By Ato Boldon Friday, January 4 2008 11:22:31 AM

Allyson Felix

You can take your chances in the stock market in 2008, or you can bet it all on Allyson Felix winning 4 gold medals in Beijing in the 200m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400 - and the odds would be better on Miss Felix.  In Osaka, at the World Championships in 2007, she had her ‘dress rehearsal’ for Beijing, with 3 gold medals in the 200m, 4x100m and the 4x400m – with a 48.0 second leg on the 4x400m relay that is probably the fastest 4x400m relay leg ever run, if you exclude some of the splits recorded by the former eastern bloc “robots” of the 1980s.  At just 22, she is the most dominant female 200m runner in the world – her win in Osaka showed her competition that if you can’t run under 22 seconds for the 200m (which no-one who will line up against her in Beijing has done in their career as of this writing) then forget about being within 4 meters of her in the 200m Olympic final in Beijing.   Her margin of victory in the 200m in Osaka was .53 – that is unheard of in a championship sprint final! 

The other event in which I think she is about to write her name in history is the 400m dash.  Although relatively inexperienced at the distance (I’m sure, including high school races, she hasn’t run 20 flat 400m races in her entire lifetime) and fresh off of her new personal best time at 400m last year of 49.70 – when she became one of the few athletes to defeat an in-form Sanya Richards in 2007, I don’t see how a healthy Allyson will lose either the 200m or 400m in Beijing, which would put her in the company of Valerie Brisco-Hooks (Los Angeles 1984) and Marie-Jose Perec (Atlanta 1996) as the only women who were 200m and 400m champions at the same Olympic Games.  Brisco-Hooks’ coach in 1984 - Allyson’s coach now – is Bobby Kersee, who ‘quietly’ will put about 4 or 5 athletes on the USA Olympic team in 2008.  I’d like Allyson to do more than just win, from my side of things in the broadcast booth, and as a track fan.  I need Allyson to be so dominant, so captivating, so endearing to an American public that tunes in once every four years to find a new, hitherto-unknown Olympic hero, that people say “Marion WHO?”  The only thing that can be said for Allyson that can possibly derail the quest for her four golds, is that training for and competing in the 400m does take more of a toll on the body, and Allyson did have injuries in 2006 which sidelined her most of the year – so she has not been immune to the injury bug.  That is about all most of her competition can hope for to get close to Miss Felix in 2008. Victor Conte

As much as I loathe Victor Conte and what he and his “BALCO bunch” have done to the image of sports and athletes, he has done much to get on to the right side of the track fraternity lately.  He has backed down significantly from his “everyone in sports is on drugs” mantra, and has now even volunteered to work with the powers-that-be to help in anti-doping efforts.  He met with outgoing WADA (World Anti-Doping Association) chief Dick Pound in December of 2007, although what was derived or accomplished from that meeting is unknown.  In much the same way that major corporations hire expert hackers to make sure their security is air-tight, I do believe that Victor, if he can be trusted to be scrupulous in his duties, can make a huge difference in keeping the drug testers closer to the drug takers.  Let him use his powers for good, for a change.

Eugene, Oregon

If you don’t particularly like the beautiful northwestern state of Oregon, then it’s going to be hard for you to attend the biggest track and field meets in the USA for the next 4 years.  Starting in 2008, the University of Oregon’s track facility in Eugene, which has now just about completed major resurfacing and renovations, will host the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008 (and 2012), the trials for the World Championships in 2011 and the NCAA Championships in 2010 as well.  Eugene, to me, is one of the best kept secrets in the country, a Mecca for track and field, where track is given the respect it deserves both by the citizenry and the media. It’s a place I have always enjoyed, both as a competitor and a spectator.  I am looking forward to being in Eugene regularly for the next few years. The U.S. Olympic Trials are always fantastic, but trust me when I say that the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, from June 27 to July 6, will be one of the greatest track meets that has ever taken place, anywhere, ever.  If you haven’t been to that part of the country, or have never witnessed the drama of a USA Olympic trials and its “finish-in-the-top-three-or-see-you-in-four-years” reality, 2008 would be a great year to start – if you can still get a ticket.

Asafa Powell

Jamaicans are fiercely loyal, and particularly to their track stars.  That being the case, the more Jamaicans I run into lately, the more I sense that they are not exactly convinced that Asafa Powell...