After a gold medal performance from the United States women in the 4x100 meters relay on a rainy night at the Stade de France in Paris, expectations were high that the American men would exorcise their past demons and win their first Olympic gold since 2000.
To quote NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico, the result was “predictable.” It was a disaster from the first exchange to the last.
With 100-meter champion and Olympic 200-meter bronze medalist Noah Lyles removed from his usual anchor leg duties after contracting COVID-19 earlier in the week, the Americans had to shuffle their lineup more than expected from the preliminary round performance. Fred Kerley, the 100-meter bronze medalist, was moved to the anchor leg, while 200-meter silver medalist Kenny Bednarek assumed Kerley’s role on the second leg.
Former 100-meter world champion Christian Coleman had leadoff duties for the US, but his baton pass to Bednarek was a total mess. Bednarek left early and almost came to a full stop to receive the baton, with Coleman just about crashing into his back. By the time Bednarek had the baton in his hand, he was well out of the exchange zone, which is an automatic disqualification. Kyree King’s pass to Fred Kerley was also clunky, but the damage was already done on the first exchange.
Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, Canada pulled off a surprise gold medal victory from Lane 9 for their first Olympic title in this event since Donovan Bailey anchored them to a famous win over the Americans in Atlanta 1996. South Africa ran a continental record 37.57 for silver, while Great Britain scored a bronze medal over reigning Olympic champions Italy.
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) August 9, 2024Here's where it all went wrong for Team USA.
Below is when Bednarek started leaving his mark --Coleman is nowhere near the tape in their lane.
Coleman actually ran a great leg, but Bednarek left way too early and gave them basically no shot to complete handoff cleanly. pic.twitter.com/WWGAMmIOEm
This is nothing new for the American men
While the USA men did win world titles in 2019 and 2023, their track record (pardon the pun) has been littered with DNFs and DQs for baton-related infringements over the past 30 years. The tally is now up to nine dating back 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 (final)
2015 World Championships - DQ (final)
2016 Olympics - DQ (final)
2024 Olympics - DQ (final)
This doesn’t even include retroactive disqualifications for the 2001 Worlds and 2012 Olympics for steroid failures, otherwise this total would be in double figures. It also leaves out bad baton exchanges that most likely cost them gold medals in the 2004 Olympics and 2022 World Championships, as well as a botched exchange in the Tokyo Olympics that didn’t lead to a DQ or DNF but nevertheless saw them eliminated in the heats.
Even without Lyles, this was by far the best chance for the United States to sweep the Olympic men’s and women’s 4x100m relay for the first time since Barcelona 1992. The women did their part and we got a tremendous meme out of it from Sha’Carri Richardson. Unfortunately, the men have once again failed to deliver at the Olympic Games.