Tyson Gay

TORRIE EDWARDS (from left), Lauryn Williams and Muna Lee during happier times at the 2007 World Championships in Japan.
BEIJING, China - Yeah, the 2008 Beijing Games are a wrap and the Olympic Flame has been extinguished. However, since the Games commence only once every four years, a last reflection is indeed worthy.

Track and field events are the heartbeat of the Olympic Games. The most basic of skills, like running, jumping and throwing, contested by both men and women, are the foundation of this almost month-long festival of sports.
American athletes, ever since the great Jesse Owens smashed Hitler’s master-race theory in 1936, have stood on the medal stand as the world’s greatest sprinters and jumpers more times than not.

In fact, America has won 16 of the 26 100-meter races contested in Olympic history.

Memorable Olympians like Eddie Tolan (1932), Owens, Harrison Dillard (1948), Bob Hayes (1964), Jim Hines (1968), Carl Lewis (1984 & 1988), Maurice Greene (2000) and Justin Gatlin (2004), just to name a few, have helped the U.S. to reign supreme in the 100-meter dash – the premier event in track and field.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women have won eight of 12 gold medals in the 100 since 1960.

Some legendary names include Wilma Rudolph (1960), Wyomia Tyus (1964 &1968), Evelyn Ashford (1984), Florence Griffith-Joyner (1988) and Gail Devers (1992 & 1996).

The American women have had less success in the 200-meter dash, having won only six gold medals in 15 total Olympic races. The U.S. men, in 25 Olympic competitions, have had better success, having won 17 gold medals in the 200.

The disappointing showing by both men and women in the 100 and 200 has caused people to question the state of track in the U.S.

One thing for sure about the men is that they were firmly beaten by the fastest sprinter in Olympic history.

Usain Bolt, of Jamaica, broke both the 100 and 200 world records, and also ran a leg on the world record-breaking 4x100 relay team.

There has never been an athlete who has run both races as fast as Bolt did in Beijing, so the USA men get a pass with me. However, our women got toasted by the Jamaican sprinters, who finished 1-2-3 in the 100 and took gold in the 200.

I think the thing that really raised eyebrows was both the men’s and women’s 4x100 relay teams botched the baton pass and eliminated themselves from any chance at redemption and an Olympic medal.

Now there’s a debate going on about whether the USA Track & Field Olympic qualifying system is outdated. Are U.S. athletes, putting in so much effort at the Trials, burning out before the Games?

The U.S. is the only country in the Olympic Games that subjects its athletes to somewhat of an endurance test every four years.

I understand there needs to be a selection process and criteria. However, there should also be a vehicle that allows empirical data and performances to weigh heavily in the selection.

Many of our sprinters train so hard to be at their very best to just make the U.S. team. They leave it all on the track and some find they have already peaked.

In the women’s 100-meter dash, sprinters Torri Edwards ran an incredible 10.75, Muna Lee ran a 10.85 and Lauryn Williams posted a 10.90. All ran season-best times just to qualify for the U.S. team.

“I must admit I pointed to the U.S. Olympic Trials for the past year, trying to make sure I was peaking,” Edwards said. “I could not look toward the Olympics, because I had to make the team first. Being at your very best at the Trials is how most train.”

Reigning world champion Tyson Gay, who ran a wind-aided 9.68 (the fastest time ever recorded, but not a world record because the tailwind was too strong) in the 100, failed to qualify for the Olympics in the 200 when he pulled a hamstring in the 200 quarterfinals of the Trials.

“Before I went out on the track I felt a little tightness in my hamstring,” Gay said. “So, I had kind of a bad feeling. When I came off the curve, the first two steps were fine, and then I felt it, sort of a pull, about 40 meters in.”

Gay should not have had to run following the injury. His earlier times should have counted and he then would have been able to compete in the 200 at the Olympics.

Under the current system, however, America’s best sprinter did not qualify for the 200.

Worse, Gay was sidelined for one-and-a-half months following the injury. As a result, he was inactive leading up to the Olympics in Beijing.

It cost him. Gay’s inactivity was a direct result of him not making the Olympic final in the 100 in Beijing.

In 1996, I remember Lewis had a cold and was not at his best for the 100 and did not qualify. The U.S. lost the 100 and the 4x100 relay.

I remember writers from around the world asking me in Atlanta why the U.S. did not have its best sprinter on the team?

My answer: The Trials are a big money winner for USA Track & Field and money is the reason the present system will never change.