Golden Spike

We traditionally think of the golden spike as the famous last spike hammered into transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah connecting the east and west railroads together. However, those of us in the track and field world also know that spikes, while very important to holding railroad tracks together, are equally as important to running a swift race. And when you are the fastest in the world, at the top of your game, you can have Nike design a track spike for you. Michael Johnson was that man in the mid 1990s.  This year, the Crawford Family U.S. Olympic Archives received one of Michael Johnson's Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games era golden spikes. 

Michael Johnson, arguably one of the best, if not the best, long sprinters in Olympic history worked with Nike to design a fast, track spike for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. Johnson wanted a shoe that was light, fit well and one in which he could feel the track beneath his feet. A spike that came as close to hammering nails into the bottom of one's feet as possible - the vision that Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman had of his ideal track spike. Tobie Hatfield of Nike worked with Johnson to create such a spike. What Nike created for Johnson was revolutionary in design with exposed foam and weighing in at only 3 ounces - half the weight of a regular sprinter's track spike. 

Once the design was complete, the finishing touch to the spike was the color.  Originally the spike was designed to have a mirror-like finish; however, from afar the track spikes appeared silver - definitely  not the color of the medal Johnson had his eyes on in the upcoming Olympic Games in Atlanta.  At the last moment, both Johnson and Hatfield realized there was only one color that these spikes could be - gold.

On July 29, 1996, in Olympic record time, Johnson won his first gold at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games in the 400m with a time of 43.49. Two days later, Johnson did the unthinkable and won the 200m in world record time of 19.32 - a feat never accomplished by a male athlete in Olympic history.  In all his heats and finals, Johnson wore a new pair of his golden spikes. 

Johnson spent ten years at the top in the long sprinter world culminating with a final Olympic gold in the 400m at Sydney 2000.  In total, Johnson won eight world and four Olympic titles finally retiring from competition in 2001. 

We were very excited when earlier this year Natalie Bittner, the daughter of Michael Johnson's former sport agent Brad Hunt, donated one of the famous golden spikes to the Crawford Family U.S. Olympic Archives.  We can now proudly say we have an artifact from a moment that excited a nation as well as the rest of the world and is part of track and field history.