A SILVER LINING FOR FELIX NOW 19, SPRINTER REFLECTS ON HER PHENOMENAL YEAR.Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News Allyson Felix Allyson Felix (born November 18, 1985 in Los Angeles, California) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for the United States in the 200 meters. Felix, born and raised in southern California, is also a devout Christian and is the daughter of an ordained was widely known in the world of track and field before her junior year at L.A. Baptist High of North Hills, having won at 100 meters as a sophomore at the state high school championships - her first of five state titles - and at the 2001 World Youth Championships. This fall, Felix strode down the red carpet at the Emmy awards before a worldwide television audience as a guest of honor after winning the Olympic silver medal in the 200 meters in Athens. The Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, native, who celebrated her 19th birthday last month, has grown up on and off the track in the past year. Felix has launched her own Web site, www.AllysonFelixUSA.com, in which she writes a journal and answers fan e-mails. Felix, the youngest U.S. track and field Olympian in Greece, made headlines as a high school senior in 2003 when she broke Marion Jones' U.S. high school national 200 record and ran 22.11 seconds in Mexico City's altitude at the Banamex Grand Prix Grand Prix n. pl. Grand Prix Any of several competitive international road races for sports cars of specific engine size over an exacting, usually risky course. . She renounced a USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on their ability to play in a sport. They are common in the United States, but in many countries they are rare or non-existent. and her collegiate eligibility, signing a six-year sponsorship deal with Adidas and hiring former high hurdles world-record holder Renaldo Nehemiah Renaldo "Skeets" Nehemiah (born March 24, 1959 in Newark, New Jersey), is an American athlete who dominated the 110 m hurdle event from 1978 until 1981. He was the world record holder and the first man to run the high hurdles in under 13 seconds. as an agent. Former Dodgers general manger Kevin Malone
Kevin Malone is a fictional character from the US television series, The Office. He is played by Brian Baumgartner. assisted in the negotiations. Malone is vice president of development at The Master's College History The Master's College was founded as Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary on May 25, 1927 to meet the need for a fundamental Baptist school on the West Coast. , where Allyson's father, Paul, an ordained or·dain tr.v. or·dained, or·dain·ing, or·dains 1. a. To invest with ministerial or priestly authority; confer holy orders on. b. To authorize as a rabbi. 2. minister, teaches New Testament Greek. ``People treat her like a superstar, but she is the same giggling kid who is concerned if she gets asked to a dance,'' said Jonathan Patton, Felix's high school coach. ``She is remarkably unaffected by it. She's grateful for her gift of remarkable talent and makes sure that her best comes through.'' Felix was far from her best during her professional debut, at 17, in the 2003 IAAF IAAF abbr. International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championships in Paris. After a lengthy indoor and outdoor high school season, Felix failed to advance from the second round. ``I felt a lot of people were skeptical, but I wasn't trying to prove that I had made the right decision,'' Felix said. ``It added pressure to adjust and the high expectations I had of my own.'' Training in 2004 with Pat Connolly Pat Connolly an American musician, recording artist. Original bassist for The Surfaris , an early California Surf Rock group of the 1960's. , former coach of 1984 Olympic 100- meter gold medalist Evelyn Ashford Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100 m. Arguably the greatest female sprinter ever, with a career that spanned an unprecedented five Olympic Games. , Felix won the 200 in the U.S. Olympic Trials and a silver medal in Athens. Her time of 22.18 in the Olympic final broke the world junior record of 22.19 set by Soviet sprinter Natalya Bochina Natalya Bochina (Russian: Наталья Бочина) (born January 4 1962) is a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 200 metres. Bochina trained at Dynamo in Leningrad. in 1980. That record, set five years before Felix was born, had eluded her for more than a year after her mark of 22.11 at the Banamex Grand Prix was not ratified because there had been no drug testing. ``Even though the record was taken away, I was still recognized for what I had done,'' Felix said. ``It was great to finally get it. I was satisfied with the Olympic experience, and the adjustment to the professional world of track and field came together.'' Felix was among the first of a growing number of U.S. track athletes, such as Justin Gatlin Justin Gatlin (born February 10, 1982) is an American sprinter. He is an Olympic gold medalist, with a personal best of 9.77 seconds. He is currently serving an eight-year ban from track and field for testing positive for a banned substance, which he is currently appealing. , Alan Webb, Lauren Williams, Sanya Richards and Tiffany McWilliams, to turn pro before finishing college. Felix was the only one who skipped college track completely. The advice of Athens Olympic 100 champion Gatlin, who accompanied Felix at the Emmys, was among the factors in leading her to turn professional. ``It's good for the sport, and it's nice to see the whole generation of younger athletes ruling on the professional circuit,'' Felix said. A romance between Felix and Gatlin, 22, has been widely reported. She calls him ``a close friend.'' Felix took her lumps in her first full pro season. During the indoor season, she finished seventh in the 60-meter final in the USATF USATF United States of America Track and Field (governing body for T&F, Race Walking & Distance Running) Indoor championships, an event she competed in to improve her start. In early- season outdoor all-comer meets, Felix was humbled when she was running the 800 to build endurance. ``(Connolly) explained that I wouldn't be running fast for awhile,'' Felix said. ``It was hard to be patient early and to have that trust that it would come eventually when I had been used to being at the level that I was last season. When we got into speed work a month before the Trials, it started coming together.'' Felix was left in limbo after the Olympics when she parted ways with Connolly, who had moved from Virginia to California to work privately with Felix. ``We trained through the Olympics, and after that decided that we weren't working together anymore,'' Felix said. Felix said among the factors in the decision was the difficulty of training alone and a desire to remain in Los Angeles, where she attends USC and is studying to become an elementary school teacher. She shares an apartment with her older brother, Wes, a 2002 World Junior 200 bronze-medal winner and second leg on United States' world junior-record-setting 400-meter relay team. After a two-month hiatus after the Olympics, partly for lack of a coach, Felix sought the assistance of Bobby Kersee. After a brief meeting, Felix began training in late November with the husband of heptathlon heptathlon: see under decathlon. heptathlon Women's athletics competition. Contestants take part in seven different track-and-field events: 100-m hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, and 200- and 800-m runs. world-record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Felix said she always respected Kersee as a coach and admired his wife's charitable work with the JJK JJK Jackie Joyner Kersee (US track and field athelete) Youth Center Foundation, which supports the development of leadership programs in urban areas across the United States. Among Felix's new training partners are Olympic 100 hurdles champion Joanna Hayes, U.S. Olympians Sheena Johnson and Michelle Perry, and heptathletes Eunice Barber of France and Canada's Nicole Haynes. ``It was rough training all year by myself,'' Felix said. ``I needed competitive training partners. I just wanted to check into the local training possibilities. Bobby and I clicked right away, and I decided to explore that. I fit in well with his camp.'' Felix plans to run an abbreviated indoor schedule in preparation for the 200 in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, and her first full season next summer on the European circuit. ``My whole goal my first year was to make the Olympic team,'' Felix said. ``It brought a lot of excitement and confidence to medal. The main issue was if I was ready or needed time to develop in college. Everything was so new and complicated this year and adjusting to how things work as a professional.'' It seems to have all worked out for Felix. FELIX FILE Name: Allyson Felix. Sport: Track and field. Height: 5-foot-6 Fast fact: Felix, 19, of Santa Clarita, was the youngest U.S. track and field athlete at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won the 200-meter silver medal in a world junior-record time of 22.18 seconds. CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1) Allyson Felix, 19, won a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in the 200 meters. (2) The Olympic silver medal won by Allyson Felix in Athens. She finished second in the 200 in 22.18 seconds. Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News Box: FELIX FILE (see text) |
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