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Michael Johnson explained the key things that would give him an edge over Usain Bolt in their prime.

Sprint legends Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt are unarguably two of the greatest athletes in history, with a combined 12 Olympic gold medals between them, but never faced each other.

That’s because both raced in different generations and disciplines, but with recent debate on who was a better athlete in their prime, it became paramount to hear from each side who they think would win if they raced one other in their prime.

In 2016, Johnson boldly claimed: “I win that race every day. Every time we line up, I win that race, guaranteed.”

However, he has since realigned his words but maintained he would have dominated had the pair competed in the same generation.

“I think I could rise to whatever occasion,” said the four-time Olympic champion speaking on the High Performance Podcast in July 2024.

“Usain’s an amazing athlete and he would have had an advantage on me a little bit out of the blocks. But when he’s slowing down at the end, he’s not the most efficient at the end of the race,” he added.

“I’m extraordinarily efficient. I would have beaten him on speed endurance, the ability to hold my speed, and my ability to be more efficient. And I’m just going to stick to that until the day I go to my grave.”

Johnson’s career peaked at Atlanta 1996 Olympics, where he became the only male athlete to win both the 200m and 400m. He clocked 200m World Record (WR) of 19.32s in the 200m and Olympic Record (OR) of 43.49s in the longer distance (both records have been broken ever since).

Following his retirement in 2021, Bolt led a new generation of sprinters when he blazed to the 100m and 200m Olympic titles at Beijing 2008, breaking Johnson’s WR with a new 19.30s.

The Jamaican icon will then lower his time to 19.19s and set 9.58s in the 100m at the Berlin 2009 world championships, with both WRs still standing today.

Bolt retired in 2017 as the greatest sprinter in history having won eight Olympic gold medals and eleven world titles. So the Jamaican had every right to play down Johnson’s claims: “No way he’s going to beat me!,” he said, also speaking on the High Performance Podcast.

The 38-year-old then recalled proving Johnson wrong at the Beijing 2008 Games, where the American claimed he would not yet beat his 200m world record.

Laughing, he remembered: “One of the funniest videos, in ’08, I think it was BBC he was broadcasting with.

“If you go on the internet you can find this video and they were asking him: ‘Oh do you think he’s gonna break the record? And he was like, ‘No I think his mechanics need some work, it will take him two more years to get to the world record’. And then the same day, I broke the world record!”

“It’s one of my best videos, I watch it every now and then.”

The truth is they were dominant forces in their generations and have every right to the bragging claims. On paper, Bolt stands tall as the fastest in the 200m and the reigning world record holder, so he has the edge.

But since there will never be a face-off between the two; like Johnson said: “No one will ever know [who would win]! So I have that advantage, no one will ever know!”