Catching Up to Her Future

There will be a ceremony in Paris this month where Torri Edwards will be recognized as the 2003 world champion in the 100-meter dash, a title that became hers a few months ago after Kelli White admitted having used a banned drug and was stripped of the honor.

It will be gratifying, to an extent. So will the silver medal Edwards will get for the 200, again advancing a rung because of White’s disqualification. Both medals will have a place of pride in the trophy collection at her family home in Corona.

But it won’t be the crowning moment the soft-spoken Pomona High and USC alum should have enjoyed in August, when the crowd was roaring and her adrenaline was flowing.

“It’s going to be different,” Edwards said. “But in my mind, I’ve moved on. I’ve kind of just put it behind me because there are a lot of things I have to look forward to.”

First on her list is to earn berths on the Athens Olympic team in the 100 and 200 and stand on the podium at the Games. She’ll take the next step this weekend at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Sacramento, where she will carry confidence born of accomplishment and maturity.

Four years ago, at 23, she finished fourth in the 100 and 200 at the trials for the Sydney Games.

“It was a little overwhelming,” Edwards recalled this week. “It was my first year out of college, and I’d never run in the Olympic trials before. There was a lot of pressure.

“I competed to the best of my ability, and I think I competed fairly well.”

She earned a place in the relay pool and won a bronze medal for running the second leg of the 400 relay, with Chryste Gaines, Nanceen Perry and Marion Jones. She competed in the 100 and 200 after Inger Miller withdrew because of an injury, but she was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 100 and the semifinals of the 200.

This time, she’s more seasoned and sure, a world champion even if she hasn’t gotten the medal yet.

“I expect her to do extremely well,” said John Smith, who coaches Edwards, Miller, four-time NCAA champion Angela Williams, Sydney 100-meter gold medalist Maurice Greene and a host of other elite runners in Westwood.

“She’s in contention to win both of them, and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t, not to take anything away from anybody else. But there’s no reason why she couldn’t win. And I say that for her and Inger both. There’s no reason why they both couldn’t win.”

In the weekly rankings compiled by the International Assn. of Athletics Federations, Edwards on Monday ranked second in the world to Gaines in the 100 and first in the 200. She has won all but one 100-meter race she has run this season, inching closer to the personal-best 10.93 seconds she recorded last season in the 100 and personal-best 22.28 for the 200.

True, she didn’t face Jones last season, because the Sydney 100-meter gold medalist took the year off to have a baby. But Jones has been erratic since her return, and the only American woman who has broken 11 seconds this season is Lauryn Williams of the University of Miami, who won the NCAA title in 10.97.

“She’s been there,” Smith said of Edwards’ rise to the top. “It’s just that American women are extremely competitive. I mean, Gail [Devers] is still running good times, Marion is at the top of her game, you got Inger at the top of her game, you had Chryste Gaines. She stepped in there, and she touched up on people. Now, she’s getting to the point where she’s the one beating all of them. She’s coming into her own.”

Edwards began running in junior high school. “I think high school was the time I realized I was really good and could go far in the sport,” she said. Her best finish at the state meet was fourth in the 200, but she blossomed at USC, where she was a three-time Pacific 10 Conference champion.

She always has been reserved, though Smith has seen her open up.

“Winning helps it,” he said. “When you win, it brings out the beast in you ... and you feel confident and like everything’s coming around.”

Edwards credited the sport with fortifying her self-esteem. “You can’t be too shy running,” she said. “I’ve always known the talent was there, but it was a matter of my body becoming stronger.”

Working out daily with illustrious peers has also accelerated her development.

“It pushes me a lot,” she said. “It’s great having training partners, because you can kind of get a feeling from them of how you’re doing. We compete at practice, and you get a better idea of what you’d run on the track.

“Sometimes we have small, little quarrels, the same type of problems you’d have with your family. Sometimes we get sick of each other, but more often it’s good for all of us.”

She prefers the 100 to the 200 because “it’s just so competitive, and over a short distance there’s little room for mistakes.... I don’t run the 200 often, so it’s hard for me to get the rhythm down.”

The top three finishers in each of those races at the trials will be nominated to the Athens team. Qualifying and quarterfinals of the women’s 100 will take place Friday, with the semifinals and final Saturday.

Preliminary rounds of the 200 will take place July 16 and 17, and the final will end the trials July 18.

The steroid scandal that’s shaking up the sport could change the composition of the U.S. team, but Edwards said she has blocked out thoughts of all but what she does on the track.

Gaines, who faces a lifetime ban for alleged doping violations, and Jones, under scrutiny of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, are entered at the trials. It’s unclear whether either will be in Athens.

“I’m just focusing on what I’m setting out to do, and I’m not going to worry about that stuff,” Edwards said.

“For the Olympics, getting an individual medal is important, and that’s my goal. I also want to establish myself as one of the fastest women in the world. The relay is something that’s fun to do, but an individual medal would mean a lot.

“I feel like I’m prepared for the trials and I have a good chance of winning. Whatever happens, I’m not going to get too worried about it and just prepare for the Olympics.”