TOMORROW, beneath the elegantly arched roof of Toronto's Skydome, Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson will devote some 14 1/2 seconds of their busy lives attempting to resuscitate athletics (Eurosport, 11.0 p.m.)

Track and field purists have raised ethical objections to this particular ER process. Advocates of the great one-on-one showdown shrug their shoulders. What, you want the patient to die?

For their part, in applying the electrodes to American track and field's almost lifeless body, Messrs Johnson and Bailey will be guaranteed $500,000 each with the winner pulling down an additional $1 million. Noble men.

There have been disputes and squabbles about so much money being funnelled into the pockets of two athletes, about the validity of a 150-metre race, about the long-term impact of such events on the sport in general. Most worrying for the guardians of the sport's traditional formats is the appetite which the folks in the pinstripe suits have shown for the event.

"I say to the traditionalists, who cares?' " says Brad Hunt, agent to Michael Johnson. "The traditionalists also wanted to believe the Titanic wouldn't sink."

Hunt won't win any one-on-one analogy challenges with his Titanic reference, but he has a point about the sport of athletics sinking in the US. Last weekend track and field's only US Grand Prix meet took place in Eugene, Oregon. It would be hard to over-state the American public's disinterest in what went down at the Prefontaine Classic, the first major track meet since the Olympics last year.

The legacy of Atlanta and its historic roster of great races and massive TV ratings has been negligible. The stadium itself where Michael Johnson blasted out easily the fastest 200 metres in history is now Turner Field, an elegant baseball stadium.

Track and field in the US hasn't been helped by its feeble, ineffectual administrators who have stood by as the sport's grip on the public imagination waned. The head of USA Track and Field, Ollan Cassell, is currently on his way out after 32 years in charge. His attempts to transform an amateur sport into a vibrant professional sport have been pitiful. It is pointed out frequently that the only people actively promoting track and field in the US are the shoe manufacturers.

Can the sport be turned around? Probably not as things stand. USA Track and Field has massive debts and currently faces a $2 million shortfall on a budget of $10 million. The athletics calendar is such that the Prefontaine Classic is the only surviving American outdoor meet of any quality which takes place before the whole roadshow moves to Europe for the summer.

Then there is the drug issue. The Americans have been as lily-livered as any other nation in tackling the issue head on. Last weekend's Prefontaine Classic picked up an unusual amount of media coverage by dint of the fact that Mary Slaney and Sandra Farmer Patrick weren't at the event. Both face charges of misuse of performance-enhancing drugs.

With so many lawyers and threats of civil suits being waved around, the sport has appeared paralysed. Carl Lewis, still the most luminous and most quotable of American athletes (especially when it comes to crying wolf), has suggested that USA Track and Field has deliberately ignored the problem of drug taking amongst athletes and has attempted to protect athletes who have taken drugs. He has called for an independent investigation, possibly by Congress, to determine whether positive drug tests have been covered up in order to keep the sport marketable.

Both Slaney and Farmer-Patrick tested positive at the US Olympic Trials early last summer. Another American athlete, hurdler Stephon Flenoy, who tested positive for testosterone at the same meet, is currently suing USA Track and Field on the issue of due process. His preliminary hearing was conducted over the phone while he was being represented by his mother.

As a reminder of just how far off course the sport has strayed, Ben Johnson will be sitting in the stands in the Skydome tomorrow night as he presses on with his legal action to be re-admitted to the sport after two bans resulting from positive drug tests.

The organisation behind the great One-on-One Challenge of Champions has been less than inspirational itself, however. Rumours persist that the money to back up the undertaking simply doesn't exist. There have been problems with the athletes who found themselves relegated to the support card in the two-and-a-half hour programme.

Athletes have cried off with a variety of ailments, mainly related to bruising of the ego. From the support card Sergei Bubka, Gail Devers and Javier Sotomayor have all dropped out.

Yesterday, a planned ticker-tape parade through the rain-swept city of Toronto was cancelled when Donovan Bailey announced that in his experience such parades were usually held after events not before them.

"This isn't welcome home time," said Ray Flynn, the former Irish middle distance runner who now acts as Donovan Bailey's agent.

"I was never coming to the parade," said Bailey "I don't know why they promoted it with me coming. They knew I wasn't."

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