KEY POINTS:
Tyson Gay, the man who ran the fastest 100m of all time, just might be the last refuge of the 'clean' athlete; a man who runs 100m and doesn't take drugs. Maybe.
Gay, whose wind-assisted 9.68s in last week's US Olympic trials was the fastest any human has
run 100m, is being promoted as a 'natural' runner; a kind of US athletics' 'Captain Clean'.
The American's time is the fastest ever run under any conditions.
In every second of that race in Eugene, Oregon, Gay covered 10.33 metres on average. That equates to nearly 40km/h.
The United States Anti Drugs Agency (USADA) has used him in 'Project Believe' and maintains stiffly that Gay is living proof that not all track athletes are 'on the juice'.
Gay and a small number of others are blood and urine tested under Project Believe so often that a detailed profile of their chemical balance is built. Gay gave six test samples in a fortnight to establish his baseline profile - meaning any drug-taking would alter that profile significantly.
It's not perfect - the system can be beaten - but it does demonstrate consistent innocence instead of on-the-day drugs tests to prove whether an athlete, on a particular day, is guilty.
Gay's magnificent run at the trials has set up a three-way clash in possibly the most anticipated 100m final of all time - at next month's Olympics in Beijing.
The contest between Gay, world record holder Usain Bolt and fellow Jamaican and former record holder Asafa Powell brings back memories of the last time there was a real showdown in the men's 100m track event at the Olympics: 20 years ago, when Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson infamously clashed in Seoul in 1988.
Bolt and Gay have rather set this up with their heroics in qualifying for Beijing. Bolt ran a world record 9.72s in May, beating Powell's 9.74s before Gay ran his staggering 9.68s.
That, however, was not a record as the following wind was too strong; but it signals the raw speed of which Gay is capable.
Whether or not he can reproduce that form in Beijing is another matter but Gay is the current world champion and has run the third fastest official time in the 100m - behind Bolt and Powell.
The latter, another leggy Jamaican, three times ran 9.77s, claiming and equalling the world record and then ran 9.74s before Bolt cracked the record in that memorable run in New York, only his fifth 100m at top level.
Bolt has not yet confirmed he will run the 100m in Beijing (the 200m was to have been his original focus) but most observers are predicting that he will try for the double.
Both Jamaicans are tall - Bolt takes a while to wind up, as might be expected of a man who is primarily a 200m runner and whom many expect to break the world record of the great Michael Johnson.
His high-stepping bolt to the line once he gets those big legs moving is eerily reminiscent of Tommie Smith, the tall US gold medallist in the 200m at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 who then also became famous for the Black Power salute he and fellow medallist John Carlos performed at the medal ceremony.
But, unhappily, the aura of drugs intrudes on this seemingly summit sprint - just as in Seoul 20 years ago, when Johnson was infamously stripped of his gold medal and his 9.79s world record set in the Olympic final after testing positive for steroids.
Ironically, Lewis - US track's last 'Captain Clean' - also became tainted with drugs after being for so long a proponent of drug-free athletics. In 2003 came the revelation that Lewis had tested positive for banned stimulants at the 1988 US Olympic trials.
While this was intensely embarrassing for Lewis, it should also be pointed out that the level of the banned substances in his blood was only six parts per million - qualifying as a positive test in 1988 but which has since be shown to be non-performance-enhancing by research; with the acceptable level raised to 10 parts per million for one of the two stimulants and 25 parts per million for the other.
But the shadow of drugs still falls gloomily over this event - with former world champion and 2004 Athens Olympic 100m gold medallist Justin Gatlin still banned after failing a drugs test.
Gatlin recently tried a legal challenge to overturn the decision to ban him from racing for four years - but failed.
Former Olympic champion Marion Jones earned six months in prison after admitting lying to federal investigators in the drugs-ridden BALCO scandal and Britain's Dwain Chambers is attempting to challenge a ruling that his failed drugs test and ban prevent him from being chosen in their Olympic team.
But Gay's Project Believe could restore a little of the innocence to the highly battered and bruised perception of the 100m sprint.
"I didn't have to think about it," Gay told The Times. "Is it fair that not everyone is doing it? It would probably cost too much. I don't know if it's fair but it's fair to me if that's what I have to do to prove myself to people."
Gay generally shuns publicity and has a quiet, almost shy, persona - something his handlers want him to improve.
He has a strong relationship with his mother Daisy - phoning her every day, every night before a race and also an hour before his races, from the event warm-up track. He suffers from bad nerves and needs his mother to help contain them.
Not surprisingly, she has had with him the conversation that one assumes most close parents would have with a child aspiring to the track.
"We had it a few years ago," she said. "It was when the Gatlin stuff came out. His question to me was: How do you compete with people who are cheating?
"I told him he will never have to rely on drugs as long as he relies on the scriptures. That was the extent of it. I told him, 'don't you worry about those people'. It's just not a concern. He's just good and clean."
