Burrell Has Urge To Win `One Big One’ Track Star Feels Incomplete Without A World Crown Or An Olympic Medal

Don’t try to convince Leroy Burrell that he is the World’s Fastest Human, even though he holds the world record for the 100-meter dash, the traditional yardstick for that title.

Burrell won’t consider himself for such an honor until he wins a world championship or an Olympic gold medal.

Forget that he has twice broken the 100-meter world record. Forget that he has run on the two teams that share the world record for the 400-meter relay and run on two other relay teams that previously broke the world record at that distance. Forget that he has run on the team that holds the world record for the 800-meter relay and run on one other team that previously broke the world record at that distance. Forget that he once held the world indoor record for 60 meters. Forget that he has run the fastest time ever for 200 meters, albeit wind-aided.

Forget that he has won an Olympic relay gold medal and two World Championship relay gold medals. Forget that he has won a Goodwill Games 100-meter gold medal, and forget that he has won two national 100-meter titles.

Burrell feels unfulfilled.

“People ask if I will break the world record again,” said Burrell, who set the 100-meter record of 9.85 seconds last year. “I couldn’t care less. It didn’t mean that much to me the first time I did it (9.90 in 1991) or the second. I think I can do it again. But it would just be a PR (personal record) for me.

“What I have to do is make sure I’m the best person on the track at the World Championships or the Olympics. There are a lot of athletes who haven’t broken the world record, but who have won the World Championships or the Olympics and can call their careers complete.

“I can’t call my career complete.”

Burrell, who finished second at the 1991 World Championships in the most disheartening race of his career, will get another shot at the world title this year at Goteborg, Sweden, in August - if he makes the U.S. team during the national championships at Sacramento, Calif., in June.

Burrell went into the 1991 World Championships at Tokyo unbeaten, having won all eight finals, and with his first world record at the national championships at New York.

Despite running under his record with a 9.88 clocking, Burrell lost, beaten by teammate Carl Lewis’ world record of 9.86.

“I was 23 at the time,” Burrell said. “I had been on top for two years. I was enjoying all the accolades. I just left there (Tokyo) knowing I had run one of the fastest races of all time and I had lost. It was very tough … to break 9.90 and lose.

“I couldn’t talk to anyone about it for a year. I was very emotional about it. I couldn’t talk to coach T (Tom Tellez), because he’s not emotional. He would have just said, `You didn’t do this or that, and that’s why you lost.’

“Coach T and Joe (business manager Joe Douglas) thought I would work it out myself. I sat at home (in Houston) and tried to work it out - and I couldn’t.”

Finally, after the 1992 Olympics in which he finished fifth, “I was able to talk to coach T, when I felt comfortable doing it. Still, I was in a fog for two years. Now, I’m out of it,” Burrell said.

He believes he came out of his funk during the 1993 IAAF Grand Prix meet at Zurich, Switzerland, where he rallied to win the 100 over a field that included Lewis, Dennis Mitchell, Andre Cason and Britain’s Linford Christie - all of whom were going to the World Championships.

“I ran a subpar race after that, but then I won at Berlin and I won the Grand Prix final,” Burrell said. “It was nice to be back.”

Last year, Burrell continued to run well early in the season, capped by his world record performance at Lausanne, Switzerland, in July. But then he injured his left foot, and his season ended at Zurich Aug. 6.

While disappointed at having to return home with a few weeks left in the season, Burrell also was “happy and relieved” because he didn’t have to worry about the impending birth of his son while on the road. Cameron Malik was born Sept. 11, a day Burrell would have been in Paris for the Grand Prix final.

His mother is Michelle Finn, a former national champion in the 100 and an Olympic relay gold medalist. Finn is training to return to competition this year, and she and Burrell plan to marry in the fall in her hometown of Orlando, Fla.

“That was the biggest event of my year - Cameron’s arrival,” not the world record, Burrell said.

Like his bride-to-be, Burrell is working himself back into top condition for the national championships. “I’m feeling good, there’s no discomfort,” he said. “I don’t think there will be any problem getting back into the shape I was last year.”

The focus will be on the World Championships this year and the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta.

“I can’t leave the sport until I get one big one,” said Burrell, who will be 28 Tuesday. “I’ve done nearly everything I could so far in life. I’ve set a world record, I’ve made a lot of money, I’ve found a wife and I’ve had a child.”

Only a World Championship and Olympic gold medal elude him.