Sprinters Tyson Gay and Torri Edwards hit their stride at the U.S. championships, blazing to emphatic--and cathartic--victories

	Despite facing headwinds in both races, Gay won the 100 (above) in 9.84 seconds and clocked the second-fastest 200 time ever run (19.62). Bill Frakes/SI

By Tim Layden

Two years ago U.S. sprinter Torri Edwards's training partners went to Europe for the summer track season, leaving her behind in Los Angeles. Edwards, who had been slapped with a two-year suspension in July 2004 after testing positive for a banned stimulant, spent long afternoons on the track at USC (her alma mater) and Mt. San Antonio College, sprinting past housewives and retirees in the sunshine. "[I was] bored, angry and sad," Edwards recalls, "missing a sport that I love."

Seven months ago Tyson Gay's coach went to prison, leaving him behind in Fayetteville, Ark. The night before Lance Brauman began serving his 366-day sentence for embezzlement and mail fraud, which he had committed while coaching at Barton County Community College in Kansas, Gay and his training partners gathered at his house. Brauman handed each of them a thick book that mapped out their workouts for the entire 2007 season. His wife, Kim, and daughter Jayci, 3, sat in the next room. "He was pretty emotional," says Gay. "He was crying a little bit."

Sprinters accept loneliness as an occupational hazard; no one can help them between the starting blocks and the finish line. Yet Edwards and Gay have tasted a deeper isolation and emerged powerfully.

Last weekend at the USA Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, Gay, 24, dominated the 100 and 200 meters, delivering the fastest single-meet 100-200 double in history (combined time: 29.46 seconds). Edwards continued her comeback with a victory in the 100 and finished third in the 200 to earn a place in both events on the U.S. team for the world championships from Aug. 25 to Sept. 2 in Osaka, Japan.

Gay won Friday night's 100 in a personal-best-equaling 9.84 seconds, despite a slight headwind. It was the fastest time in the world this year and the second-fastest into-the-wind 100 ever. (Maurice Greene ran 9.82 into a lesser breeze in winning the 2001 world title.) Gay improved on Sunday afternoon, scorching the 200 field in 19.62, the second-fastest half lap in history, behind Michael Johnson's world record of 19.32 at the 1996 Olympics. It was also into the wind, the fastest such 200 ever run.

"[Gay is] making a case for being called the greatest sprinter who has ever walked the earth," said Ato Boldon of Trinidad, a four-time Olympic medalist. "He's going to have to back up his times with some world and Olympic titles, but from what I saw this weekend, you're going to be mentioning him on the short list with Carl Lewis, Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson."