Lauryn, the extra-natural

if you saw Lauryn Williams on the street, you wouldn8217;t think she was the reigning world champion in the 100-meter sprint. But the 5-foot-3, 127-pound Williams has always been faster than bigger, taller athletes; in elementary school, she outran boys five and six years her senior. 8220;That8217;s when I started to know I had talent,8221; the 23-year-old Williams says. At 20, she won the silver medal in the 100-meter dash at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The next year she earned gold at the World Championships, a title she8217;ll defend this August in Osaka. So how is it that someone so small can run so fast?

Because she had short legs and an unorthodox technique, Williams wasn8217;t heavily recruited out of high school. But the women8217;s track coach at the University of Miami, Amy Deem, saw her potential. The two have worked together ever since. 8220;She had frequency,8221; Deem says, referring to Williams8217;s high stride rate. Most elite female sprinters take about 4.6 steps per second; Williams takes 4.9. What separates Williams from the pack is her ability to get her feet off the ground quickly. 8220;The difference between not making the Olympic team in the sprints and making the team is a ground time of less than a hundredth of a second,8221; says Ralph Mann, who studies runners8217; biomechanics for USA Track and Field. Williams reminds Mann of five-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson. 8220;The coaches call them freaks,8221; Mann says. 8220;If I want to decrease my ground time, I want to get very, very powerful so I can explode off the ground,8221; Mann says. So in the off-season, Williams builds strength. Squats and bench presses prepare her to burst out of the blocks and drive through each step. As the season approaches, she shifts to lighter weights to work on quickness. Her muscles, like those of most speed athletes, have a high percentage of fast-twitch fibers, which contract the muscles faster. 8220;The slow-twitch fibers take longer to reach their peak tension, whereas the faster ones can peak really fast,8221; says Dr Bob Adams, the head of USA Track and Field8217;s sports medicine committee.

None of this matters, though, without the requisite mental toughness, which would seem like a given but isn8217;t. A sprinter8217;s 8220;talent is very fragile, and it requires tremendous dedication,8221; says Ralph Vernacchia, a performance consultant. 8220;She8217;s, very competitive, and that8217;s what sets her apart in a lot of ways.8221; Well, that and pride. 8220;I just couldn8217;t be out there losing with everybody in the whole country watching,8221; said Williams.