American sprinter Tyson Gay insists he can run as fast as Usain Bolt if he remains healthy this season.
By Gary Smith
Tyson Gay of USA celebrates after winning the Mens 100 metres during day one of the IAAF World Athletics Final
Gay, the second-fastest man over the 100m with a time of 9.69seconds, admits that he is still some way behind Bolt’s 9.58secs world record, but believes he can get to that standard.
“I just need to stay healthy, and I think if I do that, I will be able to show the world that I can run just as fast as Usain Bolt, if I stay healthy and work on my start,” said Gay, who finished a distant second to Bolt at the World Championships in Berlin last summer.
“I am a while away from breaking the world record but I believe if I stay healthy and focus I can come close to it, so that is my main goal.”
On when he will clash with Bolt, Gay said: “The match up between Usain and myself, I am not sure where yet, but that is going to be the big one for me. I am going to race him at least three times this year.”
Gay opted to race in the 400m at the Jamaica Invitational last weekend instead of the 200m which he usually runs and he went on to take that event.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ALL HIS WORLD RECORD RUNS IN ON VIDEO!!
He said he does not like the feeling after the quarter-mile, but claimed he could do one last one this season.
“I am pretty satisfied because I put in a good effort. Maybe one more, my head hurts pretty bad and I threw up a little bit and I didn’t like the feeling, so this may be the last one, I am not so sure,” said Gay.
Gay also praised Bolt’s 19.56secs run to win the 200m.
“That was an excellent race, the guy is great and ran a very good race for the home crowd.”
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What total BS. Here we go with the postering again.
Tyson, if you could run that fast, then what have you been waiting for all these years. You were fully fit in NY when Usain broke the first WR and your excuse then was that you didn’t know he was going to run that fast.
What was the real reason you didn’t run the 200m in Jamaica?
As I will always state, Tyson Gay is someone to root for. He never gives up on a race or an opponent. I don’t believe he can beat Bolt but it doesn’t matter it’s what he believes. In my life and as a past student of Kingston College I have seen greater talent beaten by lesser talent all because of will power. So I respect an athlete that never gives up even when the odds against him or her is great. His way only elevates Bolts greatness because he forces Bolt to perform and run a complete race to the end. The last two times were 9.72 a world record and 9.58 another world record. Who knows, probably Bolt might run a 9.49 the next time, a real video game time, using Ato Boldin term.
Whats wrong with this dude…fast as who? He need to go fast as Micheal Johnson before he thinks about Bolt….Gay only run fast time when there is lots of tail wind behind him….see this article: Tyson Gay can keep dreaming about breaking Bolt record http://www.overthelimitentertainment.com/profiles/blogs/5110-tyson-gay-can-keep
Easy there Stacy. Tyson is one of the few American runners I respect, and there isn’t a single egotistical bone in his body IMO. There’s nothing wrong in his statement and since when was it a crime to set a goal? I surely hope he can get close to it…with Bolt in the race. Which fan wouldn’t want to see that?
thats why i dont like this guy always complaining he is not fit., when will you ever be fit, and why you didnt run the 200 metres? you prefer to vomit your guts out than get an ass whipping from usain. i agree with stacy , what are you waiting for ? i remember you after the 100 metres final in berlin you pounded your hands on your legs as if to say , i should have won this race. you cant run 9.58 legitimately, thats my feeling.
ato bolden is a fake and a phoney , i know this guy from writing to him, when i told him a few years ago bolt would win the gold medal in the olympic games 2008, his reply to me was ” you are insane ” bolt has zero experience and that i was waving a caribbean flag. deep inside he is hoping and waiting for bolt to lose, when i spoke to him about asafa powell , his reply was ” dont make me depressed” he , asafa is a choker . he is from trinidad by the way but his loyalty to that country is zero.
i was speaking about the 100 metres of course , that bolt would win.just to make my point clear.
Walter…did you know that Ato’s mother is Jamaican? That’s where he got his talent from, not his Trini father, even thought he will not admit it!!.
Hi Stacy…I don’t know why Tyson don’t just shut up and let his feet do the talking. His 9.69 is with a positive wind. His 19.58 is with a positive wind. Usain’s WR times are with negligible or negative wind.
I understand that after the 400m he said he was feeling sore. Bolt is going to make him tear something so bad that it will sideline him for good if he doesn’t stop trying to go beyond his limit.
yes i know that pc , his mother’s name is Hope from jamaica his father,s name is Guy bolden he was a soccer goal keeper for Q.R.C. college or st Mary,s college in trinidad.
sorry the correct spellng of the name is boldon.
LOL. If talking broke world records, Tyson would have the most by far
My brother Tyson, unlike some people, I actually think you can do what you claim you can(or at least get close), but it’s just not a good look to brag. Just do it already my dude and stop poppin off for the media.
@JWiz- I’m not telling you not to like him. Everyone is entitled to like whomever they want. Just like I will probably always like Wallace Spearmon. But for me, IMO, I am sick and tired of Tyson claiming he is faster or as fast as Bolt. If that was the case, what’s he been doing, just biding his time? What was he doing prior to 2008? He’s been running since he was a youngster. He had the training, he had the experience. What ‘s the hold up? Usain broke 2 100m WR in his first year running at that distance. Tyson’s been at this for how long? Hell, even Asafa didn’t take up sprinting til he was 21 and Asafa got his world records.
He can use whatever excuse he wants to for himself, saying it to the press, completely different.
How is this any different than Chris Johnson, Ivory Williams, and Ramil Guilyev making these comments?
And for the record, I’m not buying that ‘”it took a WR to beat me” excuse he gave in Berlin. Usain could have run his old WR and still beaten him. He didn’t need to knock out .11s off his PR to beat Tyson. That’s like Asafa saying it took Tyson running a new American Record to beat him. It’s ridiculous. What’s the excuse when Usain ran the WR in the 200m? For that matter, he didn’t need him to break the 100m WR in Beijing either
I think that just because the guy is not as boisterous as Bolt and has a soft voice, people think that he’s humble. I would seriously doubt that any 100m Champion has a high level of humility. They want the attention. They want the worldrecords. They want to be known as the “World’s Fastest Man”. This is not a job for the humble, and he’s been a top athlete for way too long for me to buy into that act.
@PC and Walter
THanks for the info. I thought both of his parents were Trinidadian. Strange then how he doesn’t seem to have much allegiance for the Caribbean He has a mic and a bully pulpit and a captive audience. I would really respect him more if he would use that to the advantage of the Caribbean countries and give a Caribbean perspective on his commentating.
Anyway, I thought you would be interested in this article he wrote today. What a completely different opinion he has now from just a couple years ago. Based on this article, he knew Usain was going to be the next big thing since 2004.
http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=471134.html#boldon+track+officially+bolts+party
Ato has at certain points given a Caribbean perspective with his commentating, but he has done so in a more conservative light, not much more of a perspective than an American commentator. I remember him commentating much on the likes of Kerron Stewart and Ricardo Chambers, and Kelly Ann Baptiste and a host of other Caribbean athletes in their collegiate days.
I guess in a way, because of how the American sports media is designed, it would create a conflict of interest. But I definitely have heard him rep his Jamaican heritage on national television. And during the men’s 4×1 coverage in Berlin last year, he did give some insight as to the dynamics of the Trinidadian team.
But we do have to remember that Ato is still a freshman to commentating(4 or 5 years at most), so maybe he’ll incorporate the Caribbean perspective in his commentating more as time progresses. The Bolt’s party article is pretty interesting though. However, I don’t think many people would have anticipated Bolt being where he is right now anyhow. And I had heard the “lazy” and “immature” bomb thrown at Bolt in the past, but people didn’t realize the injuries he had to deal with
Tyson’s is a fake he want people to think that he is a humble guy, but guest what he is not, it is killing him inside that he is not the fastest man, where had he been all this years? why of a sudden he can run 9.58 are faster. This guy is up to something and will do anything to get it, don’t trust him
Stacy I agree with u let dem fall fi Tyson humbleness…. As mi say b4 let de legs do de talking and not dis whole media hype wid de wind-assited times…lol Tyson please try to run MJ time b4 u talk about running Mr. Bolt times. I like to see a great race but tryna get all dis hype will not work in your favor Tyson. U see bolt making a big deal about dis and dat. He just gets on de track and do it. As for Ato leave him be he is so embarrased to even say the name Trinidad out of his mouth…guess it pians him but i dont expec him to tek up fe de Cariiben since NBC/ESPN are both domestic channels. He has spoken so bad about us..listen to his coverage at de Penns talking about the 1st leg runner, Mario Forsythe on the 4×1 Jamaica Gold Team that he only has a 10.6 time as his PB which is not true. However look what Mario did, he had a great first leg to Yohan who made Mike Rogers looked like crap on dat leg… When Ato talks I usually mute my TV prefer listen to Lewis Johnson. he even spoke about the Jamaican women 4×1 that it matched the US team on paper…not true when we were missing 2 key runners..VCB and SAB. He proceeded to talk about a big the HS boys 4X1 which we all know from Jamaica dat Wolmers would take it and not Calabar. Ato called it a major upset for Calabar wow Ato and you wre in Jamaica for the Champs.
Anyway Tyson I cant wait for u to stop dodging Bolt cuz if u were not u would be racing him with this media hype u are creating. get over ur’self
Sorry, I may be in the minority here…but I don’t subscribe to the nationalistic BS. I relish my Jamaican heritage and enjoy it when we whip the competition, but I also have respect for them. We as Jamaicans need to frop the “world is against mentality.” So wtf if Tyson thinks he’s as fast as Bolt. Let him have at it. Powell has come out and said he wants to challenge Bolt’s record and doubt any of you lambasted him with the same vitriol. But if an American does it, it’s holy hell. I’m all for national pride, but drop the hypocrital BS.
@Nathaniel You’re right. While he does give some insight, it isn’t more than an American commentator makes (e.g Michael Johnson when he comments for the BBC).
I just think Ato might be giving up a great opportunity to provide a perspective that everyone else commentating would not have. I don’t know if he is afraid of alientating an American audience or if it’s because he spent so much time in the States. Whatever the reason, when I heard that he was going to be a commentator I just thought yes, a Caribbean perspective finally. Since he’s been in both systems, he could explain where there are different and where they are the same etc.
As Walter said, he had a much different opinion of Bolt way back when. Nobody thought Bolt would be where he is now, so I’m not faulting him for that. Bolt was too injury prown and too lackadaisical re training. But this article Ato’s written is so amusing because he makes it seem as if he was in Bolt’s cheering party from way back when. He wasn’t.
@JWiz FIrst take a chillpill. Second…big news flash, sports creates bias. It’s at it’s very foundation. It’s what makes you cheer for one team over another. It isn’t breaking news. IS it biased to feel that we want Usain to always be on top? Of course it is. But so what. Is it bias that makes you want to defend Tyson because you like him? Of course it is too.
However, it is both our biased and our learned opinion, that even if Tyson gets another max wind and runs 9.58, if Usain is healthy and in that same race, he’ll be running way faster than that.
Except when we quote scientific fact, everything we write on this site is an opinion. If we feel that Tyson is full of BS, what’s the problem. You are entitled to your opinion re Tyson, and we are entitled to our opinion re Bolt. If Tyson feels he is as fast as Bolt, I can say history does not agree with him. It may be based on my own bias, but there’s also a fact in there. Just like it may not be hypocritical to think Asafa may be able to break another WR, because even though he started sprinting later than all the top guys, he’s nabbed himself 3 WRs. What’s Tyson been doing all this time? What’s he been waiting for? He keeps playing catchup to either Asafa or Usain’s times. He’s never the first to get there. Maybe, just maybe, it isn’t our bias that’s clouding the facts.
But Maybe, we can be biased and still be able to sort out the facts and make a judgment that Tyson is speaking out of his ass and still be right.
Stacy..I have to disagree with you re “Nobody thought Bolt would be where he is now’ to some extent. The IAAF and Lamine Diack did vote him twice as the ‘future of sprinting in his teen years and certainly after his junior wr in Barbados. I clearly remember those two occasions
Maybe not for the 100 but certainly for the 200
Tyson Gay: is nothing but a big bag of wind when it comes on to challenging Usain Bolt…..we Jamaicans love to see things happened, not here it…..so when Tyson Chicken is cluckin about Bolt times, we are not impress…you want to impress us, run it {Bolt Times}….besides, Tyson Gay best chances of beating Bolt is just about over….because if he {Tyson Gay} couldn,t beat Bolt while he {Bolt} was training on inferior surface…how the hell is he {Tyson Gay} gonna handle him {Usain Bolt} now that he,s training on a state of the art surface? do you really think he {TG} has any chance what-so-ever? Tyson Gay sound very desperate and when athletes start sounding like that, more than likely they will do desperate things,Tyson Gay almost kill himself in Jamaica the other night, trying to prove he can win a race, the whole of his inside was left on the stadium turf, and he still did not impress us {Jamaicans}, if he really wanted to impress us, he {Tyson Gay} should have entered the 200m race and kick Bolts ass…. the IAAF needs to keep not one eye but both eyes on these Desperados…a lot of them will stop at nothing to attain that elusive gold, athletes who we thought, would have never taken that desperate route has done so….so i personally will not be surprised, no, not anymore.
PC, yes, I mean for the 100m. But while I believe everyone thought he had promise as a 200m specialist when he was a junior, as a pro, they all but wrote him off initially. Even when he told his manager he was going to win gold medal one day, his manager thought he was delusional.
Different note…one thing is for certain, if Gay wants to beat Bolt, he actually has to run against him. I know he is trying this new thing where he focuses on the 400m to improve his endurance, but you have to believe that it looks strange when Gay didn’t take up the 200m at the JIIM as a direct challenge to Bolt and then 3 days later he’s telling the press he’s as fast as Bolt. He hasn’t been yet. Why didn’t he attempt to show us he was right just 3 short days prior?
JWiz, I agree with your last comment completely. I am not the least bit offended or intimidated by anything that Tyson Gay says. Tyson Gay may be fooling Himself but who are we to say. Personally I would love to even see Asafa speak with Tyson Gay’s Confidence and determination. I always tell my kids that they can do anything they set their mind to if they believe, and if they work hard. I would not want anyone tell them otherwise because I’m like Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt. I believe “Anyhing is possible”. not to be confused with “Easy”, just possible.
Stacy as the saying goes in Jamaica….mout mek fi run off…and TG certainly is talking up a storm. I still say he must let his feet do the talking like Usain.
a wha do that bredda yah man always talking then when he has to face bolt him pop dung i not foolded by his somewhat quiet demeanor still waters run deep him full of shit as for walter i dont know how you tolerate talking to that guy boldon he has no allegiance to the caribbean whatsoever and him talk from two side of him mouth when he gave us negative commentary in the olympics him change him mouth because he realises we were not please so him chang him mouth make him gway him only run for trinidad because him couldn make the us team
@ Stacy
what da hell do you all want the man to say. “im going to just sit back and try and get second to bolt all season.” WOW, Tyson is just stating goals. he has in no way belittled or talk down on bolt or anyone. Bolt ran faster than his 100m PR once so I think if there is anybody that can beat bolt its him. As far as him not running against bolt at that meet, if you know anything about track and field then you know you don’t just go out and run blindly because its what the public wants. If the man has a plan respect that. These 400m races are pretty good for handling lactic acid buildup. If he wants any chance at beating bolt he will have to be able to get out and stay at his top speed for a while.
I am biased towards Gay but I realize Bolt is faster but Im not naive. I know Bolt has to be on his A+ game to beat Tyson. If he doesnt get out or if he makes any mistakes, gay is gonna beatem PERIOD.
You say alot of this stuff to beef up ur own beliefs but lets be real about everything, tyson had groin surgery last year. its no secret he said he could push off the blocks because of his groin and you could see that in all of his races. If this is true and he is able to get out with bolt it could be a very different story.
@bmort, quite frankly, the only thing you said in your statement which I can agree with is that you are biased toward Tyson. That’s already apparent. No need to state the obvious.
Nobody demanded Tyson run the 200m against Bolt. So I could care less if he chose to run the 400m instead. What I do have a problem with, is him avoiding racing Bolt, and then making a statement 3 days later that he is as fast as Bolt. History does not support either you or Tyson, and that’s a fact. Here is something that is also obvious, if he is as fast as Bolt, what has he been waiting on his entire career? He started running so much earlier than Bolt, if he is as talented as he claims, why doesn’t he have the world record. Where is his 9.5s run? For that matter where are his sub 19.5s, 19.4s, 19.3s, 19.2s runs?
Enough with the groin excuse. It certainly didn’t stop him from turning up and competing in meets he wasn’t even scheduled to run in. Nor did it prevent him from posting 2 PRs. Let’s stop using his groin as an excuse. Cause if we are going to talk about making excuses, we could bring up the fact that Usain’s training was seriously affected by the constant interruptions of the global public appearances he was obligated to make. Or with all the training time he missed after his car accident.
Did Tyson have a groin injury in 2008 when Usain broke that first WR? If he is as fast as he claims, was he just holding back that night?
Noone is asking him to roll over and take the beatings, I am asking him to be honest with the press and with the track fans. He cannot avoid running against Bolt or in the 100m or 200m and just claim that he is as fast as Bolt. He could demolish MJ’s 400m record, but until he breaks Bolt’s 100m and Bolt doesn’t have a comeback, he will still never be considered the better sprinter. I want him to tell Bolt to watch out for him. I want him to push Bolt to train harder without having to resort to facetious comments.
Why should anyone (biased or not), have a problem with that?
To all, these 2 articles came out today:
Track and field’s popularity soars despite lack of U.S. star power
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/09/AR2010050902147.html
and
How Usain Bolt Can (and will) Be Beaten
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/389946-how-usain-bolt-can-and-will-be-beaten
They are both very interesting reads, even though the latter has some factual errors, they are both worth reading.
we are already tired of your stories boss,bolt is naturally talented,bolt ran superb times as a junior while gay rich form when he was already a senior,that shows what kind of men bolt is,
Here is the thing. When you have a hurt groin it makes it so hard to run. Last year was my first year in track and lemme tell you i felt like i was going to stay 17 forever it felt so good when i ran.
But one thing led to another, and in the long jump before the 100m race i hurt my groin. I ran the 100m on that groin and was in extreme pain at the 55m roughly. This affected my race greatly, but was due to a recent injury. Over the course of the year my groin was still hurting, but recovering. Despite that however, i could not beat my previous PR which was nowhere near as good as i can ran period. I want to say that a recovering injury sets you back .20-.50 in your time depending on the groin injury. To this day my groin still hurts, and it’s a long recovery by my research. Don’t judge people, i don’t see you running, so please don’t be ignorant to a man who’s running for the U.S.
And a little research puts it straight for Tyson Gay, he was told by his parents to join track and mark his role in the record books. He’s running for his family, not himself, which Usain Bolt on the other hand is. I hope to one day recover and meet Tyson Gay.