Allyson Felix on skipping the double, traveling for LA 2024

By Nick ZaccardiJul 7, 2017, 4:09 PM EDT

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NEW YORK — Aside from her usual meet schedule, Allyson Felix hopes to make a large impact on her sport and the Olympic Movement with appearances around the world this summer.

It began here this week, when the nine-time Olympic medalist promoted the TrackTown Summer Series, a domestic tour of meets that culminated at Icahn Stadium at Randall’s Island on Thursday night. She didn’t compete, but she was captain of the New York team.

Felix left New York for London, where she plans to race Sunday for the last time before the world championships (also in London) next month.

From London, Felix heads to Lausanne, Switzerland, as part of LA 2024’s presentation team to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC could next week ratify a proposal to award both the 2024 and 2028 Olympics this summer, with one going to LA and the other Paris. Both cities prefer 2024, though.

If the Olympic bid process continues to a planned IOC vote in September, Felix will travel to the IOC session in Lima, Peru with the LA 2024 team.

On the track, Felix chose not to attempt a 200m-400m double at the world championships this year. She explained why and touched on other topics in a conversation Thursday.

OlympicTalk: What’s the single most interesting thing about the TrackTown Summer Series for casual track fans?

Felix: The team concept. It just makes it fun to follow. I think a lot of times, when you tune into track, and you’re not sure who to root for and all that stuff, this kind of brings it back to almost that college feel. You automatically are drawn to a team that you can follow. And also for the athletes to feel a part of that [NCAA feeling] again.

OlympicTalk: You pulled out of the 200m at the USATF Outdoor Championships, so your only individual world championships race will be the 400m. Why did you decide not to attempt the 200m-400m double this year, especially given how much it meant to you in 2016?

Felix: Just coming off of the kind of year that I had last year [severe ankle injury in the spring, missing the Olympic 200m team by .01], just physically and emotionally, it was just draining. I think the idea was to take our time this year and gradually get up to speed and to be able to focus in. Coming off of something that major and wanting to run for a little bit longer [in your career], you kind of have to be smart with the amount of intensity and the [number of] times of the year that we [race]. Just taking a more gradual approach this year.

OlympicTalk: Was your lead-up to this season affected at all by the ankle or anything health related?

Felix: I think there’s always residual effects, especially with ankle injuries. That was really slow healing. We kind of wanted to keep that in mind. I wouldn’t say it was affected too much. It was a different approach. I think I started moving around at the same time [as most seasons], but it was definitely a much slower build-up.

OlympicTalk: Somebody who is doubling at worlds is Wayde van Niekerk, with the 400m coming before the 200m. If you were doubling and in a situation where you were going to win the 400m, with a chance at a record time in the final, would you go all out or save something for the 200m?

Felix: You go for it, because I think the amount that you would save would be so little in the 400m that no matter how fast or slow, it’s so taxing. Also, how often do you have a chance to be that close to a record? I think you go for it and that adrenaline and anything else carries you through the 200m.

OlympicTalk: Next year is a non-championship year. Is there anything you would like to focus on, or maybe even take a break in 2018?

Felix: I haven’t really given it too much thought. It’s really getting through this year, and then I’ll kind of think about next year. It has been a very long time that I’ve been doing this and haven’t had a break at all. I’ll probably try to have some fun and figure it out after the season.

OlympicTalk: Do you want to run the 4x100m at world championships?

Felix: I would love to run the 4x100m if they need me. It’s the position I’ve always been is that I’m open if they need me. If not, I’m happy to focus on the 400m and 4x400m.

OlympicTalk: Do you consider yourself a 400m runner now?

Felix: I don’t know if I ever will. I guess I should. That’s what I’m running. I prefer the term “sprinter.”

OlympicTalk: It’s far out, but do you want to double in 2019 if everything is ideal?

Felix: I haven’t even thought of that. Long-term, I would love to do one more Olympics, but the breakdown of it and leading up into it, it’s kind of seeing what’s happening that year and how I’m feeling.

OlympicTalk: You were at Usain Bolt’s last home meet in Jamaica. What was that like?

Felix: I don’t think I’ve been in the stadium there where it was that full and everyone was that excited since [2002] World Juniors. It was amazing just to see the love for track and field and the love for him and what he’s done for the sport.

OlympicTalk: Was the excitement comparable to any other meet you’ve been to?

Felix: It has the kind of feel of a Penn Relays atmosphere, where it’s just fun. Everyone wasn’t so much concerned with performance, but let’s just go out and salute this great champion.

OlympicTalk: Did it make you think about how you want to go about your final meet(s)?

Felix: Not so much in the fashion, but it really made me think about it’s so much more than just trying to run fast times and win medals. You get to talk to people who you’ve actually had an impact on their life. As athletes, we get wrapped up in performances and statistics and all these things. You forget that this little girl runs track because of you, or this young man came out to the sport, and it’s made an impact on his life. Those are the things that I got to really pick up on with that meet.

OlympicTalk: Why is that so important for you to be at the IOC vote in Lima, and what message do you want to send to IOC members, assuming they’ll be voting between Los Angeles and Paris?

Felix: Being an LA native, it’s really important for me to see the Olympics back in LA. Just the impact that I know it can have on the city and also that the city can have the Olympics. It would be so, so special. I think it’s time. I think LA is ready.

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Jessica Pegula upset in French Open third round

By OlympicTalkJun 2, 2023, 9:57 AM EDT

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Jessica Pegula, the highest-ranked American man or woman, was upset in the third round of the French Open.

Elise Mertens, the 28th seed from Belgium, bounced the third seed Pegula 6-1, 6-3 to reach the round of 16. Pegula, a 29-year-old at a career-high ranking, had lost in the quarterfinals of four of the previous five majors.

Down 4-3 in the second set, Pegula squandered three break points in a 14-minute game. Mertens then broke Pegula to close it out.

Pegula’s exit leaves No. 6 seed Coco Gauff, last year’s runner-up, as the last seeded hope to become the first U.S. woman to win a major title since Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major span without an American champ is the longest for U.S. women since Monica Seles won the 1996 Australian Open.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Mertens, who lost in the third or fourth round of the last six French Opens, gets 96th-ranked Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the 2021 French Open runner-up, for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, ninth-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina became the first player to reach the fourth round. She won 6-0, 6-1 over 69th-ranked American Peyton Stearns, the 2022 NCAA champion from Texas.

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, is the lone American woman left in the bottom half of the draw. She plays Kazakh Yulia Putintseva later Friday. Gauff, Bernarda Pera and Kayla Day remain in the top half.

Friday’s featured men’s matches: Top seed Carlos Alcaraz versus 26th seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada, and No. 3 Novak Djokovic against No. 29 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.

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Fred Kerley flies into Florence via Grenada; Diamond League broadcast schedule

By Nick ZaccardiJun 2, 2023, 9:24 AM EDT

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American Fred Kerley is about to race on a fourth different continent this year, but the seeds for this season — and all of his medal-winning seasons — were planted on the sand, grass and pavement of Grenada.

Kerley, the world 100m champion, headlines Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence, Italy. Peacock streams it live from 2-4 p.m. ET. CNBC airs coverage Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

It was to be a showdown between Kerley and the Olympic 100m champion, Marcell Jacobs of Italy. But Jacobs withdrew on Tuesday due to the nerve pain that has pushed back the start of his outdoor season. Jacobs withdrew from six scheduled races with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since winning that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, who traded social media barbs with Jacobs earlier this spring, indicated a detente in a press conference Thursday.

“I’m not upset that he’s not competing, just wish him health and that he gets back to competing at 100 percent,” he said.

When speaking of himself, Kerley kept his trademark confidence. He wore a hat with a goat on it on Thursday and repeated that his focus is on two numbers: 9.69 (Tyson Gay‘s American record in the 100m) and 9.58 (Usain Bolt‘s world record). Kerley’s personal best, in two-plus years since dropping down from the 400m, is 9.76.

He resides in South Florida, a place that allows an outdoor athlete to train year-round. Kerley eschews that. He annually flies to Grenada for up to six-week stays.

“[I] work on a lot of specific stuff in Grenada to get me to the level I need to be when Budapest comes around,” Kerley said, referring to August’s world championships in the Hungarian capital, where he will bid to become the first man to repeat as world 100m champion since Bolt in 2013 and 2015.

Why Grenada? His South Carolina-based coach, Alleyne Francique, competed at three Olympics for the Spice Island, including placing fourth in the 400m at the 2004 Athens Games. That was the best Olympic finish for any Grenada athlete until Kirani James won a 400m medal of every color at the last three Games.

Francique recruited Kerley to Texas A&M out of junior college in 2015. When Kerley turned pro in 2017, he moved to the ALTIS training facility in Arizona. After a year, he went back to Francique at College Station — “It didn’t work out for me. I won’t say anything bad about the program,” he said in 2019, according to Track and Field News. Kerley has since moved to Florida, but Francique still coaches him remotely from South Carolina and with him for meet travel.

Kerley has trained in Grenada’s national stadium in St. George’s, which in 2017 was named after James. But a more unique venue for Kerley is a paved hill near the home of one of Francique’s friends.

“There’s no traffic, so it’s a good area to train,” Francique said.

There are few distractions there, aside from chickens, ducks and cattle. Francique noted that in the three seasons that Kerley trained in Grenada, he won bronze (2019 Worlds 400m), silver (Tokyo Olympic 100m) and gold (2022 Worlds 100m).

“So next year, maybe, he breaks a world record,” Francique said.

Here are the Florence entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):

12:30 p.m. — Women’s Discus
12:45 — Men’s Triple Jump
1:15 — Men’s Shot Put
1:43 — Women’s Pole Vault
2:04 — Women’s 400m Hurdles
2:15 — Men’s 200m
2:20 — Men’s High Jump
2:25 — Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
2:42 — Women’s Long Jump
2:44 — Women’s 100m
2:56 — Men’s 110m Hurdles
3:06 — Men’s 5000m
3:28 — Women’s 400m
3:39 — Men’s 100m
3:49 — Women’s 1500m

Here are five events to watch:

Women’s Pole Vault — 1:43 p.m. ET
Just like the Diamond League season opener in Doha, the field has the top five from the last year’s worlds, led by Americans Katie Moon and Sandi Morris, the gold and silver medalists. Moon is the world leader this year indoors and outdoors, though she no-heighted at last Saturday’s Los Angeles Grand Prix. Come August’s worlds, she will look to become the first woman to repeat as world champ in the pole vault in 16 years. Morris, who was third in Doha, eyes her first global outdoor title after four silvers between the Olympics and worlds.

Women’s Long Jump — 2:42 p.m. ET
A gathering of the world’s most accomplishes active jumpers — Olympic and world champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany, Olympic and world medalist Ese Brume of Nigeria — and the top Americans — Quanesha Burks and Tara Davis-Woodhall. They’re all chasing 7.08 meters, the world’s best leap this year recorded by Jamaican Ackelia Smith, a University of Texas sophomore.

Men’s 5000m — 3:06 p.m. ET
Field includes Olympic 5000m champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega of Ethiopia and world silver medalist Jacob Krop of Kenya as well as reigning U.S. 5000m and 10,000m champions Grant Fisher and Joe Klecker. Cheptegei, the world record holder, was ninth at last July’s worlds and since has strictly raced on the roads and in cross country.

Men’s 100m — 3:39 p.m. ET
The entire podium from last year’s worlds meets here: Kerley and countrymen Marvin Bracy-Williams and Trayvon Bromell. It’s a similar field to last Sunday, when Kerley prevailed by five hundredths over South African Akani Simbine. Simbine is back, as is Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, who is the world’s fastest man this year (9.84) but was third in Rabat.

Women’s 1500m — 3:49 p.m. ET
Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, a double Olympic and double world champion, ran the world’s fastest time of 2023 at the Diamond League opener in Doha on May 5. Then last weekend, four different Ethiopians ran faster. Kipyegon figures to be faster in Florence than she was in Doha given the addition of Brit Laura Muir, the Olympic silver medalist and world bronze medalist, in her outdoor season debut.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Francique is based in Texas. He moved from Texas to South Carolina.

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