Perdita Felicien celebrates winning gold in the 100m Hurdles at the 2003 IAAF World Championships (© Getty Images)
Although she is the reigning World 100m Hurdles champion Canadian Perdita Felicien is undoubtedly entering a new chapter in her young career and it is forward she is looking not reverse.
As the Canadian flag was run up the pole in the Stade de France last August Canadian journalists scrambled to look up her biography, so astonishing was her victory. Now she is, shall we say, much more familiar.
Last month she was named Canadian Female Athlete of the Year which meant being asked to do countless interviews and television appearances. Nevertheless, this 23 year old seems well grounded.
Priority one is the World Indoor Championships
Having retained Renaldo Nehemiah of Octagon Sports Management to handle the business side of her career - she wisely accepted the $60,000 US prize money for her Paris victory thus terminating her NCAA collegiate career - Felicien is now looking to explore her true talents on the European circuit. Priority one is the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, 5 - 7 March 2004.
"I am a good 60m runner. I think that I am,"she responds when asked to rate her chances in Budapest. "I am definitely a better 100m hurdler than I am a 60m hurdler because the first phase of my race is not my strongest. But going into the World championships I think also the goal would be to be World Indoor champion as well, and to use the 60m Hurdles just to get my outdoor race better."
"My goals have to be high now. My goals can¹t be easy ones like they had been in college. My goals really have to challenge me so that I feel I have accomplished something when I get there. I think everyone¹s goal is to win. You¹re not running to be second best. You¹re not running to be mediocre. You are running to be an Olympic gold medallist. You are running to be a champion."
"So my main goals are to progress like I have been. I am not going to put too much emphasis on winning because, again, I am only 23 and I have a lot to learn. I have never been in this system before. And so I think I am going to go through some growing pains but I certainly believe I can handle everything that is going to come my way this year."
"I don't fizzle under pressure"
The leap from NCAA champion to being the best in the world is an enormous one. As a collegiate athlete at the University of Illinois she was expected to peak twice a year - in March and in June. That meant sacrificing her international career to some extent. Between the NCAA championships and Paris she raced a handful of times only. Already she has consulted with coach Gary Winckler and Illiinois assistant Tanja Buford-Bailey, who knows a thing or two about hurdling herself, about how best to approach the indoor season as well as the Olympics.
"I know intense competition is going to bring the best out of me. I have always prided myself on being a big meet performer. I have proven I can deliver, I don¹t fizzle under pressure," she declares.
"So I have made it a point not to focus on the money or the purse or "I have to run this meet because of what the prize will be" I want it to be part of my Olympic campaign."
"And if it doesn¹t fit in I am not going to try to fit it in because I am going to get paid 'x' amount of Euros. If that means running only twice a week and only being in Europe for two weeks and then going home because it¹s part of the plan then that's fine."
Unchangable
Felicien graduates from Illinois this spring with a degree in Kinesiology and for all intents and purposes she remains the joyful college student buzzing from class to class on her well worn ten speed bike. Though she can well afford a car she claims she really has no need of one. She also shares an off campus apartment with the same roommate.
Win or lose in Budapest and Athens one senses that Canada¹s latest athletics hero will remain unchanged.
