Kidney transplant Merritt eyes Rio Olympics and...Hollywood
Just 248 days after he underwent a kidney transplant, Olympic gold medallist Aries Merritt will on Friday take part in the first Diamond League meeting of the season.
The 30-year-old American will be taking his first steps in international competition since his life-changing surgery and, he hopes, the beginning of a path which leads to the Rio Olympics in August and maybe even defending the 110m hurdles title he won at London.
"If I won, it would just be a movie for sure," Merritt, who is also the current world record holder in his event, told AFP.
As well as a movie, if he did take gold in Brazil it could well rank as one of the greatest comeback stories in sporting history.
"Even if I make the team it will still be a huge story, no one in history has ever had a kidney transplant and competed in the same calender year," he says.
"I would be the first person ever. What I am attempting is pretty much the impossible."
Merritt's problems began in 2013 at the World Championships in Moscow.
In good form before the meeting, Merritt found himself struggling in the heats, eventually finishing sixth in the final.
"I got there (Moscow) and I couldn't finish my race and I am really good at championships, I am a championship runner," he says.
"I went home and I was sick."
He was sicker than he could have imagined.
After a series of medical tests, he was diagnosed as having a genetic disorder, Collapsing Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis.
Or, as Merritt calls it, "some weird, long, over-the-top name".
Basically, he says, his immune system was attacking his kidney.
At first, he thought it would be easily treatable, but as his health declined and his form continued to suffer, a transplant became the only option.
However, he did not go public with his illness, leading to speculation other forces might be at play.
"I thought it would be like anything else and it would pass over time and I would be back to my normal self," he said.
"There had been speculation that I was on drugs, that I was not running well because I was not on drugs anymore.
"Obviously if I was not on drugs I would have tested positive a long time ago, but that was not the case. I was going through life issues not drugs issues."
He found a kidney match through his sister LaToya -- "She came to me. She knew I needed a transplant. There was no doubt, no hesitation in her mind."
The operation went ahead on September 1 and he returned to training on December 20.
Now everything is geared towards qualifying for Rio.
He calculates he is some two months behind in terms of fitness where he should usually be at this stage of the season.
Last week, in his first race since surgery he clocked a time of 13:61 secs. His world record is 12:80 secs.
- No limits in Rio -
In July, when the US trials for the Olympics take place in Eugene, Oregon, Merritt aims to be one of the three hurdlers selected.
"I am very confident that by July that I will be in really good shape, because in July I am always in very good form," he says.
And if he did qualify?
"There's never any limitation once you are there, special things happen at the Games. As I said before, I am a championship runner.
"I am not saying I could win gold but there's a possibility should I make the team."
First though, he adds, "you have got to make the sidewalk to Eugene (for the US trials) before the road to Rio".
Even then, his health issues may not be over as he been told to take extra care because of the mosquito-borne Zika virus and his susceptibility to disease.
"I am on immuno-suppressant medication and I am on this medication for life," says Merritt.
"Every day, like a cocktail of pills, almost like seven pills in the morning, 5 pills at night daily, like for life."