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 Eligible to compete in either the 200 meters, the 400 meters or both
in Beijing, the American sprinter chose the longer event and two
relays.
"She loves the 200," her coach, Bob Kersee, told Reuters in a
telephone interview. "But with all due respect to everybody else, in
the 200 she has won on center stage in both the world championship
and the Olympic Games."
Felix won the world title over the half-lap in 2005, 2007 and 2009
and is the reigning Olympic champion after her London triumph.
The 29-year-old's only global medal in the 400, however, is the
silver she won at the 2011 world championships in Daegu, where she
did attempt the 200-400 double and also took home a bronze from the
200 and two golds from the relays.
"So I think at this stage," Kersee said, stressing the words were
his not Felix's.
"If I am going to try something different, and put a little bit of
athletic pressure on myself, moving up to the 400 will be the bigger
challenge versus saying I got everything to win or everything to
lose by running the 200."
The coach floated the idea of a 200-400 double in Beijing but Felix
eventually decided against it because a crushing schedule leaves
only an hour between the 200 semi-final and the 400 final.
But there is no doubt about her target for next year's Rio Olympics.
"I would love to run the double," Felix, who has won 17 global
medals since turning professional as a California teenager in 2003,
told reporters in Lausanne this summer.
"So I would hope that, moving forward, that the Olympic schedule
would reflect that."
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It does not at the moment, with the 400 final just 75 minutes after
the first round of the 200.
"To me, it's really disappointing because there are so many people
who can do a 200-400 double, and I think that we should be allowed
to attempt it," said Felix.
Kersee is even more vocal in his opinion that the scheduling is an
error by the IAAF and Olympic officials.
"If they look back at past history, they should ask themselves why
are we denying somebody to do the two and the four that we allowed
to happen before?" the coach said, referring to double victories by
American Michael Johnson and France's Marie-José Pérec at the 1996
Atlanta Olympics.
"I hope if they are stupid enough to make a mistake, they are smart
enough to make a correction."
(Editing by Nick Mulvenney and Greg Stutchbury)
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