IAAF News Service
www.iaaf.org
Lauryn Williams by Paul Gains
No one has ever called world 100m champion Lauryn Williams a procrastinator.
The 22 year old graduated from the University of Miami in three and a half years, proudly earning a Bachelor of Finance degree while working part time at a bank. And despite a heavy training schedule designed to keep her on top of the world she manages to fill her days with an abundant - and varied - list of activities.
Three nights a week she attends a real estate course for three and a half hours each time. Tuesdays are dedicated to conversational Spanish lessons and if that's not enough Williams also volunteers at Arcola Elementary School in Miami where she helps out in a classroom for deaf children.
"I took a sign language course maybe two years ago and I never really got into it because I wasn't using it," she explains with a hint of embarrassment. "So I decided if I really wanted to learn it then I need to find a place. There are seven kids in my classroom and I volunteer three or four days a week for three or four hours a day. My best friend's brother is deaf. I do communicate with him, not a lot. They are in Pennsylvania so I don't see them very often."
After her 2005 season came to a close she took six weeks off using the time to visit family in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Her mother is a school teacher in Michigan while her father lives in Rochester, Pennsylvania. He has been debilitated by leukaemia the last few years and is unable to work.
During the Athens Olympics he fell gravely ill and Lauryn spent the days between the Olympic 100m final where she took the silver medal and the 4 x100m relay heats helping him get dialysis treatment at an Athens hospital.
Williams has also been putting her finance degree to good use in the service of her sport.
"I am on the USATF Budget Committee," she confirms. "I think it was Sandra Farmer-Patrick who nominated me. She also has a background in finance and she knows I am really eager to get involved in USATF and to make a difference in the world of track and field, period. I thought it might be a way that I can be helpful with my background. We actually meet once a year but we have a series of conference calls and things like that. A few weeks ago was the annual meeting."
"It was very educational learning where the money is coming from, how the money is divided up, what kind of requirements it takes for each committee.
Then you find out how many committees there are. I wasn't even aware that some of these things existed."
Williams says her major input has been to encourage the continuation of athlete retreats where athletes leaving collegiate sport can be exposed to their peers who have already been competing professionally. Though she is a world beater, it is easy to forget that she has had just one season as a professional. Or, that in the same year she claimed the Olympic silver medal she also successfully defended her NCAA 100m title.
In the absence of a world championship next season Williams believes it's time to change her focus a little.
"Honestly, I don't try to make my sport about money. When I get on the line I am not worried about \'Oh if I win this race I get this amount of money'," she explains rather apologetically. "I think ultimately the goal this year though will be to stack up and save up for the rainy days. There is no Golden League 100m so I will run different races and I'd like to see the world, see some places that didn't fit into my schedule last year without me being tired before an important race. I will go somewhere far away and not worry about it."
During this telephone interview conducted while she was driving home after dinner with Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin and the folks at Nike, who had been filming a commercial in Miami, she was alarmed when the car in front of her veered off the road and hit a concrete barrier.
"I should call 911, shouldn't I? I will call you right back," and then she hangs up the phone. I am reminded of comments her agent Ray Flynn has made about how she always puts others first. Two minutes later she is true to her word.
Four weeks of training have whetted her appetite for indoor track and she would like to represent the United States at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow, March 10-12.
"I have had a really good start. Autumn training is not hurting me too bad this year," she reveals. "Last year getting back into it was really hard for me. Coming off a six week break is always hard but it was especially hard for me last year after the Olympics."
"I have been doing a lot of distance, 45 second runs. Not sprinting. I haven't had my spikes on. I train six days a week. I love indoors. I wish indoors was the premier thing in track and field."
Although her personal 100m best is 10.88 seconds - recorded in Zurich last August - a far cry from Florence Griffith-Joyner's incredible world and American records, she believes that someone can beat that time of 10.49 seconds. She points to a growing list of young American and Caribbean athletes as providing the impetus to close the gap.
"I think one day it will be, I don't know how soon but definitely one day and I think sooner rather than later. It?s pretty far from where the best in the world are running right now. But the gap is going to slowly close. We are getting faster."
"I personally don't really have a time goal. I think I will be satisfied as long as I am hitting a personal best every year. If I only do something that is not as good as maybe what I did the year before then I will start to re-evaluate the situation. Of course, I think you have to have a down year.
It would be unrealistic to say you are going to have a great year every year of your career. If I am on a down stroke and realise I have already run my fastest time then I might slowly re-evaluate. When it's done it's done."
And when that day comes and she no longer laces up her spikes in competition it is quite certain she will have lots of things to fill her days. The possibilities are endless.
Lauryn Williams, who attended Rochester H.S. (PA) before moving on to the University of Miami, is one of the leaders of the \"youth movement\" in U.S. track and field. From the Walt Murphy. By the IAAF News Service.