SAINT-DENIS, France – The Olympic medal drought for the U.S. men’s 4×100 relay is going to continue on to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The U.S. men’s 4×100 squad was disqualified Friday for running out of the zone. The U.S. has now had 11 dropped batons, disqualifications or bans in the Olympics and World Championships since 1995, according to Reuters. The team hasn’t medaled in the 4×100 relay since taking silver at the 2004 Athens Games. The team’s last gold medal was at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Canada took full advantage of Team USA’s latest 4×100 mishap. Canada finished first at 37.50, South Africa took second, running a 37.57 and Great Britain clocked in at 37.61 to take bronze.
USA TODAY Sports breaks downs what went wrong with the men’s 4×100-relay team at Stade de France:
Poor chemistry
Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kyree King and Courtney Lindsey made up the squad in the opening round. They had decent baton exchanges on the way to a first-round winning time of 37.47 to advance to the final.
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The USA coaches elected to replace Lindsey with Kenny Bednarek. Furthermore, they changed the order. The team decided to keep Coleman at leadoff, but put Bednarek at second leg, King at third leg and Kerley ran anchor. The substitution, plus leg changes hurt the team’s chemistry going into the final. It’s not a coincidence that the disqualification happened between Coleman and Bednarek, who was added on for the final.
The 4×100 relay is as much about chemistry and timing as it is pure speed.
Kenny Bednarek took off too early
Bednarek at the second leg is taught to take off once the first-leg runner (Coleman) reaches a certain spot. Bednarek began to accelerate too early which caused the handoff to be out of the zone. It is almost always the outgoing runner’s fault when the gap doesn’t close for the baton to be exchanged.
The gap between Coleman and Bednarek widened, which forced Bednarek to nearly stop. However, it was too late because the infraction was already committed.
Kyree King, Fred Kerley slow exchange
The final handoff would prove to be inconsequential because the U.S team was disqualified at the end of the race for ‘passing the baton outside the takeover zone.’ But the handoff between King and Kerley was poor. The anchor leg is supposed to retrieve the baton with forward running momentum. But King passed the baton off to Kerley as the anchor had hardly any forward momentum.
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