Untainted speed is the goal

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The women’s 100-meter semifinal is today, and in it will be Marshevet Hooker, Allyson Felix and Lauryn Williams, all powerful and accomplished, with NCAA or world or Olympic medals, as Helene Elliott writes.

They are providing hope for a sport that has been battered by a never-ending series of drug scandals. How are they doing this? By voluntarily participating in a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency program that subjects them to an extraordinary number of drug tests so they can prove they’re clean.

‘I was worried at first they were taking too much blood,’ Williams told Elliott, ‘but I’ve gotten used to it. It doesn’t affect my training.’

And then there is Laura Roesler, barely 16, who also made it to the semifinals, winning the crowd’s heart, a sprinter Helene and Phil Hersh wrote about last night on this blog.

The only question seems to be, will they really be able to turn their sport around and make it shine again?

As Helene points out in her column, among the 16 women in today’s semifinals, eight ran faster than 11 seconds. Among them was Torri Edwards, who finished second in the 100 at the 2004 Olympic trials but was disqualified from the Athens team after she tested positive for a banned stimulant.

‘I’m treating this like every other national championship,’ the USC graduate said. ‘I’m going out to win, like I did last year.’

-- Debbie Goffa