Lauryn Williams in a familiar role
OLYMPIC SPORTS
The diminutive sprinter is often overlooked, but she is ready for another run at the Olympics.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Maybe it's something you get used to if you are small, learning how to deal with being overshadowed by everyone until you slip into a position where no one can miss you.
It has become something of a running joke with Lauryn Williams, who always seems to have the last laugh -- and what an infectious laugh it is.
Williams has entered the U.S. Olympic trials as the ninth-fastest entrant in the 100 meters. It is a familiar position for the 5-foot-2 sprinter from Miami.
Williams, 24, went from third at the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials to silver medalist at the Olympics, from third at the 2005 U.S. championships to world champion, from second at the 2007 national meet to second in the world.
Eleven women from the U.S. alone had run faster in 2007 than Williams' best of 11.11 seconds before the world meet. Then she uncorked an 11.01 in the world final to finish a whisper behind Jamaica's Veronica Campbell.
"It's competitivism," Williams said. "Is that a word?"
The word on Williams is the bigger the prize, the taller she stands. While rivals shrink under pressure and the demands of running four rounds in a championship meet like worlds or the Olympics, she builds to a peak with every round.
"I tell myself that they are getting tired through the rounds, and I'm working the kinks out," she said Thursday. "With each round, I'm getting my body used to being in the speed mode. Plus, my adrenaline pumps four or five times more than at any other meet."
In a one-race meet, Williams just doesn't step lively enough.
"The whole big race thing is holding true, and I'm hoping it stays true to form," she said. "At the same time, I don't get on the track at the beginning of the season hoping to run 11.4, 11.5 and stay under the radar."
At the 2004 Olympic trials, Williams attracted attention mainly because she had just come off winning the NCAA title, which was her goal for that season. She went on to earn the final spot on the U.S. team in the 100 by, appropriately, one-hundredth of a second.
"I wasn't at all planning for the 2004 Olympics," she said. "This time, it is what I am working for, training for, and there is a lot of added pressure. I am focusing on not being overwhelmed or doing anything extraordinary."
In a field difficult to handicap, Williams thinks the top three who make the Olympic team could be entirely different if Saturday's final were run again Sunday. She is one of the few with big-time international credentials. Williams is the only person who has run the 100 in every major championship since 2004.
"I'm a little bit nervous," Williams said. "I think America is going to be focusing on my lane."
Truth be told, NBC's focus likely will be on the one track athlete it has featured extensively in its Olympic promos, Allyson Felix.
Felix, reigning world champion at 200, ran a U.S.-leading time of 10.93 seconds in winning her first 100 this season but finished fourth, fifth and fourth in the next three. She is running the 100 primarily to earn a spot on the Olympic 400-meter relay team.
"I'm still working on trying to put the right race together," Felix said. "I love speed, but I have not always been that great at it.
"The 100 is icing on the cake for me. If it works out [a top-three finish], that would be amazing. But the 200 remains my ultimate priority."
Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.
