbassery coming across my feed right now is truly staggering!”.
Having developed a reputation for being very intolerant of external criticism and bashing on social media, some Twitter users gave the ex-sprint star a piece of their mind.
After over 3 hours of bashing on Twitter, Johnson posted another tweet, saying he was only doing his job as a commentator by questioning the clocks, revealing he has had to deal with accusations of racism.
“As a commentator my job is to comment. In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned, I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on,” he said.
In the aftermath of the incident, the ex-sprint star in response to the attacks, restricted replies to his tweets, but here are some reactions gathered by The Quest Times:
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@cchukudebelu Michael Johnson isn’t happy that a Nigerian won the 100 meters hurdles (he would have loved for an American to win that race). It is that simple.
@omogunoriola Micheal Johnson will not make such a mistake in his life again…he ll surely logout of twitter today.. !!
@chrizyboyzi Micheal Johnson. It’s time to question all your medals. Either the wind pushed you or the timing was wrong. Nonsense.
@rhotezamani She hasn’t even savour the moment, Micheal Johnson an African American is already questioning the victory. These people don’t like us
@aderonk_e Girl has been on a mad streak but Micheal Johnson dey cap nonsense. He didn’t say that about Sydney McLaugh or other athletes oh. Òde
@Fredase You guys need to ignore the Micheal Johnson fella. Let’s just focus on this win. It’s for Tobi as much as it is for all of us. Congratulations Tobi Amusan Congratulations Nigeria
@KingGovt Instead of make you congratulate and pass, micheal Johnson carry calculator dey find decimal…
@Lizzs_Lockeroom Nigerian Twitter is on Michael Johnson’s head right now .. sheesh..
@deejayfaremi Michael Johnson is being unfairly attacked. It’s his job as a commentator to talk about everything that’s worth commenting on, like outrageous times – even if correct, wind-assisted times, world records etc.