Lauryn Williams was robbed.
There. I said it, and what's more, I wholeheartedly believe it. Lauryn Williams should not have been the 2007 World Championships 100 meter silver medalist. She should not have been forced to play bridesmaid to Jamaican Veronica Campbell. No. If you ask me, there should have been two gold medalists in that epic women's 100 meter dash final in Osaka, not a gold and a silver. And if you don't believe me, take a look at the photo-finish ( http://osaka2007.iaaf.org/images/photofinish/3653/W_100_f_1.jpg) and tell me if you can honestly and without bias truly pick the winner - I can't.
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Now before I go any further, let me state that although I may be an American, Campbell is actually one of my favorite athletes competing today, and certainly ranks in my top-5 favorite sprinters of all time. She is a 100% class act, an amazing athlete, one who has demonstrated amazing persistence and longevity in this demanding sport. She burst onto the world scene in '99 in Poland, winning the World Youth 100m title, before dominating both the 100m and 200m events at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Chile.
In 2004, Campbell won gold in Athens, showcasing her ability as she rocketed around the half-lap that is the 200-meter event and dominating her competition. Since then, a slew of world-leading performances and international titles - all garnered while maintaining a highly charismatic yet low-key personality - has helped solidify her position, at least in my mind, as one of the great female sprinters of our generation.
However, when I watched that 2007 World Championship 100 meter final live, courtesy of WCSN.com, two things ran through my head. One, that I had just seen one of the greatest 100 meter races that I would ever have the honor of witnessing, and two, why is it that our society refuses to accept a tie? It's not just the IAAF - although they are the ones responsible in this case - but indeed it is every single governing body in professional sport and the vast majority of the fans who refuse to see the validity and even beauty of a dead-heat finish.
Yet apparently I am virtually alone in my love for this most singular aspect of sport. In my estimation, a tie in an event represents the pinnacle of athleticism and desire. Picture it: two athletes or teams giving more than they believed possible in that one moment, yet each still unable to conquer the other. Neither giving an inch nor showing a sign of weakness: to me, that is athletic perfection at its finest, but for the majority of the sporting world, it is far too mundane and un-glorious to accept. Michael Johnson, quite possibly the greatest competitor of all time in the sprint events, once said that "pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity".
So what greater pressure is there than giving your all, fifteen meters from the line, and rather than finding your opponent breathing down your neck or being left in your dust, seeing them completely in line with you, straining just as hard and with every single fiber of their being to overcome you? What greater opportunity - not the opportunity for victory or defeat, but rather for the purest manifestation of physical and mental strength, the most courageous testing of the limits of the human body and the most awe inspiring of performances.
Is it so hard to believe that there is not always a winner? That sometimes, two people or teams are so perfectly and evenly matched that on any given day, there simply will be no singular victor? It is a rare occasion to be sure, and one that may never be experienced by many. Yet I remain positive that I witnessed just such an indefectible and pure moment just the other night, and that while so many fans refuse to admit it, they too witnessed the same perfection and beauty within that race between these two titans of sport.