Sanya Richards has a new plan

She made the plans two years ago, after a 2006 season for which Sanya Richards was named the top women’s track athlete in the world, based on her utter dominance of the 400 meters.

Richards would qualify to run the 200 and 400 at the 2007 World Championships, then do well enough in each that the international track federation (IAAF) would change the Olympic schedule to make that double possible in the 2008 Beijing Games. That would give her the chance to match a feat accomplished by just two women, Valerie Brisco of the U.S. (1984) and Marie-Jose Perec of France (1996).

The plan fit Richards’ high profile in the sport. By the start of last season, the 23-year-old native of Jamaica, who moved to South Florida at age 12, was the poster woman for USA Track & Field, her picture on the front cover of its 2007 media guide and back and front covers of the 2007 national meet program.

Then came the unusual, strength-sapping illness, Behcet’s Syndrome, the knee injury, and the stunning failure to earn one of the three places on the U.S. world team in the 400. After 18 straight wins in quarter-mile races, Richards staggered into fourth place at nationals, the selection meet for worlds.

She made the team in the 200, then finished the final light years behind teammate Allyson Felix, who also had become a threat in the 400 by then, which set up the possibility of an attention-getting rivalry between the two.

“That would have been such an amazing double to watch, even if neither one of us won the title,” Richards said. “Just to have the matchup would have been amazing.”

But the IAAF declined to change the schedule, noting neither Richards nor Felix had ever won a world title in the 400.

“I was very disappointed at first, but I’m over it now,” Richards said. “The goal at hand is right there. I really want to be an Olympic 400 champion.”

Richards hoped to take a big step in that direction Thursday night, running the 400-meter final at the U.S. Olympic trials. She was heavily favored to win.

Strangely, what happened in 2007 is Richards’ chronological record after her failure at nationals was not very different from what she had done in her brilliant 2006 season, when she won nationals, the World Athletics Final, the World Cup and earned a $249,999 portion of the jackpot for sweeping the 400s in the Golden League series.

Richards finished 2007 with the five fastest 400 times in the world and broke 50 seconds eight times. She had finished 2006 with the five fastest times in the world and broke 50 seconds nine times.

She also finished 2007 with an engagement ring from Aaron Ross, her sweetheart from their days at the University of Texas.

Ross’ proposal, made during a taping of a pre-Olympic feature on Richards, aired on national TV prior to a Dec. 17 NFL game in which he was playing. He wound up six weeks later with a ring of his own, as a starting cornerback for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

For Richards, sixth in the 400 at the 2004 Olympics, the main difference in the last two seasons was having to spend hours and hours last year trying to find a medication that would alleviate the symptoms of Behcet’s, an inflammation of the blood vessels.

She had mouth sores so severe they occasionally made it painful to talk or eat solid food, and bronchial issues that made it difficult to breathe.

Needless to say, that constantly undermined Richards’ training until she found a medicine to treat the problems. Medical literature calls Behcet’s incurable, leaving those who suffer from it to go between remission and flare-ups.

Her worst flare-up of 2007 occurred at nationals, where she had to run three 400-meter races in three days. The schedule at the Olympic trials has been more forgiving, with one round Sunday, one Monday, then two days’ rest before the final.

“It is completely under control,” Richards said before the meet began. “The medication I have been taking since the New Year has made a world of difference. I haven’t had a flare-up since Jan. 1, which I think is just a miracle.

“I feel really good, but I haven’t put it out of my mind because I know there could be some side effects. I am going to be very conservative in the rounds.”

Richards won both her quarterfinal (51.08) and semifinal races (50.75) without pushing herself.

“Recovery is very important to me, and I need to keep my stresses low,” she said after the first race.

Her fastest time in four meets before nationals was 50.04. In two of those races, Richards hit the 200-meter mark so fast (around 23 seconds) she struggled in the second 200.

“That was kind of a conscious effort on my part to see how strong I was and how fast I could come home,” she said. “After evaluating those races, I do think my best strategy was to go out a little slower.”

Plans, she has learned, have a way of coming undone.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.