Allyson Felix Cleared For Double Gold

Allyson Felix has received a special dispensation for a chance to win double gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics this August. The International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Olympic Committee have agreed to alter the Olympic schedule to allow her to compete for Gold in the 200m and 400m race at this Summer’s games. Her plan at the Rio Olympics is to run a 400-meter semifinal in the evening on Aug. 14 and about 13 hours later race in the preliminaries of the 200 before running the 400 final just 13 hours after that.

Much better than the original schedule, which had the 200 prelims and 400 final in the same evening session, this change essentially makes the chance for the double doable. “It’s awesome to know that if I am able to make it, it’s going to be a lit tle better schedule,” Felix told the AP this year. “It’s motivating to know that it is real. I just have to do my part.”   Still, it’s not going to be easy. Felix has to first finish in the top three in each event at the U.S. Olympic Trials, which start this Friday in Eugene, Oregon. This would typically be an easy task for the three time Olympian who has already garnered 4 Gold and two Silver medals at the Olympics in Athens, Beijing, and London. However, she suffered a third degree “high ankle” sprain in April which could have easily prevented her from achieving the rare Olympic double.   However, for her coach Bobby Kersee and myself this is familiar territory. For over 3 decades we have worked together to help US athletes win more than 50 medals at the last 8 Olympic Games. We have experienced enough catastrophic injuries in our athletes before to know what to do. With aggressive rehabilitation at Forster Physical Therapy and vigorous cross training in our pool, Allyson has progressed well and is back running again on the track with great results.   We have also had double Olympic gold winners before and we know what it takes. Valerie Brisco-Hooks won the 200m and 400m Olympic events in Los Angeles in 1984 and Florence Griffith-Joyner won the 100m and 200m Gold in Seoul in 1988. Both of these extraordinary athletes also won Gold in the relays at those same Games.  More impressively, Jackie Joyner-Kersee not only won the Gold in 1988 for the seven individual events called the Heptathlon, but came back 3 days later to win Gold in the Long Jump competition as well. We were pioneers in the science of recovery dating back to 1984 and we will execute the most advanced recovery strategies available to help Allyson achieve her goals as well. Stay tuned!