Jeremy Wariner

BEIJING – Jeremy Wariner turned the corner, on the homestretch, and found exactly what he needed. Fifteen of his closest friends and family stood cheering him.

His hero's welcome came in an empty concourse of National Stadium nearly two hours after he finished a disappointing second to teammate and rival LaShawn Merritt in the 400-meter dash.

"Well," his mother, Linda Wariner, asked, "can we see it?"

Wariner dug into the pocket of his Team USA sweat pants and pulled out his silver medal. It is not what he came here for, but everyone still wanted to touch it, hold it and take pictures with it.

"We expect so much of him," said Mike Nelson, Wariner's coach at Arlington Lamar. "I think we forget that this is the Olympic Games, and he just won the silver medal."

Wariner won the gold medal in Athens four years ago. Only Michael Johnson, now Wariner's agent, ever has repeated in the event, winning in 1996 and 2000.

Wariner's 15 supporters, sitting high above the first turn, in Section F, had expected Wariner to join Johnson in track history.

"He's ready," Danny Wariner, Jeremy's dad, said a few minutes before the race.

The family has adopted Linda's chant of "Go, baby, go!" as their official motto. She said it for all 44.74 seconds of Wariner's race, even when it became apparent in the final 50 meters he would not be bringing home the gold.

Merritt, whom Wariner had beaten twice since losing to Merritt in the U.S. Trials, won in 43.75.

As Merritt, Wariner and bronze medalist David Neville grabbed American flags to celebrate one of the USA Track & Field's best moments of an otherwise miserable Olympics, the family raced to the bottom of the steps to greet Wariner on his victory lap.

He saw them as soon as Linda yelled, "Yeah, Jeremy!"

Linda, tears streaming down her face, grabbed him in a bear hug. Danny, Nelson, aunts, uncles, siblings and friends all took their turns hugging him and offering words of encouragement.

"I'm proud of you," Danny whispered in his son's ear. "Keep your head up."

Wariner never said a word. He didn't have to. It was obvious he was as disappointed as everyone else in his traveling party.

"The silver is good, but going into the season, we were shooting for a repeat," said Wariner's coach, Michael Ford, who coaches at Baylor. "...It hurts real bad right now. I think the sad thing is if he would have run his best and gotten beat, I probably would have been able to accept it a little bit better. But that wasn't his best."

Wariner told the media that he had "nothing left" coming off the turn. He couldn't explain why. Ford said he clocked Wariner in 20.7 in the first 200, slightly faster than the semifinal but not too fast.

"I'm disappointed," Wariner said in interviews. "If I would have run like I did in the semifinal [on Tuesday], I think I would have won. But things happen for a reason, and ... LaShawn just ran a better race today."

Wariner, accompanied by Johnson and manager Deon Minor, already was feeling better by the time he left the bowels of the stadium. He even forced a smile when he saw his family.

"Yeah," Linda told him, "we're all still here."

Danny assured Johnson that Wariner would rebound in the 4x400 relay, where the Americans are defending Olympic gold medalists.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," Johnson answered.

He was referring to the 400 world record. His world record.

Wariner has made no secret of running under 43.18, Johnson's time in Seville in 1999. Jamaican Usain Bolt broke Johnson's 200-meter world record Wednesday, something Linda reminded Johnson of.

"Yeah," Johnson said, "now we've got to get the other one broken."

And Wariner put back together.