Tyson Gay: Cooperation, ‘Doing The Right Thing’, Earn Him Reduced Suspension For Steroid Violation

Tyson Gay, the Olympic sprinter and four-time U.S. 100-meter champion that tested positive for anabolic steroids last June, has been handed down a reduced one-year suspension for his indiscretion, by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

After hearing that he’d tested positive, Gay voluntarily opted out of the 2013 world championships and hasn’t put on his spikes for competition since.

According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Gay also willingly helped them investigate the situation as soon as he found out about the positive test results. Because of this cooperation, Tyson Gay was given the opportunity to avoid a two-year-sanction, the punishment that would normally be administered in his situation:

“We appreciate Tyson doing the right thing by immediately withdrawing from competition once he was notified, accepting responsibility for his decisions, and fully and truthfully cooperating with us in our ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding his case,” said the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO, Travis Tygart.

As reported last year here inThe Inquisitr, Gay pulled himself from last Summer’s World Championships in Moscow, and in an interview that followed with the NY Times,while Tyson takes responsibility, he also indicates someone else lead him astray:

“I don’t have a sabotage story. I don’t have any lies. I don’t have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA’s hands, someone playing games … I don’t have any of those stories. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down.”

Gay’s coach, Lance Brauman, in a statement given last year to USA TODAY Sports, said that the person Gay had put his “trust in” had “no affiliation with me or anyone else in my training group.”

July 15, 2012, was reportedly the first day Tyson Gay used the banned substance and he was was disqualified from every event he’d participated in from that point forward. Gay also returned the Olympic silver medal he’s won in the men’s 4x100m relay at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

A major highlight of Tyson Gay’s career was a 2010, 100-meter, contest in Stockholm, where he beat the legendary, Usain Bolt.

As an Olympian, however, the 2012 London Silver was Tyson’s only Olympic medal, and now lost. Gay’s 2008 Beijing Olympics appearance didn’t garner any medals.

Though almost 32, plagued by injuries, and the steroid suspension, hopefully Tyson Gay will overcome these obstacles, be allowed to strap his spikes back on, and hit the track running.