What Ever Happened To The White Athlete?
“I started to appreciate him when I put myself into his shoes—a white player trying to break into a black league. No way I could have done it”
—Pee Wee Reese, on Jackie Robinson
What do you do for a living?” Each time Kevin Little hears the question, he suffers a small crisis. He would love to say straight out, “I run fast. I am a sprinter.” But Little is tired of facing disbelief, tired of the skeptical sputter that always follows such a statement. So he often just mentions his part-time job for U.S. West and moves on. Why bother?
“People do not understand,” Little says. “They look at me like, But you’re white.”
Little is one of the fastest men in the world. His winning time of 20.40 seconds at the world championships in Paris last March tied the American indoor record in the 200 meters. That victory—over a field that lacked world-record holder Michael Johnson but included 1997 outdoor world champ Ato Boldon—made him the first white American since 1956 to win a major international sprint title. At 29, Little is in his prime, but the confidence he displays took too long to earn. Thai’s because, aside from suffering the usual self-doubts, he matured in an age when the white sprinter is about as common as the horse and buggy.
si.com
12/97
