page_title: Tyson Gay
section_title: Double event sprinter
hierarchical_section_title: Tyson Gay / Professional career / Double event sprinter
caption_attribution_description: World Athletics Championships 2007 in Osaka - Victory ceremony for the men*s 200 metres. Winner Tyson Gay is in the center
context_page_description: Tyson Gay is an American track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 and 200 meters dash. He received a one-year suspension for testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid. His 100 m personal best of 9.69 seconds is the American record and makes him tied for the second fastest athlete ever, along with Yohan Blake.
  Gay has won numerous medals in major international competitions, including a gold medal sweep of the 100 m, 200 m and 4 × 100 m relay at the 2007 Osaka World Championships. This made him the second man to win all three events at the same World Championships, after Maurice Greene. Gay is a four-time U.S. champion in the 100 m.
  At the 2008 Olympic Trials, he ran a wind assisted 9.68 seconds in the 100 m. Days later, he suffered a severe hamstring injury in the 200 m trials and did not win any medals 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.
  In July 2013, it was announced that Gay had tested positive for a banned substance, following which he withdrew from consideration for the World Championships in Moscow.
context_section_description: 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Gay originally finished second in 10.07 s with a strong headwind, but Justin Gatlin's first-place finish was later rescinded for use of a banned substance.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 the 2006 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.
  — Tyson Gay, Lexington Herald-Leader
caption: Gay (center) receiving his World Championship gold medal alongside Usain Bolt (left) and Wallace Spearmon (right).
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