OregonLive.com Update: - July 22nd
Olympic tuneup: Nick Symmonds of Oregon Track Club Elite and the University of Oregon's Andrew Wheating are expected to go head-to-head in the 800 on July 30 at Hayward Field in Eugene.

UO assistant athletic director Michael Reilly said the rest of the field and other details still are being finalized for the race, which he plans to slot into a previously scheduled all-comers meet that evening.

Symmonds and Wheating elected to stay and train in...

Register-Guard Update: - July 27th

Truth be known, Nick Symmonds is a bit of a malcontent.

The 24-year-old middle distance star for Oregon Track Club Elite realized a longtime dream last month when he unleashed a stunning kick to win the 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field.

Still, simply making the U.S. team that will compete in the Beijing Olympics, Aug. 8-24, won’t satisfy the Willamette University graduate.

“Being an Olympian is great, it’s a huge dream come true,” said Symmonds, whose personal best of 1 minute, 44.10 seconds gives him the seventh-fastest time in the world this season.

“But I want to be able to say I’m an Olympic medalist, in particular, an Olympic gold medalist. Whether it happens this year, or it takes me four more years to accomplish it, that’s the new goal.”

And if he does win a gold medal?

“If I do that and you ask me if I’m content, I’ll say no, because I don’t have that world record,” he said. “So, there will always be something for me to strive for, and that’s why a lot of my family and friends consider me a huge malcontent, but that’s just..

Welcome to the official blog of middle-distance track star and 2008 U.S. Olympian Nick Symmonds. Be sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: nicksymmonds.com

Its July 15th as I sit on my couch in Springfield, Oregon and write this blog. To people who follow my race schedule closely that might seem a bit strange as I was on the start list for the meet in Luzern Switzerland tomorrow. I was actually scheduled to race again next week in Belgium and in London on the 25th as well. Unfortunately, I will not be running in any of these meets. I spent all spring looking forward to my trip to Europe and imagined running a 1:43 or two as I prepared to compete in China, but after the amazing experience of the trials I was left physically and emotionally drained. The combination of training, doing interviews, signing autographs and cheering on my teammates in the second session was simply too much. My usual perfect schedule that includes nine hours of sleep each night, regular meals, and naps in the afternoon was thrown for a total loop. By day 8 of the trials I was running on an average of about 5 hours of sleep and had lost 6 pounds. In training I felt worn out.

I sat down with Coach Gags and my manager Chris Layne and we talked about last year. We looked back and remembered how tired I was from...