Michael Johnson (sprinter)

The bolt-upright posture and short, rapid stride looked wrong to many coaches, and Johnson used it to win the Atlanta 1996 200m and 400m double. His 19.32 in that 200m final took a huge chunk off the world record and stood for 12 years. The lesson is in frequency: rather than reaching out, he kept his feet landing under his hips at a cadence few could match, and the 1999 400m world record of 43.18 shows the same action over a full lap.