( 4UMF NEWS ) Allyson Felix Wins Gold:
On a night when the United States turned Olympic Stadium into its own national mint, Allyson Felix had just crossed the 200-meter finish line when a tsunami of emotion began to overtake her.
There was happiness, of course. There was pride, naturally. Most of all, though, there was relief for the 26-year-old Felix, who has dominated her event for years but much like her 400-meter colleague, Sandra Richards-Ross, had never managed to capture an Olympic gold.
Felix won silver in Athens in 2004, as an 18-year-old, high-school graduate, behind Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell.
She won silver in Beijing, behind Campbell again. The centerpiece of her running life became the mission to end the silver streak there, and beat everybody, including Campbell-Brown, who was aiming to become the first woman to win three straight 200s.
“It was a long time coming,” Felix said, after she headlined the best night of American Olympic track and field in 20 years, seven medals (three gold, three silver and two bronze), the biggest haul since the U.S. won nine on Aug. 6, 1992 in Barcelona. “I think the moments that motivated me was losing on the biggest stage – just never forgetting that feeling.”
Felix used a blast of her long-legged speed to sprint past Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican who won the 100 here, about 30 meters before the finish, crossing in 21.88. Fraser-Pryce clocked 22.09, and right behind her was Carmelita Jeter (22.14), who won a bronze ahead of Campbell-Brown, and combined with her silver in the 100, becomes the first American woman to medal in both the 100 and 200 since the late Florence Griffith-Joyner set world records in both events in Seoul in 1988
