July 26, 1996
Watch for Glenroy Gilbert
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- Team Sun
ATLANTA -- In the sunny, sultry days leading up to the Centennial Games, Ottawa's Glenroy Gilbert has been a man in the shadows, in the shadow of his illustrious friend and teammate Donovan Bailey, with whom he's been training, and the shadow of fellow Canadian sprinter Bruny Surin.
He has also been laboring in the shadow cast by unfulfilled expectations. But today, when the heats are run for the 100 metres at Olympic Stadium, it will be time for him to burst out of the blocks, out of the shadow and into the light.
"It's time for Glenroy to go," said Canadian track and field head coach Andy McInnis, a hint of impatience putting more of an edge on his drill sergeant's demeanor.
"It's time for expectations. He's not a rookie anymore. This is his third Olympics. It's time for him to go or it's a case of `what are you doing?' "
McInnis questioned Gilbert's toughness, specifically his ability to overcome minor injuries.
"The best athletes in events like this deal with little aches and pains," he said. "Glenroy has got to get busy and suck it up."
While McInnis' words come out with that hint of impatience and maybe a little exasperation, in the next moment they are colored with compassion.
"I want him to have all the personal success that comes with doing well (in the 100)," he said.
He wants him to have the success in the individual sprint which he enjoyed as part of the 4x100 relay team which ran to the world championship last year.
Perhaps most, McInnis wants Gilbert to want it as much as McInnis wants it for him.
"Glenroy is a great, great athlete," said McInnis. "But he has to make the decision within himself to be a great, great athlete. He has to find that switch inside himself. You can see it in the relay."
The 4x100 relay is where he does best, again, perhaps, because he is permitted to race outside the circle of light which always shines brightest on Bailey and Surin.
"No one in the world can outrun him in second (spot)," said McInnis. "But the relay is a very different event. There isn't the pressure of the individual event.
"He's a team man. He's a leader on that (relay) team. He's strong and confident and everybody knows they can count on him. (The relay) is his event."
In the individual sprints, Gilbert has admitted he allows himself to get too caught up in the mind games and posturing which goes on as runners try to gain a mental step.
If you can get that spiked foot squarely on your opponents' psyche, you've got a big leg up.
"I think physically for the last two years I've been where my ability will allow me to be. Mentally ... in the 100 metres, more than half the race is mental. You can't go in there mentally soft because these guys will tear you apart."
Gilbert will go to the line today in Heat 12, the last of the day and should advance easily behind gold medal favorite Frankie Fredericks of Namibia. Advancing to the semi-final would be a victory of sorts.
Gilbert and Bailey, close friends, have been in seclusion near their training base in Austin, Tex. Most of the rest of the track and field team has been training in Anderson, S.C., .
There have been attempts to paint Bailey's decision to train on his own as some kind of selfish elitism, but McInnis said he had no problem with Bailey's decision, nor Gilbert's to train with him near Austin.
"(Gilbert)'s been with (coach) Dan Pfaff through all his LSU and NCAA success," said McInnis. "That's been a good marriage there."
Gilbert has said that this could be it for him after these Olympics. If this is to be his last moment on the international stage in the sprints, where will he spend it?
Bailey thinks he knows.
"Glenroy is going to shock a few people," he said.
