Sanya Richards, the world woman athlete of 2006, has begun a campaign that would enable her to target four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing next year. If she succeeds, the United States sprinter would earn a place in history alongside legends such as Fanny Blankers-Koen, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis, all of whom achieved four victories at a single Olympics.

Through her national governing body, USA Track & Field (USATF), Richards has applied to the IAAF for a timetable change that would allow her to attempt the feat at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, this summer. It will be rejected because it has come too late, but her wish is likely to be granted for the Olympics.

Richards was unbeaten at 400 metres last season and, at 21, she also finished the year as the world No 3 at 200 metres. Although she has not raced at 100 metres since 2003, she plans to run the distance this season with a view to qualifying for the US relay teams at 4 x 100 metres and 4 x 400 metres in Osaka.

Asked whether winning four gold medals was a realistic aim, either in Osaka or Beijing, Richards said: “I really think so. This year I am going to run some 100 metres races and hopefully run the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 in Osaka. If the 200 metres [timetable request] does not work out, I would love to have the opportunity to run both relays. If the 200 works out, I will have the opportunity to run in four events.”

The schedule for Osaka lists the first two rounds of the 200 metres on the day of, and before, the 400 metres final. It is similar for Beijing.

Pierre Weiss, the IAAF secretary, said that a letter is on its way to the USATF rejecting the request for Osaka, but Sandro Giovannelli, the IAAF competitions director, said that the technical committee is “open and ready” to alter the timetable for Beijing.

While several athletes have won three golds, none has completed an Olympic quadruple at 100, 200 and both relays. Blankers-Koen, who did the 100/200 double and won gold in the 4 x 100 metres and 80 metres hurdles, did not have the chance because the longer relay was not introduced until 1972. Lewis and Owens won gold in the 100, 200, 4 x 100 and long jump.

The record for the number of victories at one Olympics belongs to Paavo Nurmi, the Finn who won three individual and two team golds in 1924.

In Sydney in 2000, Marion Jones’s famous “Drive For Five” resulted in three golds (at 100, 200 and 4 x 400 metres) and two bronzes (at the 4 x 100 metres and long jump).

Only three athletes — Valerie Brisco-Hooks, from the US, Marie-José Pérec, from France, and Michael Johnson, from the US — have accomplished the 200/400 metres double and Clyde Hart, who coached Johnson, trains Richards. He also coaches Jeremy Wariner, the Olympic 400 metres champion, and wants him to have the option, too, to attempt the individual double in Beijing.

“The IOC does not get it that the 200/400 should be separated, that to do the overlap makes no sense,” Hart said. “It has been proven by Pérec and by Michael. The Olympic champion should be the best in that event, not because somebody else could not run it.

“They do not do that to the 100-metre kids — they do not pull the 200 into the middle of the 100. They do not throw a 1,500 into the middle of the 800. The Olympic Games are a big enough schedule that the 200 and 400 can be separated.”

Fixed television schedules and advance ticket sales prevent the IAAF from making changes for Osaka, but it is not too late to recommend alterations for Beijing to the IOC. It was done for Johnson in the 1996 Olympics after he had completed the 200/400 double at the 1995 World Championships. Richards won the 200 and 400 metres at the World Cup in Athens in October, albeit in straight finals.

“We have changed programmes in the past, but it was for Olympic champions, world champions or world record holders,” Weiss said. “All the athletes have already started their preparations according to the existing schedule.”

Olympic highs

72: Oldest medal-winner, Oscar Swahn, who took silver for Sweden in team double-shot running deer shooting in Antwerp in 1920

9: Greatest number of track and field gold medals won by one athlete, shared by Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi

4: Most golds won in one day, by Vitaly Scherbo, from Belarus, in gymnastics at Barcelona Games in 1992