Jetting into Gear

TRACK & FIELD

A British sports magazine picked him as its "Sportsman of the Year" for 1966. His face has been on the covers of publications in Sweden, Germany and Finland and he was the subject of a TV documentary in France. But in the U.S., Tommie Smith, 22, a home-grown lad from Acworth, Texas, is virtually unknown. He was not even among the ten candidates for the A.A.U.'s 1966 Sullivan Award to the country's top amateur athlete.* And the oversight seems doubly strange because Smith is currently the best sprinter in the world, as well as one of the most versatile athletes in the history of track and field.

Only four men have ever run the 100-meter dash faster than the San Jose (Calif.) State College senior, who has clocked 10.1 sec. (the world record is 10 sec. flat); the 100 is not even his specialty. Only a handful can long-jump farther; Smith has done 26 ft. 10 in. unofficially, even though he has never practiced the event. In the 220-yd. dash, nobody comes anywhere close. Last spring in San Jose, Tommie ran the 220 on a straight course in 19.5 sec., clipping .5 sec. off Dave Sime's ten-year-old world record; he then went out and whisked 220 yds. around a turn in 20 sec. flat, slicing .2 sec. off Henry Carr's 1964 mark. This year Tommie has turned his attention to still another event--the quarter-mile--and in Louisville last month, he sprinted 440 yds. in 46.2 sec., to smash Theron Lewis' world record by almost 1 sec.

A lanky (6 ft. 3 1/2 in., 167 Ibs.) Negro who wears sun glasses "for personality" and is so relaxed that he often catnaps for ten or 15 minutes before a race. Smith is called "Jet Gear" by rival sprinters--because of his huge stride (8 ft. 11 in.) and incredible acceleration. "Other sprinters reach their top speed at 75 yds, and then decelerate," says his coach, Lloyd ("Bud") Winter. "Tommie is still accelerating at the end of 100 or 220 yds. He can sustain a speed of 26 m.p.h."

An expert on sprinting techniques who has written books on the subject and coached three previous world record holders (Harold Davis, Ray Norton and Dennis Johnson), Winter concedes that Smith is still only a mediocre starter--"he used to be terrible"--a weakness that Bud is trying hard to correct. To improve Tommie's drive off the blocks, Winter makes him practice starts in a gymnastic belt equipped with reins that the coach hangs onto for dear life. He has to. "Tommie is getting so he can drag me right down the track," says Winter. He also has set San Jose State scientists to work figuring out whether concave spikes on Smith's shoes would speed him up, whether cutting air holes in Tommie's shorts would reduce drag while he is running. He means it, too. "Our goal," says Winter, "is to break every sprint record in the books."

* Won by the University of Kansas' Jim Ryun, 19, world record holder in the half-mile (1 min. 44.9 sec.) and mile (3 min. 51.3 sec.).

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