The Allianz Memorial Van Damme has a rich history, dating back to 1977. To honour the athletes whose top performances have boosted the name and fame of the meeting over the past decades, the organisation decided to establish a Hall of Fame in 2017.
This year, Michael Johnson is the 19th athlete to get a place in the Hall of Fame, but he actually deserves a statue. That also happened to be his nickname, the ‘Statue’. After all, Johnson had a very distinctive running style: dead straight, like a statue. As he also took very short strides, he was given another nickname ‘The Duck’. When Johnson started to outpace his opponents, ‘Superman’ became his new nickname.
The highlight of the American’s career came at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Johnson took gold in both the 200 and 400 metres. Nobody had done that before him, and nobody has done it since. Four years later in Sydney, he extended his title on the track lap. That too is unprecedented to date. Besides being a multiple Olympic Champion, Johnson also became a multiple World Champion in the 200 and 400 metres and was the world record holder for many years.
After 1993, ‘Superman’ Johnson remained unbeaten in the 400 metres for seven years - 58 races in total. He was also the victor in Brussels five times. And in the 200 metres too, the Texan remained unbeaten at the Memorial winning four times there. In 2001, Michael Johnson put an end to his successful athletics career at the age of 34.
Michael Johnson’s achievements at the Memorial:
200 metres:
• 1990: winner in 20.21
• 1991: winner in 19.89
• 1994: winner in 20.02
• 1999: winner in 19.93
400 metres:
• 1993: winner in 44.45
• 1995: winner in 44.63
• 1996: winner in 44.29
• 1998: winner in 44.06
• 2000: winner in 44.07
Hall of Fame:
• 2024: Michael Johnson
• 2023: Sergey Bubka
• 2023: Marie-José Pérec
• 2023: Asafa Powell
• 2022: Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• 2022: Paul Tergat
• 2022: Daniel Komen
• 2021: Mike Powell
• 2021: Blanka Vlasic
• 2019: Willie Banks
• 2019: Gail Devers
• 2019: Sebastian Coe
• 2018: Merlene Ottey
• 2018: Hicham El Guerrouj
• 2018: Kim Gevaert
• 2018: Tia Hellebaut
• 2017: Heike Drechsler
• 2017: Steve Cram
• 2017: Wilfried Meert
