FanHouse Tyson Gay

BERLIN -- Usain Bolt crossed the finish line, saw his record-setting time on the clock and spread his arms as if he were soaring like a bird.

About all this guy can't do is fly. And by saving his celebration until after the finish line this time, he showed how fast a man really can go on two feet.

The Jamaican shattered the world record again Sunday, running 100 meters in 9.58 seconds at the world championships to turn his much-anticipated race against Tyson Gay into a one-man show.

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Jamaica's Usain Bolt ran the 200 meters in 19.67 seconds today in Athens, the fastest 200 time this year.

That, combined with his world record in the 100 meters and the failure of Tyson Gay to qualify in the 200, makes Bolt a favorite to win gold medals in both sprints in Beijing. If he does, he'll be the ninth man to win both the 100 and the 200 meters. The complete list of sprinters who have won the 100 and 200 is below.

Bernard Lagat already has a solid track and field resume, having won the bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2000 Olympics, and the silver in 2004.

Lagat won those medals for Kenya, but he's now an American, and at the U.S. Olympic trials he won both the 1,500 and the 5,000. (As Jere Longman of the New York Times notes, all three U.S. Olympians in the men's 1,500 meters are immigrants: Lagat from Kenya, Leonel Manzano from Mexico and Lopez Lomong from Sudan.)

Winning the 1,500 and the 5,000 made Lagat the only double winner at the track trials, and he has a good chance at winning gold in both in Beijing. Tyson Gay was expected to emerge from the trials as the biggest star in American track, but his fall in the 200 meters prevented him from matching Lagat's double win. In six weeks, Lagat may be America's top track star.

A day after falling down, injuring his hamstring and having to be carted off the track during the 200-meter Olympic trials, American sprinter Tyson Gay insisted he'll be just fine in time to run the 100 meters and the 4 x 100-meter relay in Beijing.

"I'll be 100 percent for the 100 and 400 relay," Gay said.

That's good news for Gay, for the fans, for Team USA, for track and field and for the Olympic Games. The 100-meter final between Gay and Jamaica's Usain Bolt should be one of the most exciting competitions of the Olympiad, and it would be a real shame if an injury derailed that competition. Fortunately, It sounds like Gay's hamstring strain won't slow him down.

American sprinter Tyson Gay fell during the 200-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic trials today and was carted off the track, preventing him from qualifying for Beijing in the 200 and perhaps putting the 100 meters in doubt as well.

Gay was the world champion in both the 100 and the 200 last year, and he was expected to compete for golds in both events at this year's Olympics. Now his entire focus will go toward recuperating from what appears to be a hamstring strain in time to run the 100.

If Gay can't run in Beijing, it would be a major blow not just for him but for the Olympic Games and the sport of track and field. His showdown with Jamaican world record holder Usain Bolt was expected to be one of the marquee events of the Olympiad, and right now it's not clear whether Gay will be ready to go.

It's going to be an embarrassing day at the office for people who get their news from the Christian web site One News Now. The water cooler conversation about sports is going to get awkward when they say, "Did you see the record set by Tyson Homosexual?"

Yes, One News Now, which describes itself as providing "your latest news from a Christian perspective," calls the Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay "Tyson Homosexual."

Jim Buzinski of Outsports explains that the site has set a filter to change the word "gay" to "homosexual," and they don't bother to look at the context of the story before applying the filter. And that's how Gay became Homosexual.

Tyson Gay won the 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic trials today in a blistering 9.68 seconds. It's the fastest any human has ever covered that distance, although it will not go down as a world record because there was a strong wind at Gay's back.

"My start was a little off, but I knew it was going to be a fast time," Gay said after the race. "The wind was picking up, the crowd was great, and I just had to run to the finish line."

Joining Gay in Beijing will be Walter Dix, who finished second in 9.80, and Darvis Patton, who came in third in 9.84.

Gay's run comes on the heels of the 9.77-second 100-meter dash he ran yesterday, and sets him up for an epic Olympic showdown with Jamaica's world record-holder, Usain Bolt. The 100 final in Beijing will be a can't-miss event.

The United States and Jamaica both had their Olympic track and field trials Saturday, meaning the three top contenders to win the 100 meters in Beijing were in action. American Tyson Gay put on the day's best showing.

Gay set a new American record by running the 100 in 9.77 seconds, an especially amazing time considering that it was just a quarterfinal heat, and he slowed down over his last few steps. If he had gone full speed through the finish line, he might have broken the world record of 9.72 seconds.

That world record is owned by Jamaica's Usain Bolt, who won his country's Olympic trial today with a time of 9.85 seconds. Although that's blazing speed, it's actually somewhat disappointing compared to the way Bolt has been running this year. And Bolt's countryman, Asafa Powell, turned in a very disappointing (by his standards) time of 9.97 in finishing second to Bolt.

Bolt and Powell will represent Jamaica in Beijing, while Gay still has to run in Sunday's semifinal and final before he even qualifies for the Olympics. But even though Bolt and Powell have both recorded faster times than Gay's 9.77, Gay looked today like the favorite to bring home the gold in two months.

The Olympic movement is based on stacking the greatest athletes in the world against each other on the fairest of playing fields -- no steroids, no advantages. You would think the 100 meter dash would have to be among the most fair competitions going (steroids aside of course). But according to the New Scientist, advantages are given to runners on the inside track.

Sound from the starter's gun is known to take longer to reach athletes who start from the outside lanes than their competitors on the inside. Now a new study suggests that competitors nearest the gun have another advantage – the loudness of the bang shocks them into starting more quickly.

Together, these extra boosts may amount to more than a tenth of a second in some races, which is easily enough to make the difference between gold and silver.

According to the article, racing officials are aware of the discrepancy and are looking to adjust the problem in the future but do not plan to make any changes before the Olympics in Beijing in August.

The U.S. is expected to send one of their best track and field teams ever to Beijing with reigning 100 meter champion Tyson Gay a legit contender for gold.

[h/t kottke.org]

At next year's Olympics, Tyson Gay will be the favorite to win the gold medal in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He's a year away from becoming a household name.

But today the NCAA announced that it is stripping Arkansas of its 2004 and 2005 track and field national championships over recruiting violations, and those violations center on Gay.

Arkansas made clear in its statement that it thinks this is more a Tyson Gay problem than an Arkansas problem:

"As we previously acknowledged, the violations in this case primarily involved a rogue former assistant coach and one student-athlete over a short period of time," said Chancellor John A. White. "We are disappointed with the penalties imposed by the infractions committee and believe they are disproportionate to the violations."

The fact is, though, that Arkansas is the place that hired the "rogue former assistant," Lance Brauman, who was convicted last year of embezzlement, theft and mail fraud. And Arkansas is the place that put Brauman in charge of recruiting Gay, who transferred to Arkansas from Barton County Community College in Kansas, where Brauman coached him. Arkansas has admitted to "failure to monitor" Brauman.

At the Arkansas Times Blog, Max Brantley says: "Sweeping stuff under the rug -- out-of-control boosters, unethical coaches, text- and e-mail-happy football partisans -- seems to be a specialty of the powers that be in Fayetteville. Is anybody up there ever held accountable?"