In her bread-and-butter event, the 200-m sprint, Allyson Felix, 26, won world titles in 2005, 2007 and 2009. At the Olympics, however, first place has eluded her: she finished with silvers in Athens and Beijing. This time around, Felix will chase the 200-m title once again and will also try to race the 100 in the Olympics for the first time. After finishing in a dead heat with U.S. teammate Jeneba Tarmoh for the third and final 100-m Olympic spot at the U.S. trials, Tarmoh declined to participate in a runoff with Felix, ceding the spot to her teammate. Why add another event? “I could do something pretty cool,” says Felix, referring to her quest to become the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win golds in both the 100 and 200. (Marion Jones won both races in 2000, but her medals were stripped after she copped to using performance-enhancing drugs.) Felix admits that in Beijing and Athens, soaking up the Olympic experience might have taken too much out of her. So this time, Felix says, she’ll be all business: she won’t, for example, be staying in the Olympic Village, opting for a room removed from that fun.
