Hong Kong Sevens: Michael Johnson on speedy stroke recovery, charity work and playing rugby

Former American sprinter Michael Johnson felt a lot of emotions after he suffered a stroke last September. One of them was anger.

Some days he found himself upset at the turn of cards which landed him in hospital after he felt a strange tingling sensation down his arm and left side after a training session.

“You kind of want to go, ‘Yeah, I was doing all of the right things, I don’t smoke, I eat right, I keep my weight down, I work out every day, I shouldn’t have had a stroke, but I did.’”

Johnson made a speedy recovery, something he credits to an “Olympic mindset” which allowed him to frame recovery as training. His remarkable comeback, which has him in Hong Kong working with children via the Laureus Sport for Good programme, an official charity of the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, is something he takes great pride in.

Obviously humour also helped the man with four Olympic gold medals to his name– one in the 200, two in the 400 and one in the 4x400m relay – and a bunch of national records.

“I’m claiming a world record on (recovering from a stroke) too,” he said with a smile. “Nobody is going to argue me on it of course, but I’m going to claim it anyway.”

Johnson, who walked laps around the hospital floor during recovery, noted the loop was around 200 metres, a track and field length he dominated for more than a decade. When he first started walking after his stroke, it took him about 10 minutes.

“It was a bit ironic, but it was at that moment, instead of being devastated in that I was the record holder in that distance and it used to take me about 19 seconds and now it’s taking me 10 minutes, I was actually encouraged. During those 10 minutes I could feel and focus more on walking again and doing the things I needed to do to feel improvements. So that was familiar territory for me.

Doctors told him something that also gave him a sense of calm and purpose. “They told me it was just going to come down to hard work.”

Johnson has been doing charity work for the UK-based Laureus Sport for Good charity for 18 years, travelling all over the world working with children to help instil the love of sport. Johnson said he is still surprised and a bit taken back by the power of sport to help people overcome adversity.

“It’s hard to say what it is about sport, but what we do know is that it has the power to cross all sorts of lines. When people start playing on a team, they tend to forget about any sort of cultural differences they might have, or religious differences they might have, or some conflict that might be going on for decades or even centuries. They just sort of forget about it when they play a sport and join a team.”

Johnson, who is a regular commentator on track and field events around the world, has his own organisation which offers support services and training to Olympic athletes. This is his second time in Hong Kong, the first almost 20 years ago.

“It’s a fantastic cosmopolitan city with lots of energy and it’s changed a lot since I was last here,” he said.

Of course, Johnson will be cheering for the American team, who head into the tournament not only leading the World Series, but also as favourites among pundits.

The US squad features two of the fastest sevens players ever in Carlin Isles and Perry Baker. Isles is contemplating a push to make the Olympic track and field team for Tokyo 2020 in the 100m, as the 28-year-old’s personal best is 10.13 seconds. Baker, who has been clocked at upwards of 34km/h on the pitch, was a college football player in West Virginia. Isles and Baker are part of a grass roots movement by US Rugby which has pulled athletes from other sports. Johnson said that in another life he may have taken to sevens rugby given his blitzing speed and agility.

“Maybe, maybe,” said Johnson. “But we will never know the answer to that, I guess.”