BEIJING (AP) – Turns out, Justin Gatlin’s mother didn’t need his help putting a heckler in his place.
She did just fine on her own.
On Monday, the camera caught the American sprinter standing on the podium after receiving his 100-meter silver medal at the world championships and gesturing toward someone in the crowd who was bothering his mother.
Later that night when Gatlin talked to his family, he found out his mother actually had the situation under control – that she even made the heckler think twice about the hostility toward her son.
“She explained everything to him, that you can’t read what the headlines say, that you’ve got to know exactly what (the story) is,” Gatlin recounted Tuesday after his qualifying race in the 200 meters. “She made him second-guess what he was talking about.”