Suffolk’s Merritt is headed to the Olympic Games

By Titus Mohler
Correspondent

Suffolk resident and Portsmouth native LaShawn Merritt saw consistent hard work pay off when he won Olympic gold twice in 2008. After placing first in the 400 meters in Sunday’s Olympic Trials, he looks to continue his winning ways in London.

Merritt won the 400-meter race at the last Olympics in Beijing with his best-ever time of 43.75 seconds. It was nearly a whole second faster than his nearest competitor. Merritt described what went into this result.

“It was just hard work,” he said. “I was successful and was working hard the whole year. So, it was just a matter of getting to Beijing. I had the plan. The plan was to run the rounds smart, get to the finals, and put a great race together.”

He executed that plan in 2010, first in the 400 and then again in the 4×400-meter relay, where he combined efforts with fellow Olympians Angelo Taylor, David Neville and Jeremy Wariner for another gold. “We just wanted to bring that home for the U.S,” Merritt said.

Merritt provides some insight into the life of an Olympic-level athlete.

“You sign up to become a professional athlete, so that’s mentally, spiritually, and physically,” he said. “You have to take care of your body. On this level, everybody is talented and blessed with a gift. But you have to definitely really work hard at what you do, understand what you’re doing, and have a mental toughness about it.”

He notes that it is very important to not get caught up thinking about what another gold medal could do for his legacy.

“Once you get on a certain level and you start thinking about all of those things, you can kind of lose yourself in that,” he said. “At this level, it’s a matter of staying in the moment. You get to these big things, you can’t worry about tomorrow or yesterday. Just (be) in the moment and focus on what you came to do.”

But being in the moment requires significant preparation prior to the moment.

“You choose to do this, and you know what comes with it — the hard work, the studying of the film, the diet,” he said. “So, you just have to stay hungry.”

Some things have changed for him since 2008, Merritt said.

“Mentally, (I’m) a lot stronger,” he said. “Before, I was focused in a way, but this time I have another level of focus. I’m deeper into the event. I’m really becoming a student of the event. Just like anything, anybody who’s the top of their craft becomes a student of it. If you’re not a student of what you’re doing, how can you expect to be the best?”

Even though the location is different from four years ago, Merritt sees nothing unfamiliar.

“I don’t think it’ll be different, just because the track’s not going to change,” he said. “It’s 400 meters — this is what I love to do, this is what I was blessed to do, so it’s just a matter of going and executing my race, whether it be a backyard meet or an Olympic Games.”

Merritt sums up what the Olympic Games mean to him.

“It’s being in an environment where you have the best in the world in all of these sports, but at the end of the day, you’re still going there to run 400 meters,” he said. “So you go in with a plan to take it a round at a time and handle your business. You train for this 400 every day. It’s nothing new, it’s just more people watching, so show up and be confident and do what you’ve been doing all year.”

Merritt will get his chance to do that in about a month, when he competes in the 400-meter race and 4×400 meter relay at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.