We’re a country that has the collective attention span of Pacman Jones in da scrip club. So why we can’t sit still and appreciate Sanya Richards for the 49 seconds it takes her to make one lap around the track is a mystery to me.
On a Friday when most Americans were planning an early exit from work to get a head start on the Monday observance of Labor Day, Richards was dazzling a crowd in Belgium with her most dominating performance of 2009. After crossing the finish line in a world leading 48.83 seconds in the 400-meter dash, nearly two seconds faster than her nearest competitor, Richards earned herself a share of the million dollar Golden League jackpot by remaining undefeated this season.
If you know who she is, chances are it is because her fateful collapse in the 2008 Olympic Games is still fresh in your mind or you may know her as the fiancée of New York Giants defensive back Aaron Ross.
Unless you are a fan of the sport of track and field then Sanya Richards is as foreign to you as the metric system.
All of this is truly sad when you consider that a sports obsessed nation doesn’t even know the face of its most dominating athlete.
There was once a time when the sport of track was held in high regards in the United States. Breaking the 4-minute barrier in the mile was as big a landmark as putting a man on the moon.
Now, we get more highlights of maniacs feverishly shoveling hot dogs into their pie holes on SportsCenter than we do recaps of the world of track. And to think they call themselves the “worldwide leader”. Laughable!
Other than Usain Bolt, the majority of U.S. sports fans couldn’t pick out another star of track and field even if Blanka Vlasic was standing next to Megan Fox and Anna Paquin.
Sanya Richards has no equal in her event, nor does she even have another athlete on par with her in the United States. She is the most dominant quarter miler in the history of the event. The Jamaican born sprinter became a U.S. citizen at the age of 12 before going on to attend college in Austin, Texas. No woman has eclipsed the 50-second barrier more often than she has. The bad news for the rest of the field is that Richards is only 24-years old and is getting progressively faster. The 47.60 second world record seems all but gone in the coming years.
Her story has all the elements we love to pine over in our splashy headlines. She is the Tiger Woods of her event, having been ranked the top sprinter in the 400 for the past four years yet until 2009 she did not have a world title. Think the dominance of Woods with the sentimental factor of Phil Mickelson splashed in. In the track world, winning a world title or Olympic gold is the equivalent of winning every major in golf. Except in her case, the world championships come around but once every two years and the Olympics just once every four.
Not unlike Tom Brady, she saw her perfect season come to a crashing conclusion in 2008. Richards was less than 100-meters from Olympic gold and simply ran out of steam in Beijing. With the world watching, she suffered the lowest moment of her career.
The word was out that Sanya just couldn’t step up to the challenge when the big meets rolled around. So how did she respond? The same way Kobe Bryant did after being embarrassed on the world’s biggest stage. Richards won a gold in Beijing as a member of the 4X400 meter relay team. Her performance was something that is usually only scripted for the silver screen. Richards took the baton as the U.S. anchor and ran down the Russian team in the final 100-meters to give her teammates and an entire nation a chance to hear the anthem play with the stars and stripes hoisted above her head.
Over the next year, Richards trained to ensure she would never suffer a loss like the one in Beijing. Just like Kobe, Sanya rededicated herself and came out as the world champion in 2009. Next up is London in 2012 for the Olympic gold in the open 400 that eludes her and a potential date with destiny as her closest competitor, England’s own Christine Ohuruogu, awaits setting the stage for a drama better than the six months of lamenting over a 40-year old quarterback with retirement resentment.
Richards might not have the glamor and fame of a Serena Williams, but she’s already reached the pinnacle of her sport and doesn’t appear to be willing to concede that throne anytime soon. Unlike Williams, Sanya stands in a league of her own, alone at the top with the rest of the world fighting over the right to be second best.
While Sanya can hardly make it from the front desk to her hotel room in any number of European countries without being mobbed by fans, she is relatively anonymous in America. If she were jogging next to you in the park on a Saturday morning, you’d most likely turn up your iPod as she zooms by you like you were running in concrete Nikes. You’re left wondering who that fast woman was for all of 10-seconds before returning to your run.
She runs with a bullet dangling from the end of her necklace. With each bounce of the chain, she’s reminded of the expression her mother bestowed upon her in her youth. An expression associated with a fictional character in American folklore. Sanya Richards is indeed faster than a speeding bullet. So fast, in fact, that she seems to run in and out of our collective consciousness in a blur.
– By Chris Shellcroft l Fansided