Tom Knott: Trials' tribulations cramp Gay's style

By Tom Knott (Contact) | Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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Tyson Gay will not compete in the 200-meter run at the Beijing Games after succumbing to a cramp in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials last weekend.

That is the unforgiving nature of the trials. You either finish in the top three to secure a place on the U.S. Olympic team, or you go home and begin looking to the London Games in four years.

There are no exceptions, not even for the world champion in the 200.

Gay surrendered to a cramp in a 200 heat in Eugene, Ore., and just like that, his dream of claiming Olympic gold in both the 100 and 200 in Beijing was finished.

And that is as it should be.

It is true that the U.S. does not always field its best track and field teams because of this unyielding dynamic. It is equally true that the governing body of track and field could devise a system that awards berths on the team to those exceptional few who have set world records or topped the world's best in competitions going into the Summer Games.

Gay would have met this qualifying standard, and the U.S. team going to Beijing would have been stronger because of it.

Winning medals, after all, is the object of the Olympic Games, contrary to the self-serving spiel of the International Olympic Committee, which likes to think it is promoting goodwill and brotherhood among humanity.

That is the argument that would have allowed Gay to compete in the 200 in Beijing, and it is a valid one.

The flip side of the debate is also valid. The U.S. track and field trials duplicate the passion, drama and anxiety of the Olympics. You do not earn a medal for fourth place in the Olympics, no more than you earn a spot on the U.S. team with fourth place in the trials.