How Tyson Gay saved the day
By Dave Ungrady
About halfway through my winter-prompted, work-from-home day in northern Virginia on Jan. 17, snowflakes the size of a quarter coin fell in steady and full clusters outside my window as I sat in a reclining chair with my laptop positioned naturally. During a break from editing and writing, I flicked through the television channels and stopped at an HBO presentation of the movie Superman Returns.
I recall one scene more than others for its surreal absurdity. Superman descends at the speed of sound, naturally, from the high skies and chases down a free-falling jetliner. Moments before the plane is about the make a splattering nose plant in the middle of a major league baseball stadium packed with fans during a game, Superman grabs the plane and guides it to a cushy landing. As we expect from Superman, he saved the day.
To a greatly lesser degree, but still profoundly enough, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay pulled a Superman act about an hour later during a United States Olympic Committee teleconference touting its selections for top performers of 2007. He saved the day for this member of the media.
Gay, who received the Sportsman of the Year award, joined the teleconference about 16 minutes from its start. Gay is still adjusting to his rising global fame after winning three gold medals at the 2007 world championships, including a victory in the 100 meters over world record holder Asafa Powell, and has not spoken to a media group this large since winning the world championships last summer. More than one dozen journalists joined the call.
Other athletes honored by the USOC included U.S. swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, Paralympian Jessica Galli and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. Before Gay joined the teleconference, the other athletes, mostly the gymnasts, offered sincere and mostly standard responses focusing on how honored they felt to receive the awards and how hard they plan to work between now and Beijing. One gymnast told of warming up outside the arena on concrete in Germany during the 2007 world championships because they were denied access to a gym. Nice copy, but in my mind none triggered an alluring lead for a compelling story.
Then a Reuters reporter asked Gay about 20 minutes into the teleconference if elite disabled athletes should be able to compete in the Olympics. The topic is timely because earlier in the week track and field’s world governing body, the IAAF, ruled that Paralympic sprint champion Oscar Pistorius of South Africa could not compete in the Beijing Olympics.
“I don’t see a problem with it if they want to go out and compete just like we do and put their heart into it,” he said.
His comment triggered a few elevated beats of my own heart. When Gay added that he would not avoid Pistorius if he wanted to challenge Gay in a 200-meter race, my heart beats per minute approached the fat-burning zone.
Through a spokesman, Gay later clarified that he did not mean to criticize the decision by the IAAF and was referring to competitions in general.
Still, his words prompted a few journalists, myself included, to write a breakout piece about the world’s most prominent sprinter expressing rare public views that support some level of competitive equality between disabled and able-bodied athletes. The story had clout, emotion and a sense of urgency centered on a character who is mostly inaccessible to the media.
But Gay managed to stand out for reasons beyond his status, and at least this journalist is grateful. Gay showed a congenial candor and willingness to answer any question. He commented candidly about Marion Jones, saying the damage is done and that it put a dark cloud over the sport. He embraced a pointed question asking him why the public should believe that he does not use performance enhancing drugs while past Olympic and world champions and world record holders such as Ben Johnson, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery are connected to drug use.
He responded quickly and calmly, saying drug-convicted athletes are looking for a quick fix, they don’t want to do the hard work, that his mind is clear and he can’t prove to people that he doesn’t use drugs.
“I can only work hard every day, make sacrifices by not going out to the parties,” he said. That’s what I’m wiling to do.”
Spoken like a true Superman who saved the day.
Dave Ungrady is a senior editor at WCSN.com