Greene Says His Decline Began With Broken Leg

NEW YORK -- Maurice Greene, who won the 100-meter gold medal at the Sydney Olympics but has lost his sprint stranglehold and no longer holds the world record, said Monday that his decline began after he broke his left leg in a motorcycle accident early in 2002.

Although he recovered in time to win that year’s U.S. outdoor championship, he said that favoring the leg triggered other debilitating injuries he has only recently overcome.

“I think I pushed my body to limits where it wasn’t ready to go and I started having other little things,” said Greene, who also had hamstring and thigh muscle problems. “That’s where the tendinitis started coming into my right knee. After last year, I let my body relax.”

He said the motorcycle accident occurred when he was trying to move into the carpool lane near the interchange of the San Diego and Ronald Reagan freeways and was sideswiped by a car, which pushed him into another car. A friend drove him home. He drove himself to the hospital and later to his own doctor. The diagnosis, he said, was a break at the head of the fibula, the smaller of the two bones of the lower leg.

“The only good thing about it was, we didn’t have any major championships that year,” Greene said on the final day of the U.S. Olympic team media summit. “Basically, all I had to do was get ready for the U.S. championships.”

He won, despite having only 2 1/2 months’ training.

“I had no basic training, only weight training,” he said.

Greene’s new frankness matched the new tattoo on his right arm.

It depicts a lion whose mane contains the letters GOAT, for “Greatest of All Time,” the name of a book written in tribute to Muhammad Ali.

The tattoo was inspired by a meeting with Ali at a promotional appearance in Orlando, Fla., Greene said, and reminds him of his goals. He vowed he would come back and win the 100 at the Athens Games.

“I want to be the greatest,” said Greene, who will compete at the Home Depot Invitational in Carson on Saturday. “I’m not a person that’s really stuck on statistics or anything else, but if you look at my career, there is no sprinter who ever has done the things I have done.

“Before, I’ve been quiet about that, but now, I mean, it’s like Muhammad Ali, you have to say what you want.... You have to proclaim what you want. I want to be the greatest of all time.”

Greene’s record of 9.79 seconds was surpassed by Tim Montgomery’s 9.78 in 2002, and they have a fierce rivalry. Asked to list his main competitors in the 100, he omitted Montgomery but later called him “a good competitor.”

Greene added, “Tim will show up when it’s time to run. But I don’t care about anybody. I pay attention to him, but none of them concern me. I believe if I do what I have to do, none of them can beat me, anyway.”