It was a familiar scene Friday for Team USA in the men’s 4×100-meter relay, as their formidable speed was halted once again by a botched baton pass.
In their quest to win their first Olympic gold medal in the event in 24 years and end a 20-year Olympic medal drought, they not only finished off the podium but were disqualified after they flubbed the first exchange.
American track legend Carl Lewis, who has long been calling for a coaching overhaul on the men’s side, condemned the program’s repeated failure to meet the moment.
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“It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable,” Lewis wrote on X. “It is clear that EVERYONE at USAFT [USA Track & Field] is more concerned with relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom.”
The Canadian men won in an upset, their first gold in the event since the 1996 Atlanta Games. South Africa took silver and Great Britain the bronze.
The U.S. men’s team entered the relay final as gold medal favorites, in theory, as the reigning world champions and fastest qualifiers. History, however, boded otherwise.
Since 1995, the U.S. has suffered 11 baton errors resulting in disqualifications or bans, including most recently at the 2022 World Championships.
Lack of talent does not appear to be the problem.
On the eve of the race, Lewis foreshadowed the U.S. men’s potential to crumble under the Olympic spotlight but shifted responsibility for any negative outcomes to the coaching staff.
“If @TeamUSA wins all relays tomorrow, you talk to the athletes. If something happens and they do not sweep. ONLY talk to the coaches,” Lewis said in a post to X.
The team of Christian Coleman, Kenneth Bednarek, Kyree King and Fred Kerley finished seventh before the disqualification.
Coleman, who was part of the botched baton handoff, told reporters in Paris that the team “had the speed” to win, but couldn’t put it together when it counted.
“It’s a little disappointing, especially for America, because we wanted to bring it home,” Coleman said. “We knew we had the speed to do it … but we are human beings, too. We’ve been through ups and downs in life. This is just another one of those times where we just got to keep our head down and just keep pushing.”
They ran on a slick track, but the U.S. women’s team braved even rainier conditions ahead of the men’s final Friday and overcame a precarious baton bauble to clinch gold.
Women’s 100-meter silver medalist Sha’Carri Richardson anchored the U.S. effort, earning her first Olympic gold. It’s the U.S. women’s 12th Olympic medal in the event and their win was an improvement on their second-place finish in Tokyo.
Newly minted men’s 100-meter Olympic champion Noah Lyles was out of commission for the relay after testing positive for Covid on Tuesday.
He won bronze in his signature event, the 200-meter, Thursday, despite his diagnosis, but was left gasping for air after the race and left the track in a wheelchair.
Lyles subsequently said his Paris Olympics had come to an end.
“I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics,” he said. “It is not the Olympic I dreamed of but it has left me with so much Joy in my heart.”