“10 Sense” with Angela Williams

The  outdoor season is already here and PreRaceJitters.com caught up with Angela Williams to discuss life on the track circuit and her thoughts on track and field.  The 2007 World Indoor 60 meter champion lives up to her reputation of breaking the sport down.

10 things straight from Angela Williams.

Let’s talk about family. If you are going on vacation, you go with your family members and friends, right?  To those who do not know, it may seem like a vacation, but things couldn’t be further from the truth.  In reality, life on the road can be stressful and even lonely at times.  I’m very close to my family, so it is difficult being away from them for long periods of time.

It’s a blessing to be able to travel the world and meet so many people. The journey opens your mind to new ideas and traditions.  But sometimes on the road, it’s about small luxuries such as as getting a good internet connection to make Skype phone calls to friends and family in the United States

I pretty much live out of a suitcase in Europe.  We travel to compete in a new country about every 2 to 3 days and we end up dragging our huge bags from hotel room to hotel room.  I don’t waste the time unpacking, because we  are not in one place for too long.  During indoors, I was really fortunate because as the the reigning world champion, I had my own room and didn’t have to deal with having a roommate.  Normally, we get assigned a new roommate at each meet and if you don’t already have someone that you like to room with on the circuit.

The airline travel is crazy. Seriously. The airlines and their restrictions are ridiculous!  Everything from the liquid issue to penalties for overweight bags can make things tricky. When athletes are to be gone for months sometimes, one bag is not going to cut it - especially for a women.  Any airlines fees occurred on flights to compete in Europe comes out of the athletes pocket. You always have to be ready for something when going to the airport and we’re constantly praying that we’ll even get our bags on the other side, because they are good for losing a bag!

Track and field is a tough sport. We rely on our bodies to hold up to the hard training and competing.  The slightest ache or pain can prevent us from competing to the best of our abilities. There is no room to hide when your having an off day because track and field is an individual sport.  I tell you what, if you can survive in this game you will have learned a lot.  Being a professional track athlete has taught me to appreciate the small things and to be flexible.

I truly wish that track and field had a union.  An advocate is needed to fight for our rights. For example, as things current stand, the athlete’s do not have a pension meaning we have to make sure to save money for retirement.  And except for a select few athletes - a lot of the track and field athletes do not have health insurance through the sport.  Hopefully we can get one together very soon.

I usually bring a bunch of movies and tv series to make time pass on the road.  Sometimes I read or play video games on my Nintendo DS.  When we hit a city, I like to sightsee, take pictures and of course go shopping.  I look for key chains because I collect them from every city that I visit.

The pro circuit has changed from when I first started running pro.  When I graduated from USC, I learned a lot from the old school about surviving on the circuit and for the most part everyone was friends. At the time, athletes would hang out together in the lobby or in someone’s room playing games.  Today, everyone pretty much tends to stick with their groups. It’s a cordial environment but generally athletes do not hang out.  The new generation athletes tend stay in their rooms playing on the internet or talking on the phones. But hey everything changes, so this is one of them.

Barack Obama is a shot caller.  I think it is fantastic that we have President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.  This is an important piece of history that I have witnessed and it brought hope to many. He is a reminder that change may take a while but it will come.  I like the fact that President Obama is straight-forward and doesn’t try to sugar coat things.  I especially appreciated that he reminds people that if we want change that it will come with hard work. It’s going to take time to clean up their economic mess.  I pray that he stays strong and remains true to himself, his beliefs and does not get swept up into the role as President of the United States.

The sport’s television coverage needs to be upgraded.  We need positive exposure to build this sport back up and simply put the vision needs to be expanded.  I thought of a track and field reality show that would follow a group around and show their world. My idea involves taking athletes from different events and training camps and put them on an island or house somewhere. I would come up with fun team competitions like those seen on MTV’s Road Rules vs. Real World.  We could build teams of athletes from East Coast vs. West Coast athletes.  It would give fans a different environment to see athletes having fun and showing their personalities.   That will help viewers from getting bored with the some old interviews.

I am one of those people who has their hands in a lot of things.  My mind is always thinking of new ideas and things that need to be done.  I don’t like to sit down for too long because feel like I am missing something or could be getting stuff done. One of my main concerns right now, is hiring new employees for my athletic training business.  We focus on having energetic trainers, who are great motivators and enjoy working with all ages. I been placing job ads online.  I’ve also been reaching out to businesses seeking equipment donations and things like that for the gym. It’s a win, win situation for everyone involved because the donations are tax write offs for companies.  Oh yeah, I am also finishing my masters degree and figuring out what I want to do as a career after track.

I have many interests, so I am trying to narrow them down at the moment, but in the mean time it’s back to the track for practice.

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