Flashes of Panic

I have to imagine that somewhere, some people charged with marketing track and field are pulling their hair out this week.

Two weeks ago, Tyson Gay ran 9.79s for 100m. That should’ve tied the American Record, but a tailwind of 2.5 m/s (a bit more than 5.5 mph) was measured during the race, over the allowable limit of 2.0 m/s (4.5 mph), so the time doesn’t count.

Saturday evening, Gay ran 9.76. That should have topped the current world record of 9.77 (run by Asafa Powell on at least three separate occasions) but again, there was a tailwind of 2.2 m/s.

It reminds me of eleven years ago, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, when Michael Johnson ran a wind-aided 19.70 in the 200m semifinals. The 200m WR had been around for nearly fifteen years at the time, and now Johnson had apparently broken it, but not, and someone had to explain to everyone watching that no, that time doesn’t count. Fortunately for the sport, Johnson ran 19.66 (still the fourth-fastest ever) with legal wind in the final, and then that utterly unbelievable 19.32 in the Olympic final, and we could stop talking about wind-aided times.

Until now.

Tyson Gay has run .03s faster than any legal mark (including wind-aided) by a citizen of this country. Throw in marks disqualified for doping violations and Gay’s still out front by .01. And because the wind was 0.5 miles per hour over the allowable, we have to explain why he’s not the world record holder. (“We,” of course, doesn’t include Gay; he figures as long as he keeps racing to win, he’ll break the record with legal wind eventually.)

If we didn’t have allowable-wind rules, of course, we’d have meet directors setting up giant fans behind the starting blocks. But we do have them, and they’re a drag.

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