If not for a move halfway across the country and a change of training groups and coaches, Michael Marsh might never have fulfilled the potential that saw him win a California high school 200m title as part of the legendary Hawthorne program in 1985. Marsh was a good but not great sprinter for the Bruins of UCLA, with his highest NCAA placing in the 100m a bronze in 1987. The next year he was fourth at the collegiate championships and then sixth at the Olympic Trials, earning him an alternate spot on the ill-fated U.S. 4x100m relay for Seoul. In the fall of 1990, after seeing no improvement during his first two post-collegiate seasons, Marsh picked up sticks and moved from the West Coast to Houston to train with the Santa Monica Track Club under the supervision of Tom Tellez and Mike Takaha. That move paid off almost immediately in 1991 with anchor duty in the first round of the World Championships 4x100 at Tokyo, where the U.S. went on to take gold in the final with a world record. Then came the big breakthrough. At the Mt. SAC Relays in April of 1992, Marsh sped to a lifetime best of 9.93 in the 100m and then notched his first sub-20 200m clocking with a 19.94 at Austin, Texas, in early May. Earning another relay berth with a fourth-place finish in the 100m at the Trials, Marsh took second to Michael Johnson in the 200m with a big PR of 19.86, a time that only five men in history had bettered at that point. In the third of four Olympic rounds at Barcelona in the 200m, Marsh cruised a relaxed 19.73, an American and Olympic record and only 0.01 short of the world record. Many observers felt he could have easily broken the world record had he realized he was that close. Knowing relaxation was the key to the effort, Marsh tried it again in the final. "I relaxed so much," he told Track & Field News's Dave Johnson, "I didn't even drive out of the blocks." He had to play catchup with Namibia's Frank Fredericks and eked out the win in 20.01. Running the leadoff leg on the 4x100, Marsh picked up another gold as Team USA set the world record with a 37.40. A finalist in the 200m at the 1993 World Championships and in the 100m at the 1995 Worlds, Marsh added a silver to his Olympic medal collection in 1996 handling the third leg on the 4x100. In 1995 he won the USATF 100m crown, the only U.S. title of his career.