A healthy Sanya Richards chases gold

A healthy Sanya Richards chases gold

If all goes according to plan Sanya Richards will earn her rightful place on the U.S. Olympic team July 3 and fly to Beijing a heavy favourite to win the 400m gold medal. Like many athletes she is already feeling the pressure.

“There are about 20-25 members of my family who already have tickets and rooms booked,” she says laughing. “Now, I really have to make the team.”

Few would be foolish enough to bet against this 23-year-old woman. Two years ago she beat the American record with a scorching run of 48.70 seconds to win the IAAF World Cup in Athens. It was the fastest 400m time run by a woman in years. The event concluded a season in which she was undefeated in her specialty and earned a quarter share of the IAAF Golden League Million Dollar Jackpot for winning all six Golden League meets: $249,999 US. Last year, in contrast, was a year from hell.

Richards was diagnosed with Behcet’s Disease a rare disease of the immune system which is characterized by fatigue and ulcers. As a result she missed valuable training time.

“When I started to get sick I had to figure out what was going wrong,” she remembers. “You can’t stop training. You have to go out and compete. But I didn’t know what kind of illness I had or whether it was going to eventually turn out that I couldn't compete.

“I had really bad mouth ulcers and I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t talk. Sometimes I couldn’t train because I was feeling so fatigued. It was a really hard year. So I was very happy to win the jackpot in spite of it and make the team to Osaka.”
Watched from stands

At the world championships she finished 5th the 200m and was a member of the victorious U.S. women’s 4 x 400m relay team. But at the U.S. trials she had failed to earn a spot in the 400m and was forced to watch the race she had been expected to win from the stands.

“I kept debating whether I wanted to watch it live in the stadium or watch it on TV or watch it at all,” the Jamaican-born runner recalls. “I decided to go to the stadium and watch it in person. It was really hard, especially because I felt I could have potentially been a world champion had I been in the race.

“The ladies all ran superb. They all had a personal record so I thought it could have been a chance for me to do the same as well. It was tough but it really inspired me this season to stay focused to take care of my body and when the opportunity comes around again I will be prepared.”

In her absence, Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders took the gold and silver medals respectively, with Novlene Williams of Jamaica claiming the bronze medal. Ohuruogu was returning from a one-year suspension for missing three out-of-competition doping tests. Her winning time was 49.61 seconds, a time Richards bettered four times following the world championships when she recovered from her illness.

Still, it is this threesome, especially the consistent Williams, she acknowledges as the biggest challenge to her dominance.

This Olympic year has begun splendidly. She has not had a flare-up of the disease since January. Doctors have told her that it can remain dormant but the longer she goes without an attack the better the chances of not having a repeat. As a precaution, she has been prescribed the proper medication to deal with the condition.
Positive changes

There have been other positive changes in her buildup to the Olympics. Coach Clyde Hart, the man who guided world 200m and 400m record holder Michael Johnson to Olympic glory in 1996 and 2000 as well as Jeremy Wariner to the 2004 Olympic 400m gold medal, is her coach. Two years ago she moved from her home in Austin, Texas, to Waco to train with him.

And since Hart and Wariner have now ended their professional relationship the coach is focusing on bringing Richards to the next level.

“It’s just inevitable when there are two or three athletes you are not going to get the coach's undivided attention,” she explains. “So now it's just coach and me. Really I feel he is 100 per cent locked in.

“There were certain things in the past he might not have talked about just because there were multiple athletes there. Now we are looking at some small things, my form in the last 50, my block starts. It has been a blessing for me especially in the most important year of my career to have Coach Hart really focus on me and help me to achieve my goals.”

Early season victories in Waco, Texas, and in Kingston, Jamaica, have provide ample evidence she is on the right path. Next up is the Prefontaine Classic June 8. She wants to beat 49 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials as much to send a message to her competitors as to establish confidence.

The Olympics remain her primary focus. However, her long-term plans include an attempt on the world 400m record of 47.60 seconds. That was set by East German Marita Koch in 1985. First she wants to become more consistent in the 48-second range. It’s a long way from Koch’s standard. Clyde Hart, of all people, knows this.

“It’s a very difficult record she’s shooting for for some very obvious reasons,” says Hart. “It was set at a time when Eastern Bloc athletes were dominating a lot of our events. We know that’s difficult.”

It was Jeremy Wariner who first planted the notion of Richards leaving her college coach, Bev Kearney, at the University of Texas and joining Clyde Hart’s group in Waco. It wasn’t an enormous stretch. Richards’ mother, Sharon, who serves as her manager, lives half an hour away, and her sister lives five minutes away. That means there’s ample time for family barbecues and occasional trips to the bowling alley with her fiance, New York Giants’ defensive back Aaron Ross. The couple met while at the University of Texas.
One of world’s best

Besides all the frivolous behaviour Richards is a seriously professional athlete who trains hard and avoids anything that might be detrimental to health. At her best she is undoubtedly one of the best athletes on the planet. The Olympic gold would be icing on the cake.

“I feel as though the only person who can beat me right now is myself,” Richards declares. “I know there's great talent out there. The athletes are phenomenal. Their times are always improving but I feel that if I run my best race I know I can be the best in the world in Beijing.”