What’s a GOAL if you don’t go to bed and dream about it? 

What’s a GOAL if it doesn’t inspire you to be your best self?

What’s a GOAL if it’s not reaching for the stars?

What’s a GOAL if most people don’t believe it?

What’s a GOAL if you don’t have to work harder than you ever have to achieve it?

What’s a GOAL if tons of other people have already done it?

I’ve said that I want to win three gold medals at this Summer’s Olympic Games, some may say that is too lofty a goal, but it fulfills all the criteria above and to me……

That’s a GOAL worth setting!!!

Think BIG, Dream BIG, Achieve BIG!

Never be embarrassed to want the best for yourself. It’s what drives ordinary people to become extraordinary.

Until next time….

Sanya

It really is sad that once again our sport is all over the news for all the wrong reasons, but we shouldn’t be surprised.

Unfortunately, we are a community that thrives off bad news. Every time we tune into our local news stations, all we hear about is death, tragedies and other people’s misfortunes, so of course when someone was a hero and was deceitful we all want to hear about it. However I believe that track and field gets hit way too hard when someone is caught cheating.

While watching ESPN the other day, I heard one of the gentlemen say that it seems to him that all track athletes are cheaters. He said that in order to compete at such a high level, you have to use performance enhancing drugs. NOW THAT’S UNFAIR. Just like everything else, we must keep things in perspective. When a preacher is caught for fondling a child, do we say all preachers are like that? Do we lose our faith in the church system, or do we just say that one spoiled apple doesn’t ruin the bunch? When a political leader is corrupt, do we lose faith in democracy? Do we say that all leaders are unscrupulous, or do we move on knowing that one person’s deceitfulness doesn’t reflect the rest? That should hold true for our sport as well. There are cheaters in all aspects of life, but no one person is bigger than the church, bigger than democracy, and no one athlete is bigger than the sport.

On a much lighter note … There were so many good stories in our sport this year. Not only all the great performances but even more than that. This year at the world championships, there was a girl from Afghanistan. That in itself was truly amazing! With all that we see and read about, it’s hard to believe that there is a young girl living there and training to be a world class athlete. Although she didn’t make it out of the first round, she accomplished a lot more than most. She has exhibited to a nation of other young girls that even when your world is falling down around you, if you stay focused anything is possible. I truly hope that her story will make a difference in Afghanistan and that her presence in Osaka is an indication of her people’s perseverance.

I’m ecstatic, overwhelmed, relieved, delighted, exhausted………everything! I am so happy to win the Golden League jackpot for the second year in a row. Competing in the jackpot is so hard, not sure how it looks, but trust me, it is an extremely difficult feat. The Golden League started over three months ago, and with the way things can change in an instant, it is so difficult to stay undefeated in all six races. I mean I don’t have to go on and on about it, the level of difficulty is obvious when you look at the number of people that were successful. Ten events were selected and only two of us were able to pull it off.

Each meet was so memorable…..

Paris- After losing Nationals, I was so eager to get back on the track and run fast. I felt really good in the second round at the Championships and knew if I were myself I would have gotten better on the final day not worse. However things happen and Nationals motivated me to win Paris and I set a world leading time. While in Paris I also got to meet Marie-Jose Perec and that was amazing too!

Rome- One week after Paris, but still not easy! I won convincingly in Paris but I still wasn’t feeling like myself. The last part of the race was still a little tough so I knew I’d have to get away from the field and hold on to secure this win. Physically this was my toughest race.

Zurich- By far one of my favorite places to compete. I love the fans, the new stadium was unbelievable, and the atmosphere is just indescribable! Once again I was coming off a poor meet at Worlds, and the GL was the only thing that could salvage my season. Now Zurich was truly my World Championships and I wanted to win more than anything. I did and in a new world leading time…. and I was thrilled!

Brussels- After Zurich I was beginning to feel like myself again. The race felt good and I knew that I could run that same race again. However this was the fifth race and I needed to secure this victory to have a shot at the jackpot. The pressure was intense but I was confident that I could do it.

Berlin- The FINAL race! In front of 70,000 people on one of the most beautiful days we’ve seen in Europe. It was the place that I would either get half or nothing. I knew Yelena had secured her portion of the jackpot as I entered the stadium so I HAD to win or the other five victories would mean nothing. Think about that: You’re on the line knowing that this one race means $500,000 or 0! Man the anxiety is real! Not only am I thinking about the money, but I am also facing the toughest field of the year. It would be my first time racing Christine, Nicola, and Novlene all at the same time. This was a challenge and I thank God that he brought me through!

Winning the jackpot means so much to me. Not only is it a  huge prize to take home, but it’s also a tribute to perseverance. I could have packed up my things and gone home frustrated and down and it may have been understandable. Sometimes it’s just better to regroup, than to continue to lose races and lose your confidence, but I didn’t do that. I showed up every time and God took care of the rest.

This year has been a challenge but what’s a success story without a few trials? What’s life without a few valleys? I’m happy with the way the season has turned out and although I’m not an individual World Champion yet, I am sure it will come!

Nobody Truly Understands…… 

            I always thought you work hard, you reap the benefits, but now I realize that no matter who you are or what you do, you have to deal with life’s ups and downs. Nobody could have told me that my 2007 World Championship experience would end like this: fifth in the 200 in 22.7, a time I bettered twice in the earlier rounds, and in the stands watching the women’s 400m final go off.

            After last year I kept a log of all my workouts on the track and made a promise to myself that I would be better every single day this year than I was last year…. and for the most part I was able to keep that promise. If it weren’t for interruptions due to this Bechets disease I would have had the best training year of my life. Yes the days I missed were vital but every time I did train, I trained so hard that I just felt so prepared to run really fast.

However what do you do, and what do you tell yourself when things are happening to your body that you just have no control of. I’ve been on some serious medication since April and one of the major side effects is muscle weakness and fatigue. Now that in itself is just the opposite of what I need. How can I run the 400m and have to deal with the possibility of extra fatigue? So running three or four rounds for my muscles just feel like twice as much. My muscles just aren’t recovering quickly and although I feel great for the first two rounds especially when the first two are on the same day, after that, trying to exert the same level of power and intensity just becomes ten times harder.

After nationals I really didn’t understand that this was a side effect of the medication, I just thought I was under raced and circumstances left me flat; after the third and final rounds in Osaka I am positive that my problem is competing in multiple rounds in a short period of time. I wasn’t nervous and didn’t feel any pressure; I just had all the desire in the world to be the World Champion. So I didn’t choke and lose because of pressure, I never tightened up; I just couldn’t get my motors turning. Usually I get better with rounds and that’s the norm for most world class athletes, but it’s not the case with me right now. In essence no matter how much effort I put out, my first rounds are my best.

Allyson ran a heck of a race and I really don’t know if I was at my best if I would have been ready to run that fast but it hurts so bad when you’re on the line and you know you’re not bringing your best race. I felt great on the false start, I felt as though I used up all of the energy I had left, and I just didn’t have anything to hold them off with, even in the first 75 meters of the race. Although I didn’t walk away with any hardware I still know that I have the second fastest time in the world.

Well….life goes on and I still have half the season in front of me. I have been communicating with my doctors and since they have never seen this disease in an athlete of my caliber everything is just trial and error at this point. However I am confident that we will find a treatment plan that will keep the symptoms away and keep me strong as well. In the mean time I just pray that all my training isn’t in vein and that these last three Golden League races will still go really well. Zurich has been a magical place for me in the past, hopefully I can re-create that magic again this year.

PS Being apart of the 4×4 relay was AMAZING! No matter how close the teams look on paper we’re always able to win by a comfortable margin.

“The same God that brings all the successes and victories is the same God that allows us to grow through disappointment!”

At first I speculated but now I know 

I hadn’t run the 100m race since college, and although I have had so much success in the 400, a part of me has always wanted to run all the sprints, all the time. However I made the choice to be my best at the 400 and move down to Baylor country to work with the best coach in the country. In Coach Hart’s program we do such little sprinting that I knew it would be a while before he would think I was ready to run a good 100m race. I’m not sure if coach would have agreed to the 100m in Stockholm had I made the team for Osaka in the 400, but with our new goals, he and my team thought it would be the perfect time to test my skills in the 100 and hopefully improve my PR.

Yes, I’d love to be considered for the 4×100m relay team, but my primary goal for running the 100, was to get my body used to the rapid turn over that I believe I will need to be successful at 200m.

I’d always feel really fast in practice, my start has definitely improved, I am ten times stronger now than I was when I ran 11.28 in 2003, but with all that, I still wasn’t sure if I’d be able to PR with just one opportunity. Most people take a while to run a new PR, trust me I know J, but I wanted to give it take the chance and see how well I could do. It was time for me to have a 100m time that matched my other PR’s, and 11.28 just didn’t look good alongside 22.17 and 48.70.

So now I don’t have to wonder if I can run 11-flat, I don’t have to speculate if I really am as fast as I feel, I don’t have to look at my first 100 in the 200 or 400 and use some magic formula to prove to myself that I can run 11-flat………now I know!!!

The Double in Stockholm

Although I did get a HUGE personal best in the 100m in Stockholm, was it worth it? Were my two second places better than one potential first place?…….Well I definitely think so. In Stockholm I contested a double that is rarely done on the same day. I competed against two world class fields and only lost by a combined .04seconds. Of course this is something that I always did in high school or maybe even college, but it a completely different story when you throw Me’Lisa Barber and Allyson Felix in the mix. These are two ladies that have been extremely consistent over the last two or three years and have proven themselves and as two of the worlds’ best.

The 100m race was first and although you don’t build up lactic acid in that short of a distance, whenever you PR, you can always expect your body to react to it in some way. When you’ve pushed your body where it has never been before you must feel something, and even though it wasn’t much, I do feel as though I would have been able to run faster in the 400, had I not competed in the 100m race.

Not taking anything away from Allyson Felix. I think she is an amazing athlete and she is great for the sport. I hope that our rivalries will be like Defar and Dibaba’s, anticipated like Powell and Gay, and generate results comparative to 19.6! Without someone like her pushing me I know I will never be able to fulfill my potential, so I’m happy that she is running so well.

However it was my choice to do the double and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was the only time I could have attempted a double like this, where there wasn’t too much on the line. Of course I would have loved to win the diamond and give it to my Mom, but hopefully I’ll get a chance to do it again next year!

Overall I feel I accomplished a lot in

1. I now have a new PR in the 100m and I know I can run with the best of them!

2. I know I can run a great double in the same day and over time I feel I will get better.

3. I have made more people aware of my ability to be a complete sprinter and not only a 400m threat.

Sometimes our destiny is different than we plan….

Since August 2005, I have been preparing myself to return to the World Championships in the 400m to win the Gold medal. I knew I was prepared to win that year but executed a poor race and lost. I remember it so vividly. The rain was pouring down, I kept hoping they would postpone the race, but they couldn’t. People had paid good money to see the race go off that night and they could not afford to change the schedule. It would ruin everything. So come hail, snow, sleet, or fire, the women’s 400m was going off as scheduled. I was in lane 3, Guavera (MEX) in 4, Pospolova (RUS) in 5, and Darling (BAH) in 6. I had beaten Tonique twice already for the season but for some reason instead of running my own race I couldn’t stop focusing on her. I watched her down the backstretch and lost track of myself. By the time I got back into my own lane, I was well down the backstretch and was running way too fast. I panicked and just decided that I was going to keep on going and pray for the best. Not a good idea. I got to the final stretch and was so tired. The wind was blowing intensely and I couldn’t fight it. I had come off the turn in front but with about 20meters to go I could feel her coming and I saw the gold medal slip away.