EUGENE, Ore. -- Tyson Gay and Lauryn Williams could be the best things to happen to American track and field.

Maybe even world track and field.

Unless they or some other prominent athlete bound for Beijing messes it all up by testing positive for banned substances.

The sport is at a crossroads, where the track lanes intersect with Who Cares Boulevard.

After decades of prominent United States stars who became household names, track headed down a slippery slope. Olympians stained the sport when their labels changed from champion to cheater.

Gay and Williams just might represent a chance to put track back on, well, the right track.

They qualified for the U.S. Olympic squad in the men's and women's 100 meters last weekend at the national trials at Hayward Field and will compete in the 200 this weekend as the meet continues.

Gay, in particular, will be closely watched in China. He set an American record of 9.77 seconds in the 100 semifinals at the trials, then ran a wind-aided 9.68 seconds in winning the 100 final Sunday, the fastest time by a human under any conditions.

Drama will abound for his showdown at the Olympics with Jamaica's Usain Bolt, who set the world record of 9.72 just weeks ago, but there is likely to be a mix of anticipation and apprehension from fans.

After all, who wants to get sucked into caring about a massively hyped event, only to find out it is yet another case of one or more athletes breaking the rules to try to get ahead?

Williams, 24, the Rochester High School graduate who lives and trains in Miami, is easy to root for, with a personality shinier than the silver medal she won in the 100 at the 2004 Games in Athens. She's outgoing and funny and, at a little taller than 5 feet 3, packs some big-time speed into her small frame.

Although her silver was something of a surprise at age 20, she had just won the NCAA championship and had been on the radar of those who follow the sport. She has been outspoken against performance-enhancing drugs.

Gay, 25, is quieter but cooperative, the doting father of a 6-year-old daughter. His climb toward potentially becoming the fastest man on Earth also has been logical.

Still -- and despite increased testing measures by the World Anti-Doping Agency, in conjunction with various Olympic governing bodies -- no one is above suspicion these days.

"The fans are going to think what they want to think," said Sanya Richards, a 2004 Olympic 1,600 relay gold medalist and a strong candidate in the 400 this summer.

"I'm just hoping with this batch of athletes, as we continue to compete, that you can see our natural progress. You can almost 100 percent say that we're all clean.

"I'm hoping that the fans will begin to have more faith in our sport, but I think that's more in our actions than in our words."

Healing will take time, considering what the sport has overcome since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his Olympic medals and world records after testing positive for steroids 20 years ago.

Most prominently, former darling Marion Jones, who won five medals, including three golds, at the 2000 Games in Sydney, got caught up in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal and is in a Texas prison for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs and in connection with an illegal check-cashing scheme.

Sprinter Justin Gatlin's offense was testing positive for a banned substance that he maintains was in medication prescribed by his doctor.

Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion in the 100 meters, launched a furious legal appeal to try to get to the trials and have a chance to defend his title -- and his honor -- but lost at the federal level last week.

Maybe Gatlin's account is true, but his presence at Hayward Field with the other Beijing hopefuls would have been a story unto itself, and not one any of the organizations affiliated with the sport would have been happy about.

Other sprinters were reluctant to express relief that Gatlin isn't at the trials, but that no doubt is the case, and not just because of the competition he would have provided on the track.

"I think the main focus this year, with the new breed of sprinters we have, is everyone's geared toward making the team. Our direction, our attitude is that we're young, clean athletes and you're either with us, or you're against us," said Wallace Spearmon, who didn't make the Olympics in the 100 but has a good shot in the 200 and relay teams.

That's what we'll all have to decide -- whether we're with them or against them.