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Tyson Gay
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Tyson Gay (born August 9, 1982) is a top ranked American sprint athlete. At school he got called "Gay" as his nickname.
Tyson attended Lafayette Senior High School in Lexington, Kentucky where he was a standout track star, winning several state titles.
Gay competed collegiately at Barton Community College and the University of Arkansas and in 2004 he won the 100 metres contest at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as well as achieving 10.06 in June.
2005 saw him concentrate more on the 200 metres, setting a new personal best with 19.93, once again in June. This result placed him 2nd on the world statistics behind college teammate and training partner Wallace Spearmon. He competed in 200m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and finished fourth to complete an American 1-2-3-4, the first time any nation has achieved this in a world championship athletics event.
On July 11, 2006, Gay produced the sixth fastest 200m performance in history with a blistering 19.70 seconds at the IAAF Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland. Gay finished second in the race behindXavier Carter, whose 19.63 performance was the second fastest in history.
On July 21, 2006, in Rethymno he achieved a superb performance in 100m too: 9.88 (wind 1.0m/s).
On August 18, 2006, in Zurich, Switzerland, he achieved a personal best of 9.84 s in the 100m, yet only finishing second to Jamiaca's Asafa Powell who equaled his world record of 9.77s for the third time.
On September 10, 2006, in Stuttgart, Germany, he reached the line in 19.68 in the 200m, setting his personal best which ties him with legendary Frank Fredericks as the fourth fastest ever. In his 200m PR race, (19.68) he ran the fastest unofficial bend for the first half of the race, recording 9.96s on the bend beating Michael Johnson 10.12s bend.
At the end of 2006, Gay was ranked number 1 in the world in the 200 meters and number 2 in the 100 meters by Track and Field News magazine. He finished number 8 overall in the voting among male track and field athletes across all events in the magazine's annual rankings, as well as second among all US males.
Tyson Gay says that he aims to be the fastest bend runner in the world in the relay and in the 200m; at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, the aim to be the fastest bend runner in the world for 3rd leg had been taken away after the bad change-over between Mardy Scales and Leonard Scott. Mardy Scales passed the baton to Leonard Scott, but Mardy held on the baton for too long not allowing Leonard to sprint down the back straight of the track which resulted in USA being disqualified.