BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Tyson Gay born August 9, 1982 is an American track and field sprint athlete who competes in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. His 100 m personal best of 9.69 seconds is the American record and makes him the second fastest athlete ever. His 200 m time of 19.58 makes him the fifth fastest athlete in that event.
Gay has won numerous medals in major international competitions, including a gold medal sweep of the 100 m, 200 m and 4×100-meter relay at the2007 Osaka World Championships. This made him the second man to win all three events at the same World Championships, after Maurice Greene(Usain Bolt duplicated the feat two years later). Gay is a four-time U.S. champion in the 100 m.
At the 2008 Olympic Trials, he ran 9.68 seconds in the 100 m, then the fastest time in history, but was prevented from becoming a world record because it was wind assisted. Days after he suffered a severe hamstring injury in the 200 m trials. The injury persisted and contributed to his failure to win a single medal at the Beijing Olympics.
His performance of 9.71 seconds to win the 100 m silver medal in the 2009 World Championships is the fastest non-winning time for the event. At the2012 Summer Olympics he ran 9.80 in the 100 m final, but finished fourth, making him the fastest non-medalist in Olympic history. He won his first Olympic medal, a silver, with an American record run of 37.04 seconds in the 2012 Olympic 4×100 m relay final.
As a participant in the US Anti-Doping Agency's "Project Believe" program, Gay is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean of performance-enhancing drugs. He is a two-time winner of the Jesse Owens Award and was the 2007 IAAF World Athlete of the Year.
Born on August 9, 1982 in Lexington, Kentucky, Tyson Gay is the only son of Daisy Gay and Greg Mitchell.Athletic prowess was part of family life; Gay's grandmother ran for Eastern Kentucky University and his mother Daisy also competed in her youth, though she was pregnant with her first child by her early teens. Gay's older sister, Tiffany, was a keen sprinter and had a successful high school career. Tiffany and Tyson Gay, encouraged by their mother, raced at every opportunity, training hard at school and on the hills in their neighborhood. There was strong competition between the two, and Gay later said that his sister's quick reaction time inspired him to improve.
Amateur career
Although Gay tended to be a slow starter on the track, he worked hard to improve and broke the Lafayette High School stadium record for the 200 meters. Under the tutelage of Ken Northington, a former 100 yard dash state champion, Gay began working on his technique and rhythm. By his senior year he was a more composed athlete and he focused on the 100 meters, winning the state championship in the event and setting a new championship record of 10.60 s. In spite of this, his mother noted that he was not fully applying himself and was taking his abilities for granted. Gay was also not a studious child and he failed to achieve the grades needed to enter a Division I sports college. However, the Kentucky High School State Championships in June 2001 demonstrated his abilities: he won gold in the 100 m, setting a new personal best and state record with 10.46 s, a record which stands to this day. In the 200 m he took silver with another new personal best of 21.23 s. At a 2001 track event, Gay met trainer Lance Brauman and the college coach convinced him to attend Barton County Community College. It was here that Gay first metJamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown, and the two formed a close bond, becoming training partners.
The move to the college in Great Bend, Kansas, marked further progression for Gay: in 2002 his 100 m and 200 m times dropped to 10.08 s and 20.21 s respectively, albeit with wind assistance. He improved upon his legal personal bests too, recording a 100 m run of 10.27 s and 20.88 s in the 200 m. He also continued to outstrip the competition, winning the 100 m at the NJCAA National Championship. Returning to the NJCAA event the following year, with the wind in his favour, Gay took bronze in the 100 m with 10.01 s and silver in the 200 m with 20.31 s. Injuries upset the rest of 2003 for Gay, and his coach Brauman moved on to work as the sprint coach at the University of Arkansas. Gay decided to follow his tutor and he was keen to join the university's highly successful amateur track and fieldprogram;
National debut
Gay chose to study sociology and marketing, and the university environment gave the 22-year-old sprinter his first opportunity to compete in NCAA events. In the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship in March, Gay finished fourth in the 60 meters, with 6.63 s, and fifth in the closely fought 200 m with a time of 20.58 s (he missed out on second place by only two hundredths of a second). The NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in June proved far more fruitful, however, as Gay became Arkansas' first 100 m NCAA champion, setting a school record of 10.06 s. Furthermore, his efforts in the event helped the Arkansas athletic team win the NCAA Championship.
The results of Gay's first 2004 US Olympic Trials confirmed his status as a rising contender in the 100 m and 200 m events. Although he did not reach the final of either event, he reached the semis of the highly competitive 100 m and posted a 200 m personal best of 20.07 s in the qualifying st A hamstring injury due to dehydration prevented Gay from competing in the 200 m final, but he did not see the trials as a missed opportunity, rather a springboard for future events: "I was really focused upon the team, had a great shot, but it was a learning experience—how to take care of my body." The end of year Track and Field News rankings for United States sprinters showed him to be the eighth fastest 100 m runner and the fourth fastest sprinter over 200 m that year—indicative of his potential, he was younger than all those ranked ahead of him.
In Gay's final year as an amateur athlete he started well, setting a personal best and school record of 6.55 s in the 60 m at the 2005 Championship Series. He helped the University team to another NCAA outdoor victory, setting a new personal best of 19.93 s in the 200 m qualifiers and placing third in the finals. Training partner and friend Wallace Spearmon took first place with 19.91 s—his time and Gay's 19.93 s were the second and third-fastest 200 m times in the world that yea The pair teamed up for the 4 x 100 m relay, along with Michael Grant and Omar Brown, and won with an Arkansas-record-breaking time of 38.49 s. With the NCAA Championships behind him, in June 2005 Gay decided to become a professional athlete, setting his sights on a place in the US 200 m team for the Helsinki World Championships.
Professional career
Debut season
Upon turning professional, Gay entered the USA Outdoor Championships, where he took silver in the 200 m with 20.06 s. He was selected for the 200 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki and finished fourth, beaten by three of his compatriots (Justin Gatlin, Spearmon andJohn Capel). This completed the unprecedented feat of a single nation taking the top four positions at the championship event. Gay formed part of the 4 x 100 m relay team but a poor baton exchange between Mardy Scales and Leonard Scott resulted in disqualification.[28] Later in the month, Gay briefly turned his attentions to the 100 m and scored a season's best of 10.08 s at the Rieti Grand Prix.[29]
He ended the 2005 season on a positive note by winning the gold medal in the 200 m at the World Athletics Final, his first major championship title. His time of 19.96 s was his second fastest that year and fourth fastest of any sprinter that season. Although he stated that the quality of the competition and memories of Helsinki had made him nervous beforehand, he went on to beat all three American sprinters he had lost to in the World Championships, becoming the first athlete to beat Gatlin over 200 m that season. It was not only his rival sprinters that would cause future difficulties, however, as Gay's coach Brauman was indicted for various crimes relating to his time at Barton College and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He had helped athletes gain funds and credits that they were not entitled to. Following Gay's testimony, the courts ruled that Brauman was guilty and, as a result, Arkansas' two NCAA titles and all of Gay's college track times were annulled. None of the athletes were charged with any wrongdoing. Although he was imprisoned for 10 months, Brauman continued to train Gay, periodically updating him with coaching routines and techniques.
Double event sprinter
The 2006 athletics season saw Gay rise to the top of the rankings for the first time and become a genuine contender in the 100 m. He became the 2006 US Outdoor Champion in unfortunate circumstances: Gay originally finished second in 10.07 s with a strong headwind, but Justin Gatlin's first-place finish was later rescinded for use of a banned substance. Gay significantly improved upon his previous 200 m personal best by over two-tenths of a second at the IAAF Grand Prix in Lausanne. However, his time of 19.70 s was not enough to beat newcomer Xavier Carter who ran the second fastest time ever with 19.63 s.Improvements in the 100 m followed, as he won the Rethymno track meet and set another personal best with 9.88 s. Gay scored another sub-10 second 100 m at the Stockholm Grand Prix, finishing second to Asafa Powell with a 9.97 s, and beating Michael Johnson's British all-comers 200 m record with a 19.84 s win in London. Gay continued to improve at the 100 m, revising his personal best to 9.84 s at the Zürich Golden League meet, but it was not enough to beat Powell, who equaled his own world record of 9.77 s.
Gay's 200 m performance at the 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart was the culmination of a highly successful year. He became the World Athletics Final champion with another improved personal best of 19.68 s, making him the joint third-fastest 200 m sprinter with Namibian Frankie Fredericks. Gay was pleased that Fredericks was on site to see his best equaled: "To run that time in front of Frankie is a privilege. He's someone I admire a great deal both as an athlete and as a man." Gay also won a bronze medal in the 100 m, finishing behind Powell and Scott. However, Gay proved himself over 100 m at the2006 IAAF World Cup, taking gold with a 9.88 s run. At the end of the season, with Gatlin banned from competition, Gay dominated the Track and Field News US 2006 list, having run six of the seven fastest 100 m, with Scott in third, and four of the top six 200 m times (behind Carter and Spearmon).Furthermore, he was the second fastest 100 m runner in the world that year, second only to world record holder Powell. Having proven himself to be adept at both 100 and 200 m, Gay reflected upon his development as a sprinter:
| “ | "It's kind of hard for me to choose which one's my favorite. Some people say I'm a better 200 meter runner than a 100 runner. [But] you get that label as 'second-fastest man' or 'the fastest man in the world'. I think that's why I like the 100 more."                                                                            |
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