When Athletes Blog - David Oliver

There's a reason that David Oliver is one of the world's top three hurdlers. He recently placed second by a hair to world record holder and Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba by .01 seconds in Zurich. The results were 12.97 to 12.98.

Oliver is arguably his harshest critic and is constantly striving to improve his hurdling technique. The U.S. Olympic Trials champion will get another crack at Robles in Lausanne, Switzerland where the two go head-to-head again.

Immediately after the race Oliver took to his blog to share with fans exactly what is on his mind. Here is what David Oliver had to say:

110 Hurdles (+0.3)
1) Robles 12.97
2) D.O. 12.98
3) Noga 13.37
4) Merritt 13.41
5) Svoboda 13.48
6) Yo-El 13.55
7) Phillips 13.60
8) Van der Westen 13.68
9) Moore DNF

"I really thought that I had a chance to pull of the win, but I floated the first hurdle and was playing catch up the entire race, which I did a good job of. I haven't seen the race yet, but I will watch it on the Slingbox tomorrow. I am happy with my performance this evening, but not satisfied."

Click here to read David Oliver's full blog.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog - David Oliver Blogs From Beijing

Lenovo sponsored Olympic blogger hits the keyboard.

Some people can run at the highest level and others can blog. David Oliver managed to win his heat of the 110-hurdles and then sprinted to his blog to write about his experience.

Here is what the U.S. Olympic Trials champion had to say about his race, the unfortunate circumstances of Liu Xiang and Terrence Trammell's.

"Before I get to my performance, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the loss of two of the best 110 hurdlers in the history of the event, forced out by injury in the first round.

Once again, it is unfortunate how freak injuries turn what seem like invincible athletes, in to mere mortals. Terrence and Liu were both dealt that bad hand and never got a chance to fulfill their Olympic dream. It is a very hard pill to swallow for me because I believe that in order to be the best, you have to beat the best, heads up, and we will not get to see a such match up here.

The stadium was jam packed! It was very hot on the track as well, it felt like a 20 degree increase in temperature from the warm up track to the stadium. I went out and ran a clean race and won my heat in a time of 13.30, which was good enough for the top performance of the day."

Tomorrow evening David Oliver will run the quarterfinal heat tomorrow evening.

Click here to read David Oliver's full blog from the Olympic Games in Beijing.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog - David Oliver From Beijing

The Team USA members are in Beijing and getting ready to run. Track and field doesn't start until Friday, August 14. But what do you do to kill the time without worrying to death?

One of America's great hopes to win the 110-meter hurdles, David Oliver is keeping it pushing with some fun and excitement. Definately a good call.

David took to his blog to share with fans his experiences at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"Yesterday, I didn't hit the track at all for any purposes. I had the whole entire day to enjoy to myself. Here's the run down of my day:

I hit the arcade up with Dayron Robles, we played the arcade basketball game for a minute. I hit the bank up and watched one of the swimming relays with Phelps in it. It was pretty exciting, the anchor leg was a beast and they won Gold. It came down to the wire and when he touched the wall in first, I yelled out "Yes" and everybody turned around looking at me, like look at this big, loud American, typical. I couldn't help it though.

I hit NIKE up with Pate and Abdi, got some exclusive Maxcats (shown left) in red, white and blue spikes, they are the ones I wear at all the meets, just in different colors. Picked up some more gear, ate some great food and cabbed it back to the village.

I hit the USA v China women's basketball game, it was a good time too. China was down about 30, but everytime they scored, the crowd erupted! I never have heard that much home team love ever. The "Redeem Team" were posted up a couple rows away, the Chinese fans LOVE Kobe Bryant.

I'm back at practice today for a little maintenance work later on, I will get back."

Click here to read David Oliver's full blog from Beijing.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog - Beijing Bound Lauryn Williams

So you wanna know who keeps Lauryn Williams fired up? Well she shares that with fans on her WCSN.com blog.

Not only is she realy fast and one of the U.S. best hopes to win big in Beijing. Lauryn is humble and down to earth in a way that only a women who runs a sub-11 second 100-meters can be.

"Stockholm Victory"

"I won Stockholm! My first 100m ever on the circuit, (Great trivia question right?) As excited as I am, I am also very nervous. I don’t know what to do now. I never get on the line with the intention to lose, but somehow I always seem to come up short until the major championship. It has been a major goal of mine to become more consistent and as a result - dominant. Winning against a great field in Stockholm it would seem that I am headed in the right direction. What I am fighting mentally now is if I achieve this consistency what should I expect for the major championship… a WR?? LOL! I know that is very wishful thinking.

What exactly was it that came together for me? Was it that I was warmed up from the 4×100m relay? Everyone says I am better when there are rounds. Was it something I ate? (you laugh but every since I witnessed Asafa Powell drowning his eggs in salt the morning before the world record I definitely don’t think twice about my salt intake as it is not nearly as much as he ate in one sitting) Was it the massage? Was it that my Swedish Aunt and Uncle were present? Was it a inspirational email from Chief Inspirer? Who knows, nor do I have the time to dwell on it hopefully whatever “it” is will continue to keep me FAST!

I would however like to elaborate on the Chief Inspirer I just spoke of. In 2005, I received the Runner’s World Magazine Heroes of Running award and Dottie was one of the other recipients. After hearing the stories of all the other recipients I felt incredibly unworthy of the honor but was grateful for the experience. Dottie and I kept in touch and I am so grateful to have met her she is such an inspiration. Oh I guess I should tell you who she is… Dottie Lessard-O’Connor is a two-time transplant athlete. In 1994 she underwent a 12-hour, life-saving bi-lateral lung transplant as a result of cystic fibrosis. Twice during the operation her heart stopped.

Well now you know I am surrounded by people like Dottie who keep me grounded and so it is hard for me to lose sight on the fact that is this at the end of the day just a game and as long as I have done the best I can who cares what everyone else thinks. I know no matter how bad I think it is there are situations that could be far worse so I am always grateful for life breath and health. It is ok to whine sometimes but I limit all negative behavior to 24hrs then I MUST move on otherwise you will spend your life being miserable.

I am really looking forward to one more great run in London before I head home for three days then depart for Beijing. I will report back with the results."

Click here to read Lauryn Williams' full WCSN blog.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog - Soon to Be Olympian David Oliver

Running on the European track circuit is not easy, as a matter of fact it should qualify for the cable television show "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe.

David Oliver took to his blog to share with fans the gritty and glamorous side of doing his thing while winning races. As we called it yesterday, he managed to come out on top at the Monaco Super Grand Prix, while feeling less than his best.

"You Are Only As Good As You Are On Your Off Days" "Is a quote that I take from Brooks to heart, everybody can do it when it's easy, but when the chips are down, what will you do? For those of you that were able to catch the race on wcsn, you know exactly what I am talking about.

I had a pretty decent warm-up, it wasn't great, but I knew I had more than enough to get the job done. Of course we had the customary false start from someone in the field. I came out the blocks on the re-start and on my fourth step out, I don't know what happened but it felt like I hit a dip and my hips dropped. That threw my first hurdle off, which threw the entire rest of my race off. I ended up hitting 7 of the 10 hurdles, but I was able to clean up my last two hurdles, finish in my customary strong fashion by dominating the critical zone once again and pull out a tough win.

My left quad has been tight since the race in London and that happens to be my trail leg, so today, I couldn't get the action from it I was looking for and it was causing my trail leg to be severely late, causing me to fall to the right, reverting to what I was looking like late in the indoor season. I ran 13.11 (-0.8w), Anwar was second in 13.19 and Jason Richardson ran a strong 13.23 for third. Like I said, if my off day is 13.11, a Super Grand Prix win and a 14 stack deposit into my Bank Of America account, then I am doing certain things correctly. I hope I got my bad one out of the way for the season, I can't afford a race like that at the Games! I'm off to Beijing tomorrow afternoon, I think I'm going to catch a helicopter to Nice from Monaco instead of the bus to the airport, I'm going to high-side on 'em! LOL."

Click here to read David Oliver's blog.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog --Lauryn Williams

The U.S. Olympic Trials has been take care of and Lauryn Williams has punched her to ticket to Beijing with a third place finish in the 100-meters. This is not the Detroit natives first rodeo. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Sydney, Williams earned a silver medal in the 100-meters.

Lauryn recently took to her WCSN / Universal Sports blog to share with fans, exactly what is going on with her since the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this month.

So with the trials out the way, I took a much needed exhale and relaxed for a few days … then promptly headed to Europe. I arrived in Lucerne, Switzerland, on July 13 for a race that was on Wednesday. You would think that was plenty of time to adjust to jetlag…wrong!! I don’t know why I have such a hard time shaking it but I do. I ran 11.23s and got 3rd. It is so disappointing after a loss to face the staff that has rolled out the red carpet for you and extended hospitality above and beyond. I know that as a professional athlete, I should be looking at each race as business and just that but I can’t help but feel a certain way about wanting to put on a good performance for the person who had enough confidence in me to invite me to their meet and of course the fans.

Lucerne - which was also my first European race last year - has grown on me quickly and is very near-and-dear to my heart. It is just a small meeting, but they have been creative in making sure that their meeting is unique. Where money is limited, they have all sorts of prizes such as coffee makers, Swiss knives, Swiss watches, and diamond and sapphire stones. They have come up with a way to select the best and 2nd best performer of the meet and they get a diamond and a sapphire respectively. In addition most events have a story (where you usually have to be one of the best to get into European meets), but this is opportunity for those on the line to take a last stab at a qualifying standard. One of the great stories of this year’s meeting was Oscar Pistorius, also known as the blade runner, whose controversy has been quite the news. The crowd was electric as they cheered him on as he made his last attempt of making the Olympic team for his country. Although he came up short it was great to be present as he still made history. His attempt stood for so much more than the actual win or lose.

Back to my emotional attachment with certain meetings, Korea has been the race that has closed out each season since I have become a professional. So you can imagine how distraught I was when I found out it might take place in May this year!! Luckily they thought better of that, but the date fluctuated multiple times. As a result I have scheduled my 25th birthday party to begin the same day as the meet in Korea!!! Those brats on “My super sweet 16” had nothing on my display of emotion at not being able to be in two places at once. How could I justify an October 9th party?! I guess as time goes on things change and you have to able to adapt and move on.

Click here to read Lauryn Williams full WCSN blog.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog - David Oliver

Image details: S

In his first race since winning the U.S. Olympic Trials, David Oliver laces up his spikes in Stockholm to hit the competition up again. Here is what the dominant 110-hurdler had to say to fans:

"I've been out in Stockholm, finally getting a chance to race again. This is the first stop on my three race tour before the Olympics. I will be racing here, London and in Monaco. Brooks [Coach Brooks Johnson] is here as well with the relay team and he will be at all of my competitions.

The last time I raced here was in 2005, my first year as a professional. I had a good result for me at the time, I came second and ran 13.23 in the process. I found a picture of the race HERE and I was leading touching down at 10 and got dominated in the critical zone by Anwar. I am glad I have corrected that flaw in my race.

The atmosphere at this meet is electric! The crowd sits right on top of you and the stadium is always rocking. There will be plenty of great results here."

Click here to read David Oliver's full blog.

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog – Olympic Hopeful Brianna Glenn

Making the U.S. Olympic team is a life time achievement for many elite runners. Rockers AC/DC summed it up best saying "It’s a long way to the top if you wanna to rock 'n' roll." Long jumper Brianna Glenn has fought fear and injury on the pot hole filled road to achieve her ultimate goal of making the Olympic Team.

Brianna took to her blog to share with fans the most recent events in her experience.

"Well, on to my update…

This past week I have been back to regular training and at the end of the week I even did full approach pop ups. (Technical talk for doing take-offs in the long jump without landing). I am ecstatic because I’m still fast. Granted, I am not as fast as I believe I would have been without the setback, but I am definitely fast and this is one of my advantages to already being one of the fastest jumpers in the world (in my humble opinion). It was a bit nerve racking putting back on my spikes without knowing what to expect from my body. I did not step on a track surface for a month’s time and then I did a somewhat abbreviated and accelerated rehab program so that I could get back to doing what I need to do. Needless to say, this caused some achy joints and bones. I am not the spring chicken I once was!

As important as balancing on one leg and stepping down from a 1 ft. box is, I could not wait to start to be able to feel as if I was really preparing for my task in 3 weeks. Here is the thing about this whole process – it can be truly overwhelming if you let it. I have taken things one step at a time because that is the only way to feel as if it’s manageable. If I could only lie on my couch and squeeze my quad 25 times every hour, I made sure I stayed on top of it. Once I was able to jog in the water, I tried to be the best water jogger I could. (No easy feat as I am no fan of things done in the water.) When I was able to get on land and do things that were not too much impact, I put all my energy towards that. I could not focus on what I could not do, only on what I could. It was hard. I’m not going to lie. But for the most part I was proud of myself for staying in the moment and staying positive and continuing to believe that I would be ok."

By Jay Hicks.

When Athletes Blog – Lauryn Williams

Lauryn Williams took her blog to discuss the hot 100-meter race at the Adidas Track Classic. What’s funny is the pro sprinter takes pride in another Lauren Williams, the daughter to Trackmom.com winning L.A.'s Fastest Kid race.

Read what Lauren had to say.

"Wheww! I survived it!! The toughtest field ever…well as far as I am concerned.

Track should have far better following than it does! After all in other sports u spend all year building up for 1 big event then once it is over you have to wait a whole year for it 2 bulid up again and then your team might not be in the championship!! Not in track! You get GREAT races with all the hot names and constant excitement with surprises in the plot on a regular basis. This weekend was a perfect example. 8 of the hottest women in the sprints ALL capable of running sub11 times on the line at the same time!! I can guarantee it was a better line up than any final you can put on the line in Beijing because u can only have 3 people per country and America and Jamaica have far more qualified depth than that! There was a B race where the winning time would have been 4th place in the A heat! Then there are those who chose to either run another event or just weren’t present that you must also watch out for. ( ie. Muna Lee, Miki Barber, Sharone Simpson and Simone Facey just to name a few.) It wasn’t just our event either I could write a book about how much talent was at the adidas track classic. Hopefully you tuned in so you know just exactly what I am talking about.

Although my 9 race winning streak came to an end there was a Lauren Williams that was not only lighting fast but victorious! I believe she’s 8 but had the composure of an adult as she raced down the track to a first place finish from lane 1. She showed that lanes don’t decifer who wins races heart, training and talent does. I wish her the best in her budding career and hope she continues to represent the Williams name well!"

By Jay Hicks.

Photo courtesy Matthias Clamer.

When Athletes Blog – Sanya Richards

Sanya Richards has taken to her official blog to discuss the big upcoming race at the adidas Track Classic.

Says the 400 meter dynamo.

"MAAAANNNN!!!!

This is what track and field is all about! Its about the best in the world lining up and going at it. I can’t express how excited I am to be in such a star studded 100m field. I always hoped to be one of the world’s elite 100m sprinters but I never thought it would happen so soon. To be in a race with Veronica Campbell, Lauryn Williams, Carmelita Jeter, Me’Lisa Barber, Torri Edwards, Allyson Felix, Marshavet Hooker, and Kerron Stewart is like jumping head first into the fire…BUT I LOVE IT!!!

My teammates at Baylor were joking that someone could run 11.0 and finish ninth! I know lots of times races like these don’t live up to the hype but I really believe that this one will! All the ladies in the field are young and hungry and in an Olympic year everyone wants to be remembered as the best! Although I am extremely competitive, I am keeping things in persprective and only trying to accomplish my goals. At the end of the day I want to improve my speed and hopefully secure a spot on the hardest relay to make, the US Women’s 4×1!
Keep your fingers crossed! This is going to be one amazing race!!!
Until next time. Sanya”

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist.