Profile - Patrick Johnson

DOB - 26 Sept 1972

Height 1.77m Weight 73kg

Australian Institute of Sport

Coach - Esa Peltola

30 year old Patrick Johnson only took up running seven years ago.  He had spent most of his life with his Irish father, Patrick Senior, working a mackerel trawler off the North Queensland coast.  Patrick was actually born at sea; on a speedboat during a frantic dash to take his mother to Cairns Base hospital.  

Sadly Patrick's aboriginal mother, Pearl Ella Marrott, was killed in a car accident when Patrick was just two years of age.  This led Patrick Senior to choose to raise his first-born son, Patrick unconventionally on the fishing trawler and commit Patrick's younger brother Ryan to the care of his aboriginal in-laws at a community in Queensland.

Patrick Senior had emigrated from County Carlow in Ireland in 1952.  The fitter and turner was an ex-Golden Gloves boxer and considered Patrick Junior's fishing-boat childhood to be 'a bit tough' at times.  The lifestyle included occasional swims to shore from the 11 metre fishing boat to attend one of about ten schools up and down the Queensland coast.

In 1989, Patrick won a scholarship to an international boarding school - Aurora College in Moss Vale - where, amongst other studies, he learned to speak Cantonese.  Today Patrick speaks five languages fluently and is familiar with a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dialects.  

Seven years ago, while studying at University, Patrick showed some talent as a sprinter and was selected to race at the 1996 Australian University Championships.

At the age of 24, Johnson won the 100m in a time of 10.47, running in spikes for the first time.  This feat attracted the attention of athletics and rugby coaches who invited him to try-outs.  An offer to train under Esa Peltola at the Australian Institute of Sport was quickly accepted by Patrick and this partnership has continued for the six years since.

In 1997 Johnson's career looked to be off to a promising start, running competitively against the likes of Linford Christie and Carl Lewis in the domestic Grand Prix series, but he suffered from injuries in the lead up to the World University Games - his first international selection - and could not start in either the 100m or 200m.  

When Patrick resumed competition, Sydney sprinter Matt Shirvington was emerging as a new talent over 100m and he began to dominate men's sprinting in Australia.  Shirvington reduced the national 100m to a 10.03 in 1998 and and Johnson had to settle for second place in many important domestic races over the next few years. 

In the lead up to the Sydney Olympics, Patrick's personal best times improved and he ran 10.10 in Melbourne to set the fastest time by an Australian in Australia.  Despite this improvement, he could not impress at major international competitions, failing to make it past the heats in either the 2000 Olympic Games or the 2001 World Indoor Championships.

After winning his first national championships, over 200m, in 2001, a stress fracture led to his withdrawal from the 2001 World Championships.  To compound his frustrations, Patrick was not selected for an individual berth in the 2002 Commonwealth Games team and had to settle for a bronze medal run with the Australian relay.

Johnson's top speed was considered to be as good as any of the top world sprinters, but his start was regarded as a weakness and his big race temperament sometimes seemed suspect.

Disappointed with his lack of success in the sport, Patrick was determined to train more seriously in the 2002/03 off season and worked hard on his overall fitness and technique as well as his start.  This resolve paid off with a fine series of times in the domestic series, topped with a wind assisted 9.88 in Perth and his first national championship, beating five time champion Matt Shirvington.  His starting showed considerable improvement as he consistently led the field early, seemingly unperturbed by the new IAAF 'one false start' rule.

Showing his domestic form was no fluke, Johnson further improved during May, competing in a series of meetings in Japan.  He ran a personal best of 10.05 to win his heat of the 100m in the Mito meet and then astounded the world with a national record of 9.93 seconds to win the final.  A week later, he was just pipped on the line by world record holder Tim Montgomery - again in fast time.