The Journal News from Hamilton, Ohio • 41

OLYMPIC SPORTS EUGENE ORE A xed to the right door of the black refrigerator in the kitchen of the Allen home in Phoenix is a laminated white sheet of paper. Louis Allen, father of Devon Allen, put it there after reading a book about the power of goal-setting. Louis Allen is an engineer with some life coach mixed in, and he always has a supply of motivational techniques and tenets at hand. You pick who competing against or the weather he will say. Or the family motto, Adversity build character, it exposes it So one day when his youngest children entered high school, Louis Allen stuck placards on their refrigerator for Devon and his twin sister, Carissa.

Under the header there were three columns: Short Term, This Year, Next Five Years. All three would sit down every ear around the Christmas holidays and write down new goals. had to do with being able to ocus on detailsand just refocus our Louis Allen said. a rm believer in if you focus on oals, you can accomplish chart is stained with ed smudges where one goal after another has been reached and wiped away. Only one remains.

I actually gave him a picture of it about three or four months Louis Allen said. to remind him, put that goal in front of AT EASE AMONG ELITE On Friday, Devon Allen will be at Hayward Field, where he trains for the University of Oregon track and team and where last month he won his second NCAA championship in the 110-meter hurdles, for his race in his U.S. Olympic track and trials. It is less than 2miles from where he trains and plays college football. Allen, a wide receiver, plans to return to the football team by late August but ideally not sooner.

No.1 goal right now is to go to the said Matt Lubick, ensive coordinator and position coach. we can get him back, be jacked, but a once-in- a-lifetime Allen has the time of any U.S. man in the 110 outdoor hurdles in 2016, his outdoor season since tearing his anterior cruciate ligament at the start of the Rose Bowl in 2015. He had ectively announced his arrival on the senior scene with a title the previous summer, when he won the 110 hurdles in the USATF outdoor championships in a wind-aided 13.16 seconds. And he had done so at the early age of 19; the second- and third-place were more than a decade older than him.

very mature for being 21 years old, I said Mark Helfrich, football coach. you look at the age of the other competitors in the hurdles and certainly the guys be going against, 30 years old and much more experienced guys, but he is one of those, whatever that phrase is, wise beyond your years type of Allen said, hurdling demographic seems to be getting a little bit older, like the really elite And right. The U.S. hurdler with the best time this year, David Oliver, is 34. Aries Merritt, the reigning Olympic champ and world recordholder, is 30, as is Jason Richardson.

Ryan Wilson, the U.S. champion in 2013, is 35. The man with the second-best time this year, Ronnie Ash, is 28, and Jarret Eaton, who has the fourth-fastest time, is 27. OREGON OK WITH TWO-SPORT PL AY Allen says he has occasional ilioti- ial (IT) band issues in his left nee, so he works to combat ightness by stretching, using a oller at home and seeing an acupuncturist. always ask me, are you ack to he said.

like, well, you can say that, but my knee feel the same as it did two years ago. It feels good, but I feel exactly the same. good. going to come into play in the 110 hurdles. think I am the fastest The ability to prevent pain from interfering with performance is another area two-sport status is to his As he said, is one of those things that nobody is really Louis Allen remembers a parent telling him during his freshman year at Brophy Prep, is going to have to make a Louis Allen said, understand you want him to be successful, but the reality of it is, why does he have to make a choice? Until he has to make a choice, going to support him doing both Unlike other schools that recruited Allen, such as Texas, Oregon forced Allen to make a choice, and it The topic was addressed during his recruitment, and no position has changed not Al- not not track and eld coach Robert ohnson, who along with Helf- ich credits the shared trength and conditioning coach im Radcli for the collabora- success, said, require alot; we require a lot.

So being able to nd that balance to put evon in the best position to be successful, a unique conundrum in itself because we as coaches football coaches, basketball coaches, track coaches, golf coaches, no matter what it is are greedy. We all want more. And so no di erent between Coach Helfrich and myself. does a good job in handling Helfrich said, lot of times when people talk about two-sport athletes or potential two-sport situations, something gives, something is been a great give and take for both of us. This last push to the trials has been With the competition that will step to the starting line with him, the trials will be a huge challenge.

They also are the conduit to the remaining goal on the refrigerator at home in Phoenix. It was added when Allen sat down to write his goals around Christmas 2012, during his senior year of high school. Allen crossed out the word in Five and replaced it with Then he wrote below it, FOOTBALL ON BACK BURNER Oregon receiver A llen has shot go to Rio Daniel Uthman USA TODAY Sports KIRBY LEE, USA TODAY SPORTS Devon Allen, center, won the Pac-12 Conference 110-meter hurdles and the NCAA outdoor hurdles title in June. SCOTT OLMOS, USA TODAY SPORTS is one of those wise beyond your years type of says Oregon football coach Mark Helfrich about Devon Allen, above. With 30 days until the opening of the Summer Olympics in Rio, the concerns that have long overshadowed the Games linger.

The yriad issues from water pollution to political strife are unlikely to be resolved before or by he Games. a look at a few of the problems plaguing the Rio Olympics as we move toward the opening ceremony Aug. 5. ika virus: The mosquito- borne illness that has spread to 61 ountries and territories has dominated pre-Olympics conc erns even as organizers er assurances of the spread eing limited in the Brazilian winter. Zika has been found to cause microcephaly, a birth def ect causing smaller-than-normal eads and developmental delays, a nd neurological disorders.

hile national Olympic com- ittees are ering means to prevent spread of the disease such as long-sleeved shirts and pants and insect repellant some athletes have decided not to compete in Rio because of concerns about the virus. Golfers Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day are among the most athletes to skip a trip to the Olympics. Construction: Rio organizers took control of the velodrome, hose construction has been beset by repeated delays and contract disputes, on June 26, a ccording to the Associated Press. While cyclists can use the track, more work needs to be done on the venue, which be able to ost races until the Games start. Anew metro line linking the lympic venues and beaches to the main Olympic center in the outhwest part of the city is not completed and not expected to pen until Aug.

1. Water pollution: Testing by the AP found alarmingly high lev- ls of viruses and bacteria in wa- er where sports such as sailing, owing, canoeing and open-water wimming will be held. Research- rs also have found a super bacteria in coastal waters, CNN reported. Rowers, sailors and other athletes are taking precautions such as washing down oars while training and competing in Rio. Unrest: Brazil itself in the middle of its worst economic recession in decades, with the state government declaring a state of to call for emergency actions to avoid a collapse in safety, health, ducation, transport and environmental Interim President Michel emer took over in May as President Dilma Roussef awaits an impeachment trial.

The impact of that on the Games is largely seen a only ceremonial in who opens them Aug. 5. iolence remains a problem in the city, where Units of Pacifying olice have tried with mixed results to control violence and the rug trade in the favelas Doping: Easily the biggest issue at the Games not controlled the host city, doping remains a ocus of the International Olymp ic Committee, sports federa- ions and athletes. The Interna- ional Association of Athletics Federations extended a ban that ill keep track and athletes from competing, concluding the country had not done enough to clean up state-spon- ored doping that was revealed in aWorld Anti-Doping Agency in- ependent report in late 2015. The IAAF left the door open or some athletes to apply for exceptional eligibility if they could how they had been subject to anti-doping controls in another country and had not been tainted the Russian system.

While the I AAF said any athletes who met hose criteria would compete und er a neutral IOC President homas Bach has said they would compete under the Russian ag. hat disagreement is unresolved. Runner Yuliya Stepanova, the whistleblower who brought forward evidence of doping in Russ ian athletics, was the rst granted such eligibility. The IOC as not said whether it will allow her to compete in Rio. he IAAF said 80 Russian athletes have for exceptional el- i gibility.

That number far exceeds the few IAAF cials said would likely the criteria. The Russian lympic Committee also has hallenged the ban in the Court Arbitration for Sport, accord- i ng to the AP. One month until Games, concerns linger in Rio Zika, doping part the uncertainty Rachel Axon USA TODAY Sports RVR PHOTOS VIA USA TODAY SPORTS The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue looms large over Rio..