Posted on 08/09/2024 10:46:39 PM PDT by lasereye
Seeing the U.S. men bumble through another 4x100-meter Olympic final was difficult enough for any fan of the domestic track and field program. But it was downright infuriating for someone who's taken multiple turns on the biggest stage and succeeded -- four-time Olympian Carl Lewis.
Now 63 years old, Lewis was a 10-time medalist across four Olympics from 1984 to 1996, including relay golds in the 4x100 at Los Angeles and Barcelona. American teams won seven golds and a silver in the event from 1964 to 2000, but a silver at Athens in 2004 was the last trip to the podium before what's now become a 20-year medal drought.
And if it weren't bad enough that the medals have stopped coming, it's even worse that they've dried up by the most agonizing of means, including baton-pass botches in 2008, 2016 and 2020. The same thing happened again on Friday, when Kenny Bednarek got too big a head start before taking the initial pass from Christian Coleman, instantly slowing the exchange and taking the U.S. out of contention before being hit with a disqualification after anchorman Fred Kerley hit the line in seventh place.
Kyree King, who ran the third leg, was filling in after dual-medalist Noah Lyles went public with a COVID-19 diagnosis and said he'd withdraw from the relay. But rather than simply plugging the new runner Lyles' anchor spot, the entire lineup was shuffled, perhaps leading to the botch in the final.
Lewis was there at the track, and NBC cameras caught his visible frustration. It didn't stop there, though, as the angst boiled over into a subsequent social media post, in which he suggested systemic changes were needed at USA Track and Field, the sport's domestic governing body.
"It is time to blow up the system," Lewis said on X (formerly Twitter). "This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that everyone at USATF 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."
my high school team hands off the baton better than 80% of ALL the teams I saw competing in the Olympics
Lewis has a point, that the missing runner should have simply been replaced, rather than shuffling the lineup. That messed up the timing of all the runners.
That seems like something that would come with practicing together.
It was obvious that the 2nd runner receiving the first hand off left way too early and then had to almost stop in order to not go past the passing zone before getting the baton.
well if our Olympic relay teams are not practicing together before the event, everyone involved needs to be fired.
I don’t know if they are, but it seems kind of weird they would have so much problem with that if they did.
Do you think he could really beat Carl Lewis?
He’s Carl Lewis!
Ha. 2004 is the year the Red Sox finally conquered the World Series curse. Somehow the hex was transferred to American relay teams (j. K., they’ve done just fine at World Championships. They just seem to mess up in Olympics, it’s an odd recurring theme).
Passing the baton is a major part of the 4x100 relay.
Some teams spend a lot of time practicing it.
US team obviously did not. They were good individual athletes, but not a team!
Some teams spend a lot of time practicing it.
This is still an acceptable form of criticism. But if you say men should not box with women Facebook will delete your entire account. Just happened to Richard Dawkins who is a known British evolutionary biologist and zoologist
In my 60s at an age group meet I joined a 4x400 relay team after never having done a baton passing event in my life. After very few minutes of coaching and practice we were all doing underhand blind passes. Not the same? No, not exactly. We were clean and they were not. Let me second Carl Lewis and say that this is inexcusable.
it makes complete sense. I trained for the Olympic decathlon for a decade and ran a lot of relays in college. These guys are running 20+ MPH and handing off a baton. Its not just a mix and math thing at the last minute- that doesn’t work. You basically know the top 4 guys in the country who will be on the team- have them work together. The US doesn’t
Why didn’t they have Bednarick- a 200m guy, run the turn rather than run the straight??
dude- 4x400 baton change versus 4x100 is night and day.
Never mind a bunch of 20 year old black men running the 4x100 versus a bunch of 60 years olds running the 4x400
But i agree, Lewis is correct
They are different but they are not. Both can be practiced. As I said, we did it blind.
Just watched it. Lewis is not wrong. What an embarrassment.
Who would make that decision? This all seems like common sense to me too. What purpose would it serve except to sabotage our efforts
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