No matter how fast they run, no matter how many titles they win, Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin know they will never outrun Ben Johnson's shadow. This is no idle concern, since either of the young sprinters, both of whom will also run on the excellent 4 x 100-m relay team, is capable of bringing back gold from Atlanta. Based on their performance alone, team members should be national heroes.
Any athlete turning in a dramatic performance improvement faces the same suspicions.
But for this pair, the burden is heavier. Canadians give their whole selves, or they don't give anything. What happened with Ben was emotional, like a nasty divorce. I think Canadians realize now that they made a mistake by putting all their apples in one basket with Ben. We've got a whole team.