It News: For Allyson Felix, third time is more than a charm: it's gold

August 9, 2012

For Allyson Felix, third time is more than a charm: it's gold

Published: Thursday, August 09, 2012
By Sporting News

LONDON—Allyson Felix ran so fast and gracefully Wednesday night, it’s hard to believe all the weight she was carrying. Now she can trade it all in for 13.2 ounces of gold. “It has been a long time coming,” Felix said.
She’d finished second in the 200 meters in Athens and Beijing. A third time would not have been charming. It would have been a shame.
Besides winning a lot of world championships, Felix has won a world of friends and admirers. She’s
clean living in a sport that had plenty of performance-enhancing dirt. Except for the Olympics, she was proof that nice guys/girls don’t really finish last.
She’s also so aesthetically pleasing. Though her nickname is “Chicken Legs,” Felix runs more like a deer on helium. While other runners grind, her lithe body seems to float down the track.
The only controversy Felix ever had was at this year's Olympic trials. And she didn’t deserve that. She finished in a dead heat with Jeneba Tarmoh for third place in the 100 meters. Since Felix was already ticketed for London in the 200, the pressure was on to let Tarmoh get the final U.S. berth.
“Everyone expected me to give up this spot,” Felix said. “I think lots of people ... know me and they know that I’m seen as this very nice girl.”
Qualifying for the 100 was all part of a grand plan that became brilliantly clear Wednesday night.
The field was loaded. There was 100-meter champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica. There was 400-meter champ Sanya Richards-Ross. There was two-time defending Olympic champ Veronica Campbell-Brown.
Heck, I was pulling for Felix just because it’s not such a pain to type her name. She trailed Fraser-Pryce coming off the turn, then found a gear that had been lost last year.
That gets back to the grand plan. Bob Kersee, better known as Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s husband, coaches Felix. Last year, they thought the best way to get ready for the Olympics was to run the 200 and 400 meters.
That blew up at the World Championship. She got third in the race she’d owned at that meet. Felix and Kersee decided to junk the 400 for the sharper training required in the 100.
That’s why Felix didn’t want to give up her Olympic spot after the Great Dead Heat Kerfuffle.

Most people wouldn’t care about the Olympic trials women’s 200 meters unless somebody gave birth in the turn, but the dead heat became a cause célèbre. USA Track & Field decided there should be a runoff or a coin flip. Tarmoh said she was too disappointed and tired.
That made her a sympathetic figure, but it also cast Felix as a 100-meter grinch. It didn’t help when she finished fifth in the 100 final on Saturday. But it was all part of the grand plan.
“The 100 taught me to be aggressive,” Felix said. “Running with those girls pushed me to the limits I hadn’t seen before.”
That’s how she was able to pull away from Fraser-Pryce in the final 100 meters. While the stocky Jamaican pumped her arms and gritted her teeth, Felix took about four controlled breaths and glided to the finish line.
America’s Carmelita Jeter finished third. She was too happy for Felix to be disappointed.
“You’ve been waiting for this moment,” Jeter told her.
“I’m overjoyed,” Felix said.
The grand plan was vindicated. Nice girls really do finish first.
-- David Whitley, AOL Fanhouse Columnist