Dan O’Brien, the 1996 Olympic gold-medalist in the decathlon, says that Tyson Gay could resume training within three days if the initital diagnosis of Gay’s left hamstring is indeed a severe cramp rather than a pull. Hard training could resume in about a week.
Gay, from Lexington, did not finish his quarterfinals heat of the men’s 200 Sunday, tumbling to the track. However, he already has qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the 100-meter dash. If healthy, he likely will also run the 4-by-100 relay in China.
“Probably three days from now, if you can get some treatment and rubbed out from a cramp, it’s like it never happened,” said O’Brien, who is conducting on-field interviews at the Trials. “But if there’s an injury in there, he’s got to nurse it back, and you can’t do that too soon. Otherwise he’s going to re-injure it or make it worse. The only thing you can do with an injury is just sit an wait and wait and wait, and then test it in probably two or three weeks.”
O’Brien says Gay has a good idea now about what’s wrong, and will know for certain come Sunday.
“As an athlete, when you leave and go to the practice track, I think you know the severity of it,” O’Brien said. “For sure. And especially when he wakes up (Sunday), he’ll know. He’ll be able to stretch it out. He’ll be able to move it.
“If he can’t sit on a toilet tomorrow, he’s got problems.”
Odysseus had Sirens to tempt him.
For me, the Olympics always call. Beijing 2008 marks my 10th Olympics as a writer and, no, I can’t get enough. 
