Lauryn Williams hopes for gold

Our Olympian: Lauryn Williams hopes her second time around is golden
Rochester grad Lauryn Williams, who won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics, gets another shot at gold this month. Follow her quest in The Times. (AP photo)

By Chris Harlan, Times Sports Staff
Published: Saturday, August 2, 2008 11:53 PM EDT
Lauryn Williams has been through this before: Running the biggest race of her life in front of the biggest crowds on track’s biggest stage against the world’s biggest names.

With experience, though, hasn’t come calmness.

“I think I’m a little more nervous this time,” Williams said Thursday as she prepared to leave for Beijing. “There’s a lot more pressure on me. Being considered sort of like a defending champion — or at least the top returning American — people are kind of looking at me like, ‘What is she going to do this time?’”

And they’re expecting another medal.

Williams, a Rochester High School graduate, was a carefree college student in 2004 when she unexpectedly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Athens. She’d just won the NCAA Championship as a junior at Miami and placed second at the U.S. qualifier during a two-month whirlwind that swept her off to Europe.

Now, winning medals is her job.

“It’s what I live and breath for now,” Williams said. “Four years ago it was a whole extra, exciting thing that I really wasn’t expecting. I didn’t know how to take it and I was kind of living in the moment. This time is what I’ve been training for.

“For the last four years.”

The 24-year-old is already in China, having boarded a 14-hour Beijing-bound flight Thursday in San Francisco with U.S. Track and Field teammates.

Opening ceremonies are Aug. 8 but Williams isn’t planning to take part. The track and field competition — called athletics around the world — will begin Aug. 15.

“Two-time Olympian Lauryn Williams,” her track bio could read.

Neither of her teammates who also ran the 100 were at the 2004 Olympics. Most athletes don’t reach one Olympics, let alone two. Still, it’s a title that makes Williams chuckle, insisting she hasn’t yet earned a spot in U.S. Track and Field history.

“There are a lot of people who are three-, four- and maybe even five-time Olympians, I don’t know if this is a great feat. Maybe a third Olympics would make it official,” Williams said before quickly adding that she hasn’t even thought about London in 2012.

“I guess we’ll play if by ear.”

Williams won’t run her first race until Aug. 16, when the first and second rounds of the women’s 100 meters will be held at Beijing National Stadium, a 91,000-seat venue built specifically for the Summer Games. The semifinals and finals will be there the following day.

Williams is among six runners who could be considered favorites to medal in the 100 meters; three are from the United States (Williams, Muna Lee and Torri Edwards) and three are from Jamaica (Kerron Stewart, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Sherone Simpson).

“I’ve got to step it up a notch,” Williams said. “I’ll probably need a personal best. If not, at least a sub-11 (seconds) race. There’s a ton of people (who could medal).

“I’ve got to get out there and not choke.”

Those other five, though, have all run faster times than Williams this season. Edwards, an Olympian in 2000, has the season’s fastest time (10.78 seconds). Stewart, the Jamaican champion, has the second-fastest time (10.80).

Williams ran her season best at the U.S. qualifier (10.90).

“I’m as good as anybody else out there,” Williams said.

“I don’t hype myself up saying they’re gunning for me and I’m the best or that I’m the worst and I need to go get them. I feel like it’s a level playing field.”

What Williams does have that those others don’t is an Olympic medal in the 100. That’s why many won’t count out the 5-foot-3 Williams, who has a knack for running her best times in her biggest meets.

Being experienced, though, was little help in 2004 for the favorites.

The gold went to Yuliya Nesterenko, an unknown runner from Belarus, who edged Williams at the finish line (10.93).

Williams, who was a long-shot even after winning her NCAA title, took silver with a then personal-best time (10.96).

And Williams has a hard time calling herself a veteran.

“Maybe a little bit of a vet because there aren’t too many of what we call third-generation Olympians,” Williams said.

“Those are the old people.”

But ever since leaving the medal stand in Athens, Williams’ focus has been upon returning.

Heading to the airport Thursday, though, she said the emotions from what she’d accomplished still hadn’t yet set it.

That wouldn’t happen, she said, until she settled in with one of the “600 books” she bought for the trip.

“Once I get on the plane it will be official,” Williams said. “I’ll be an Olympian. I’ll be on my way to China. I’ll have to get in the mood.”

Chris Harlan can be reached online at charlan@ timesonline.com