Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt's showdown will for a moment drag the athletics spotlight out of the courtrooms and back onto the track.
American World Champion Gay and Jamaican Bolt would face each other in 100 meters today at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, the city where defending Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin was before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, trying to get a doping ban reduced.
Across the United States in San Francisco, former track coach to the stars Trevor Graham was found guilty of lying to investigators about his relationship to a steroid dealer.
Gay and Bolt have much to prove personally - Gay trying to rebound from a less-than-satisfying time (10.05 seconds) two weeks ago and Bolt trying to show that his 9.76 last month, the second-fastest time ever, wasn't a one-time deal. But as the Gatlin and Graham hearings showed, there were also questions to answer about their sport.
"I definitely understand that people have questions," Gay said.
"People are going to question us because we've had athletes busted in the past. But I can't worry about it much. I know what I do. I know how I train every day, how I eat, sleep and run. I can't help what people talk about. People will have suspicions about track and field probably as long as track and field is going on."
Gay is among the dozen American athletes who signed up for a US Anti-Doping Agency pilot program that performs baseline testing of an athlete's body chemistry, then compares it with subsequent readings.
It's laborious. Gay had to give six vials of blood back in March to establish the baseline. Since then, he's been tested twice, including once with no notice. He said he didn't hesitate when asked to join the program.
"They said, instead of seeing people on the news and TV for bad things, you could be on the news for something positive," Gay said. "When they put it like that, it was all I needed to hear."
Gay's prime concern, however, is getting ready for Olympic trials, which are expected to lead to his first trip to the Olympics come August. What better test than a matchup against Bolt, the Jamaican who specialized in the 200 and 400, but added the 100 to his repertoire, mainly because he wanted to get out of running the more grueling 400.
"Right now, the 200 is my favorite race," Bolt said. "I've been working for years trying to perfect that race." He's not quite sure which other race he'll focus on - the 100 or 400 - for Beijing. New York could be a big step toward making the decision.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily May 31, 2008)