After a gold medal efficiency from the US girls within the 4×100 meters relay on a wet night time on the Stade de France in Paris, expectations had been excessive that the American males would exorcise their previous demons and win their first Olympic gold since 2000.
To cite NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico, the end result was “predictable.” It was a catastrophe from the primary change to the final.
With 100-meter champion and Olympic 200-meter bronze medalist Noah Lyles faraway from his normal anchor leg duties after contracting COVID-19 earlier within the week, the People needed to shuffle their lineup greater than anticipated from the preliminary spherical efficiency. Fred Kerley, the 100-meter bronze medalist, was moved to the anchor leg, whereas 200-meter silver medalist Kenny Bednarek assumed Kerley’s function on the second leg.
Former 100-meter world champion Christian Coleman had leadoff duties for the US, however his baton go to Bednarek was a complete mess. Bednarek left early and virtually got here to a full cease to obtain the baton, with Coleman nearly crashing into his again. By the point Bednarek had the baton in his hand, he was effectively out of the change zone, which is an computerized disqualification. Kyree King’s go to Fred Kerley was additionally clunky, however the harm was already executed on the primary change.
In the meantime, on the entrance of the pack, Canada pulled off a shock gold medal victory from Lane 9 for his or her first Olympic title on this occasion since Donovan Bailey anchored them to a well-known win over the People in Atlanta 1996. South Africa ran a continental report 37.57 for silver, whereas Nice Britain scored a bronze medal over reigning Olympic champions Italy.
Here is the place all of it went unsuitable for Crew USA.
Beneath is when Bednarek began leaving his mark –Coleman is nowhere close to the tape of their lane.
Coleman truly ran an important leg, however Bednarek left means too early and gave them mainly no shot to finish handoff cleanly. pic.twitter.com/WWGAMmIOEm
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) August 9, 2024
That is nothing new for the American males
Whereas the USA males did win world titles in 2019 and 2023, their observe report (pardon the pun) has been plagued by DNFs and DQs over the previous 30 years. The tally is now as much as 9 relationship again to the 1995 World Championships in Sweden.
1995 World Championships – DNF (heats)
1997 World Championships – DNF (heats)
2005 World Championships – DNF (heats)
2008 Olympics – DNF (heats)
2009 World Championships – DQ (heats)
2011 World Championships – DNF (ultimate)
2015 World Championships – DQ (ultimate)
2016 Olympics – DQ (ultimate)
2024 Olympics – DQ (ultimate)
This doesn’t even embrace retroactive disqualifications for the 2001 Worlds and 2012 Olympics for steroid failures, in any other case this complete could be in double figures. It additionally leaves out dangerous baton exchanges that more than likely price them gold medals within the 2004 Olympics and 2022 World Championships, in addition to a botched change within the Tokyo Olympics that didn’t result in a DQ or DNF however however noticed them eradicated within the heats.
Even with out Lyles, this was by far one of the best likelihood for the US to brush the Olympic males’s and ladies’s 4x100m relay for the primary time since Barcelona 1992. The ladies did their half and we received a great meme out of it from Sha’Carri Richardson. Sadly, the lads have as soon as once more didn’t ship on the Olympic Video games.
