Posted on Thu, Jul. 03, 2008

Gay's family as focused as their fastest man

By Mark Maloney

mmaloney@herald-leader.com

EUGENE, Ore. — Hearing the rush of 20,000-plus people having their breath taken in one instant makes for wobbly legs and faint heads.

Had Sunday's collective gasp been taken a few seconds earlier, into the breeze, Tyson Gay's fastest 100 ever, 9.68 seconds, might not have been wind-aided.

Imagine what Tyson's mother, Daisy Gay Lowe, and sister Tiffany felt as the race unfolded at Hayward Field.

“Everybody was cheering (the outcome), and then it just went up like 20 octaves after the time flashed up,” Daisy said. “Tiffany and I were standing there screaming together, and we both were shivering. Just shaking. We just could not believe it.”

Never mind that Sunday's win in the U.S. Olympic team trials for track and field does not count as a record. The world mark of 9.72 stays with Jamaica's Usain Bolt. Still, Gay's time is the fastest 100 meters recorded by a human. Ever.

And Gay, out of Lexington's Lafayette High School, already bagged the American record with a wind-legal 9.77 in Saturday's quarterfinals.

Daisy remembers when Tyson and Tiffany would race as children. Getting off a school bus, they would race to a tree. As a Lafayette freshman, Tiffany could outrun Tyson, then an eighth-grader at Jessie Clark Middle School.

Tiffany laughed Wednesday when asked whether she's ready to race Tyson again.

“I don't know about that,” she said. “With the times he ran this past weekend, I don't know if I can hang with him now.”

The trials resume Thursday. Gay returns Friday with preliminaries in the 200 meters. Quarterfinals and semifinals will be run Saturday, finals on Sunday.

Daisy, who lives in ­Prattville, Ala., is attending the trials with her husband and Tyson's stepfather, Tim Lowe. Then there's Tiffany, half-siblings Seth and Hayleigh, Tiffany's daughter Destin and Tyson's 7-year-old daughter, Trinity.

Asked what she thought of her daddy's race, Trinity gave a fast answer: “Good!”

Nobody in Eugene, Ore., would disagree.

“I was really proud of the American record because it was held by Maurice Greene, and that was one of Tyson's track heroes,” Tim said. “That was one of my favorite (moments of the trials). But I'll be honest with you, seeing the 9.68 and just seeing it flash up on the time board by the track finish line (was) just phenomenal. My daughter and I, we just screamed.

“I was ‘That's a world record! That's a world record!' And Hayleigh said, ‘Dad, I didn't even understand what you were saying because you were screaming it so loud.' Wind or not, it's just phenomenal to break that barrier. Psychologically, I think that's the big barrier to reach.”

Monday, Olympic coaches Bubba Thornton and Harvey Glance spoke about how Tyson has “raised the bar” not only on athletics but also on behavior. The world's fastest human still is sincere, humble and respectful. One could add religious, and loving as a father, son, sibling and uncle.

“That's wonderful. … I hadn't heard that,” Daisy said of the coaches' praise.

Said Tim: “That speaks highly of Tyson, the kind of man he is. He's a very humble man. And when he shows up to run, he shows up to win and gets off the track. He's just a great human being with a good heart.”

The family didn't have much chance to celebrate Sunday. Tyson spent more than an hour track-side for TV time, a victory lap, an award ceremony and so many autographs that his hand hurt. Then came question after question in the interview area, a formal press conference, drug testing, massage and ice treatment.

“So we just got to talk to him on the phone a little bit,” Daisy said. “And we went to breakfast the next morning, so that was pretty much our little ‘how-we-celebrated' — breakfast the next morning.”

Tyson had dinner with the family Tuesday. Plans were in the works to see the movie Hancock on Wednesday.

Then, it will be time to refine an already focused sprinter and family.

“We are really (focused). Isn't that funny?” Daisy said. “Yep, after he accomplished what he came to accomplish in the 100, now our whole total focus is on the 200 and getting prepared for that.”

The whole family plans to join Tyson in Beijing.

Daisy, also a sprinter in her days at Bryan Station High School, has a message for all her friends in Lexington: “Thanks for all the support and especially all the prayers because they are felt.”

And daddy's girl, Trinity, has a message for everyone: “Watch the 200.”