Background

Even when he was little, Tyson Gay was fast (“I could steal a few bases,” he says of his childhood baseball days), but he was 14 or so before he could beat his sister, Tiffany, who’s a year older. “She had a quick start,” he explains. “She inspired me.”

Tiffany did a fine job, because her little brother went on to become a three-time Class 3A 100m state champ out of Lafayette High School, with his 10.46 state-meet record as a senior in 2001 still standing.

Now, he is also a triple World Champion. At the 2007 World Championships, Tyson became only the second man in history to win titles at 100 meters, 200 meters and the 4x100-meter relay. He is also the American Record-holder at 100m, thanks to his 9.77-second victory in the quarterfinals of the 2008 US Olympic Trials, and his wind-aided time of 9.68 seconds in winning the 100m final in Eugene makes him the fastest human being in history over the distance, under any conditions.

Since turning professional in June 2005, Tyson has quickly worked his way to the top of the sport: just weeks after ending his NCAA career, he made the USA 200-meter team for the World Championships, and at season’s end won his first World Athletics Final 200m title.

Gay counts the ability to bounce back from a bad race, instilled by his mother, as perhaps his biggest strength, but his ability to run a textbook curve in the 200 doesn’t hurt, either. In 2006, he put his stamp on the sport, notching four of the top six 200-meter times of the year and the second-fastest time (9.84) for 100m. This after calling the 100 an event he needed to learn at the end of the 2005 season.

Also in 2006, Tyson’s personal bests at 100 (9.84) and 200 (19.68) moved him past Namibian great Frank Fredericks (9.86 and 19.68) as the fastest 1-2 runner in history.

Tyson has something else in common with the great Namibian as well: a quiet, humble personality fostered by his mother, Daisy Lowe. "It makes me smile," Tyson told a Lexington newspaper reporter after the 2006 season. "Sometimes it's overwhelming, a little bit. Because I'm just a country boy from Lexington, Kentucky, who just runs for the love of track. But when I see guys like Michael Johnson and Frankie Fredericks and Maurice Greene, and I've run some of the same times they have, it's just shocking. I never really knew I could do that until now."

His 2007 season was off the charts. Tyson opened at the adidas Track Classic with a victory in 9.79 seconds, which would have tied the American Record except for a tailwind just over the allowable limit. Two weeks later, at the Reebok Grand Prix, he proved that performance no fluke when he clocked a 9.76: just under the World Record, though once again with a slight tailwind. Thanks to those eye-popping wins, Tyson went into the US national championships as the favorite at 100 meters and he did not disappoint, running 9.84 into a headwind for the title. Two days later, he followed that up with a personal best 19.62 to take the 200-meter victory, making for the fastest one-day double in history.

Then, on August 26 at the IAAF World Championships of Track & Field in Osaka, Japan, Tyson defeated his toughest rivals to become the 100-meter World Champion. "My friends and family know that I don't like to be the center of attention," he said, "but that victory lap is one I will never forget." He instantly became the favorite to win gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and followed up that performance with wins at 200 meters and in the 4x100-meter relay.

When he is not training or off winning gold medals, Tyson can be found back in Lexington with his daughter, 7-year-old Trinity.