American track and field legend Carl Lewis has slammed the performance of the USA men's 4x100m relay team after they failed to qualify for the Olympic final in Tokyo.
The Americans are the traditional powerhouse in this event, winning the gold medal in the men's event on 15 occasions and in the women's on 11 occasions.
However, the men's team have not even medalled in the event since 2004, being stripped of their silver in 2012 after Tyson Gay's failed drug test.
That won't be changing in Tokyo after the team finished sixth in their heat, even failing to make the final as one of the two fastest losers after finishing behind the likes of Ghana and Italy.
The quartet of Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie certainly underperformed in the event.
𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐉𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐂𝐊 🇺🇸
In one of the shocks of #Tokyo2020, Team USA 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥 to qualify for the men's 4x100m relay final.
Who saw that 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 😲#Tokyo2020 | #Athletics pic.twitter.com/nLXe2nLw20— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 5, 2021
The result is unlikely to be received kindly in American athletics circles, with Lewis amongst the first to put the boot in.
He said the team 'did everything wrong', saying their performance did not compare well to the standard you would expect to see at high school level.
The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw .
— Carl Lewis (@Carl_Lewis) August 5, 2021
The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay.
The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership.
It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw.
Lewis knows what it takes to succeed at the Olympics, winning nine gold medals and one silver four different games in both sprinting and long jump events.
Considering the competitive nature of American sprint teams, we imagine they will take a long look at how they managed to miss out on the medals in this event once again.
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