Allyson Felix Affirms Greatness Despite Settling for Silver in Wild 400M Finish
In a finish to the women's 400-meter dash that had the whole world buzzing, the United States' Allyson Felix fell just short of becoming the first woman to win five Olympic gold medals in track and field.
Rather, Felix ended up with her third Olympic silver medal because she wasn't the one who thought to fall.
Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas got out to an early lead and seemed to be in position to cruise to the gold. As the field hit the homestretch for the final 100 meters, Miller was several meters ahead of both Felix and the United States' Natasha Hastings. Felix closed the gap as Miller ran out of gas, and Miller lost her balance before diving across the finish line 0.07 seconds ahead of Felix.
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Missing a goal by a few hundredths of a second isn't a new phenomenon for Felix in 2016.
In late April, she suffered a freak ankle injury during a workout when she landed awkwardly on a medicine ball.
"I've never seen my ankle that big before, and it happened just immediately," she told Eddie Pells of the Associated Press. "When it happened, there were a number of thoughts running through my head. A scary moment. I'd never had anything like that happen before."
Felix had less than three months to prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials and was just barely slower than she needed to be in her signature event—the 200-meter dash. She had won silver at that distance at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and gold in 2012, but because her time in July was 0.01 seconds slower than third-place finisher Jenna Prandini—who also stumbled across the finish line—Felix could not defend her title in Rio de Janeiro.
Though heartbreaking, it allowed her to focus exclusively on the 400, in which she won gold at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing—edging Miller by 0.41 seconds.
But in Rio, running on a still-less-than-perfect ankle and a track that was damp from a torrential downpour barely an hour prior to the start of the race, she didn't get that fifth Olympic gold medal.
"I wanted to win," Felix told reporters, according to CNN. "It's been a tough year. I didn't quite do enough."
The race was not a complete failure for her, though.
Felix still made Olympic history.
At nearly 31 years of age, she become the oldest woman to medal in the 400, according to TrackAndFieldNews.com. Felix also became the most decorated female track and field athlete in U.S. history with seven Olympic medals—and she'll likely get an eighth, and possibly her fifth gold, in Saturday's 4x400-meter relay.
Felix didn't want to go out in the individual races with a loss to Miller in that fashion, but she still cemented her legacy as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. She has medals from four different Olympics and in four different events, and it's hard to imagine any woman displaying more versatility or longevity than Felix.
The latter trait is what makes Felix so special.
In case you've been spoiled by what Michael Phelps accomplished in the pool in his fifth Olympics or Usain Bolt's third consecutive Olympic gold in the men's 100-meter dash, know this: Sprinters simply aren't supposed to have this type of shelf life.
Miller won the gold at just 22 years old, and she barely had the energy to finish. In 2012, Sanya Richards-Ross won gold in the 400 at 27 years old. Rather than compete in Rio at 31, she was one of NBC's announcers for the race.
The eldest of the three women who narrowly edged Felix in the 200 at the trials is still five years her junior.
It's one thing to hit your peak for one magical week of Olympic glory, but to be one of the top runners in the world for 12 years is almost unfathomable. Speaking from experience, it's impossible to eat like an 18-year-old when you're 30, let alone run as fast as you used to.
Throw in the fact it took a photo finish to keep Felix from winning gold in an event that isn't even her specialty, and one can begin to appreciate how incredible her career has been.
Miller's dive will go down as one of the more memorable moments of the 2016 Olympics, but it will be a long time before anyone tumbles ahead of Felix in the Olympic record book.
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