USATF Petitions Rio Schedule Change for Allyson Felix 200/400 Double
USATF Petitions Rio Schedule Change for Allyson Felix 200/400 Double
USATF has filed a formal petition for the IAAF to change the schedule of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to allow Allyson Felix to double
UPDATE 12/14/2015
USATF has filed a formal petition for the IAAF to change the schedule of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to allow Allyson Felix to double both the 200m and 400m.
“Allyson is the most decorated female athlete in IAAF history and should have the chance to go for a double, competing in what likely will be her fourth and final Olympic Games,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said today in a release. “Such an achievement would elevate the sport at the Games, and as a federation we it to her and to the sport as a whole to make the request.”
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Felix's intentions to double were originally reported on 12/13/2015 below
Three months after winning the 400m at the World Championships, Allyson Felix and her coach Bobby Kersee announced that the duo are training for a 200m-400m Olympic bid.
“The Olympic Trials schedule is fine and I am working with USA Track & Field on the Olympic schedule,” Kersee told Reuters.
The announcement, first reported by Reuters, is an extremely rare double, as the track program schedule at the Olympic Games has never favored an athlete successfully competing in the two distances.
Currently, the Rio schedule has the first round of the 200m just 75 minutes before the 400m final.
Kersee, who also coached double Olympic Champion (200m-400m) Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, claims that the schedule is “unfair” and wishes that the same courtesy given to 100m-200m runners also be given to the 200-400m competitors.
According to ReutersÂ’ report, USATF has been in discussions with the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and will file a formal request to have the schedule adjusted.
“All our training is toward her doing both,” he said. “We are going to double at our Olympic Trials and try and make the team in the four and the two.”
At 30 years-old, Felix has claimed four Olympic gold medals — as a member of the 2008 4x400m relay, the 200m in 2012 as well as the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
She owns nine World Championship titles, three in the 200m and most recently her first ever in the 400m which she won in Beijing last August. In the same championship, she was also a member of two runner-up relays, the 4x100m and 4x400m.
The only other time Felix has attempted the 200-400m double at an international championship was in 2011 when she claimed silver in the 400m and bronze in the 200m at Worlds.
Other than a silver medal in 2011, the 2015 World Championships marked the first time Felix focused solely on the longer sprint event rather than her 200m speciality. The decision paid off as Felix ran her way to a personal best and world leading time of 49.26.
Felix ran several 200m races in the 2015 season, including a then-world lead of 21.98 in May at the Doha Diamond League meeting. She also competed at the final Diamond League competition in Brussels just a few days after the World Championships. She finished second to 200m World Champion Dafne Schippers who clocked 22.12 over Felix's 22.22.
USATF has filed a formal petition for the IAAF to change the schedule of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to allow Allyson Felix to double both the 200m and 400m.
“Allyson is the most decorated female athlete in IAAF history and should have the chance to go for a double, competing in what likely will be her fourth and final Olympic Games,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said today in a release. “Such an achievement would elevate the sport at the Games, and as a federation we it to her and to the sport as a whole to make the request.”
??
--
Felix's intentions to double were originally reported on 12/13/2015 below
Three months after winning the 400m at the World Championships, Allyson Felix and her coach Bobby Kersee announced that the duo are training for a 200m-400m Olympic bid.
“The Olympic Trials schedule is fine and I am working with USA Track & Field on the Olympic schedule,” Kersee told Reuters.
The announcement, first reported by Reuters, is an extremely rare double, as the track program schedule at the Olympic Games has never favored an athlete successfully competing in the two distances.
Currently, the Rio schedule has the first round of the 200m just 75 minutes before the 400m final.
Kersee, who also coached double Olympic Champion (200m-400m) Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, claims that the schedule is “unfair” and wishes that the same courtesy given to 100m-200m runners also be given to the 200-400m competitors.
According to ReutersÂ’ report, USATF has been in discussions with the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and will file a formal request to have the schedule adjusted.
“All our training is toward her doing both,” he said. “We are going to double at our Olympic Trials and try and make the team in the four and the two.”
At 30 years-old, Felix has claimed four Olympic gold medals — as a member of the 2008 4x400m relay, the 200m in 2012 as well as the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
She owns nine World Championship titles, three in the 200m and most recently her first ever in the 400m which she won in Beijing last August. In the same championship, she was also a member of two runner-up relays, the 4x100m and 4x400m.
The only other time Felix has attempted the 200-400m double at an international championship was in 2011 when she claimed silver in the 400m and bronze in the 200m at Worlds.
Other than a silver medal in 2011, the 2015 World Championships marked the first time Felix focused solely on the longer sprint event rather than her 200m speciality. The decision paid off as Felix ran her way to a personal best and world leading time of 49.26.
Felix ran several 200m races in the 2015 season, including a then-world lead of 21.98 in May at the Doha Diamond League meeting. She also competed at the final Diamond League competition in Brussels just a few days after the World Championships. She finished second to 200m World Champion Dafne Schippers who clocked 22.12 over Felix's 22.22.