"We want to show everybody in the world the U.S. has the best team. We have the best sprinters."
Greene might have said, "We still have the best sprinters," after Tim Montgomery (the 100-meter world-record holder), Marion Jones, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, Chryste Gaines, Michelle Collins, Kelli White, and Torri Edwards all were tainted by drug-related probes this season.
While that issue dominated track and field all summer, Greene turned in a series of strong performances that made him the clear-cut favorite for his second Olympic gold medal in the 100.
But Greene looked more vulnerable than dominant late last month, when he was beaten in back-to-back meets in Paris and London, by little-known Francis Obikwelu of Portugal and Asafa Powell, a 21-year-old Jamaican whose winning time, 9.91 seconds, was the fastest ever run on British soil.
Indeed, Greene lost to Powell again on Friday at Weltklass Zurich, the best known of the European Golden League meets. Powell got out with an explosive start and held off the American champion to win in 9.93 seconds. Greene was timed in 9.94.
However, it bodes well for the United States that, in Greene, the nation also has a sprinter who lives up to the bold tattoo on his right arm. It depicts a lion, with the letters G-O-A-T inscribed in his mane.
"The lion is the king of the jungle," Greene told a group of reporters last month before the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. "The track is my jungle, and the word GOAT is here. It stands for Greatest Of All Time. This is what I'm going to prove this year."
Should he do so, Greene will become the first sprinter since Carl Lewis (1988 and 1992) to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 100 meters.
The historic challenge has often captured Greene's attention. As a 15-year-old, he once announced he would one day defeat Lewis, then the ranking sprinter of the age.
