Sprint for the Finish

In her rare idle moments, USC sprinter Angela Williams sometimes wonders whether she has been running in place all this time.

Whether the spectacular 100-meter time of 11.04 seconds she clocked as a freshman will be her crowning achievement, even though she’s poised this week to become the first athlete to win four NCAA 100-meter dash titles.

And whether her times, either at the NCAA championships starting today in Baton Rouge, La., or later, will reflect her nurturing of a talent she sees as a sacred trust.

“I haven’t beaten it yet,” she said of her school-record time, “so it upsets me, because every year you want to think of yourself as improving. And I sit and ask myself, ‘Am I improving or am I going stagnant?’”

No matter what the clock says, Williams--who will run the 100, 200 and the 400-meter relay at Baton Rouge--has grown in many ways.

“In terms of what she’s brought to the program, you get an Angela Williams probably once in a coaching career,” said Ron Allice, USC’s director of track and field. “Certainly, she’s the greatest sprinter in the history of women’s track and field at USC, and maybe one of the better sprinters ever, in terms of her accomplishments, whether male or female, collegiately.”

Better times will come, she believes, when she finishes school and can focus on what she sees as her purpose in life: to run fast and joyously and be a positive role model.

“You hit that peak, and to work beyond it is difficult,” said Williams, whose wind-aided 10.98 as a junior at Chino High was the first sub-11 second clocking for a high school girl.

“It’s going to take small things now, and it’s hard to focus on small things when you have to run the 4 by 100, the 100, the 200 and sometimes the 4 by 400. I get stretched wide all across the track. A lot of times I get tired, and when it’s time to run the 100 I’m thinking about the rest of the load I have.”

That load has been increased by misfortune at major events.

A torn hamstring ended her chances of making the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, and flu kept her off the 2000 team. She finished third in the 100 at last year’s U.S. championships but was eliminated in the semifinals of the 100 at the world championships. When she was taken off the 400-meter relay team after running two rounds at the world meet, her faith was tested--but not broken.

Those disappointments “just dragged me down in the dirt. But that made me stronger,” she said. “It’s something I’ll never forget, because I know it’s all about business when you move to that level. To me, it’s all fun and games, but I learned when I get around those people I have to be prepared for all things, and I wasn’t, being the younger one on the team.

“I went back home and thought about it and said, ‘I’m just going to run so fast that I can’t be ignored.’”

This year, for the first time, she took weight-room workouts seriously, and she was rewarded. She won the NCAA 60-meter indoor title and won the 100 at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays April 21 in 11.06 seconds, among the world’s top six times this season. She also won her second Pacific 10 Conference 100-meter title, in 11.42 seconds.

“I would normally run effortlessly but it is just truly effortless now,” said Williams, a winner of the Honda Award for track and field.

She first felt that ease when she was 9 and began to run in organized programs. Her mother, Pamela, is a runner, as is her father, Johnny, a youth track coach. But even they didn’t realize she was extraordinary until observers told them she had potential to be an elite athlete. Her parents promptly sat her down and told her to appreciate her gift, a lesson she hasn’t forgotten. Her track scholarship is one of her most precious prizes, because she otherwise couldn’t have afforded USC.

“There’s a lot of people with talent, but some of them don’t make it because no one ever explains to them what they can do with that talent,” she said.

Her talent was affirmed again when she was 12 and Florence Griffith Joyner called her family to offer encouragement and offer to make her a track uniform to wear at a photo shoot. Williams admired Griffith Joyner, a triple gold medalist at the 1988 Summer Olympics, but she wasn’t awestruck.

“I hung up on her,” Williams said, laughing. “I didn’t know who she was. I was watching TV. I could care less. I was like, ‘OK, right. Yeah.’ She called back and asked to speak to my dad. He came back in the room and said, ‘Do you know what you just did? You know who that was?’

“I’ve never been a person to really admire other people. I think it’s because I had the gift since I was young that I feel no one is better than anybody else. We all have gifts.”

Griffith Joyner told Williams she hoped the youngster would break her records, and they had a cordial relationship until Griffith Joyner’s death in 1998. The next great U.S. female sprinter, Marion Jones, has also touted Williams as the hope of the future. “I think what’s happening now is I’m being accepted,” Williams said. “Regardless of whether they were going to accept me or not, I was coming anyway.”

But will that faster 100 time come too?

Williams expects the NCAA 100 champion will have to run 11 seconds or faster. Allice believes she’s capable of it, conditions permitting. “She rises to the occasion based on the level of competition,” Allice said. “She runs just as fast as she needs to, to be successful.... She doesn’t put the hammer down until it’s the big one.”

This is a big one.

“I understand the significance of winning the fourth one because it’s something that will last the rest of my life,” Williams said. “I want to go down in history for doing good things.... When I run, it’s to change lives, to let other people know they have a future and they have to prepare themselves for whatever is coming and always be positive.”