Sports

Carl Lewis Blasts USA Track After Men’s 4x100M Relay Screws Up For Fifth Straight Time

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Getty Image / Patrick Smith


USA Track and Field has been an absolute powerhouse at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. They’ve completely dominated the competition, with 25 more medals than the next best nation.

That being said, they once again could not figure out how to get the baton successfully around the track in the Men’s 4x100M dash, failing to medal for the fifth straight Olympics after being disqualified in Friday’s finals. And, arguably the best USA Track and Field athlete ever in Carl Lewis is fired up.

Here is the race, and you can see massive issues for the USA on the first and third handoffs.

It would be one thing if this was a one-off occurrence for Team USA at the Olympic Games. Handoff screwups and a doping ban have kept them off the podium since a silver medal in Athens in 2004. Even without Noah Lyles, who was out due to COVID after winning the 100m Dash and taking the bronze in the 200m dash, the USA were still huge favorites and couldn’t get it done.

Christian Coleman’s handoff to Kenny Bednarek was out of the handoff zone, thus the disqualification. It wouldn’t have mattered anyways, as the final handoff between Kyree King and Fred Kerley was absolutely terrible and gave Kerley no chance to make up ground on the field.

And, the great Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic golds and two Olympic 4x100m Relays, was not pleased. Take a look.

He’s right, this is completely inexcusable. If you watch your state’s high school track meet, you will see tons of teams of high school kids with perfect handoffs all the way around the track. There’s no reason that the USA can’t figure out the handoffs in between Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games

And, somewhat prophetically, the great Carl Lewis was mad about USA Track’s screwup in Tokyo 2021 when bad handoffs and a poor anchor leg had them sixth in their heat and out of the finals.

In many ways, USA Track and Field has carried Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics. But, they’ve got to figure out the Men’s 4x100m Relay before Los Angeles. Messing it up in front of a home crowd would be incredibly embarrassing.