Runaway Victory

DEEP IN the night, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay stripped to a slight pair of running shorts and lowered his battered body into an inflatable tub of ice water, groaning audibly as the frigid liquid numbed his legs. Four hours earlier last Thursday night he had won the 200-meter gold medal at the 11th World Track and Field Championships, in Osaka , Japan , adding to the 100-meter gold he took on Aug. 26. Two days later he would run the third leg on the winning U.S. 4...100 relay, becoming only the second man in world championship history—Maurice Greene was the first, in 1999—to win those signature events in a single year. For the moment exhaustion consumed feelings of glory.

"So tired, man," said Gay , dropping his head back against the rim of the tub. "And next year is going to be even harder."

Track and field's biennial world championships unfold in a predictable rhythm: In the year following the Olympic Games they are a curtain call for gold medalists who hope to validate their achievements. In the year preceding the Games they are a prelude to the bigger show ahead.

Osaka brought punishing heat, sparse crowds at Nagai Stadium on many nights and proof again that the United States remains the most potent force in the sport. Team USA won 26 medals, matching its total from the 1991 Tokyo worlds and the '88 Seoul Olympics. Three U.S. athletes emerged as central characters in the yearlong run-up to Beijing : Gay ; sprinter Allyson Felix , who became the second woman in world championship history (and the first since Marita Koch of East Germany in '83) to earn three gold medals; and Kenyan expatriate distance runner Bernard Lagat, the first runner to win the 1,500 and 5,000 meters at the same championships.

All three U.S. athletes were brilliant. All face fresh challenges in the months ahead.

GAY'S opening-weekend victory over world-record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica was an affirmation of his breakthrough this season, a triumph of speed and technique at the highest levels. His 200 win four days later was pure courage. Running his eighth race in six days, Gay was beaten off the turn by another Jamaican, Usain Bolt, but rallied to win. "I could have said I've already got the glory race, just take the silver," says Gay. "But I didn't want to do that."

Gay , 25, is a sweet soul, quiet to the point of whispering. He listens to gospel music on his iPod before races, from a downloaded Kirk Franklin and the Family CD that he has used since junior college, and while in Osaka he bought a digital camera to preserve his experience. "I want to have some memories," says Gay . "I was thinking after the 100, I've got a medal, but I don't have any memories. I wanted to take some pictures of my friends who I might not see after we're all retired."

From the start of the season Gay has squirmed in the spotlight, and that glare will soon be brighter; few athletes attract Olympic hype like the 100-meter favorite. "It's one thing to get there; it's another thing to be there," says track legend Carl Lewis , who entered at least two Olympics under intense scrutiny. "Tyson will find his time more valuable to everyone. Every time he runs a bad race, it's 'What's wrong with him?' He has to stay calm."

First up for Gay, who lives and trains primarily in Fayetteville , Ark., is resolving his complicated coaching situation. His longtime coach, Lance Brauman , was serving a year-long prison sentence during the season for embezzlement and mail fraud. Gay relied on a notebook of workouts that Brauman wrote last November, but in April, Gay also began working on starts and sprint technique with former Olympian Jon Drummond in Dallas . Brauman was released to a halfway house on Aug. 28 and is expected to be freed on Sept. 27. However, he plans to move to Orlando with his wife and daughter.

Gay would prefer to remain in Fayetteville but will consider training in Orlando . Beyond that, he will try to balance two coaches. "I couldn't have done it this year without J.D.," says Gay . "But I'd like to show some loyalty to Coach Brauman. I'm going to find a way to make it work."