In the men’s 4×100-meter relay on Saturday, the men on the U.S team made a grievous mistake that cost them gold…again. They had to instead content themselves with a silver medal, with a time of 37.55 seconds.
Canada surpassed the U.S. with a speed of 37.48 and was awarded the gold medal.
It was in the final handoff that the terrible mistake happened. Elijah Hall, a member of the U.S male relay team, fell over while passing the baton to Marvin Bracey, a teammate. In that time, Canada took advantage of the mistake to sprint ahead of the U.S.
That was not the first mistake the U.S. men have made in the higher levels of relay races. The U.S. relay team has not won gold in the Olympics since 2000. Out of five world championships, the U.S. was disqualified from two of them. In another one, they didn’t reach the finish line. The other two went marginally better and the U.S. won silver.
One of the worst mistakes was when the men finished in sixth place in the preliminary heats because they were too slow. This disappointed many. As the field athlete Carl Lewis said, “The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay.”
Source: The New York Times American Women Run Away with Gold in the 4X100-Meters. American Men Settle for Silver.
Canada surpassed the U.S. with a speed of 37.48 and was awarded the gold medal.
It was in the final handoff that the terrible mistake happened. Elijah Hall, a member of the U.S male relay team, fell over while passing the baton to Marvin Bracey, a teammate. In that time, Canada took advantage of the mistake to sprint ahead of the U.S.
That was not the first mistake the U.S. men have made in the higher levels of relay races. The U.S. relay team has not won gold in the Olympics since 2000. Out of five world championships, the U.S. was disqualified from two of them. In another one, they didn’t reach the finish line. The other two went marginally better and the U.S. won silver.
One of the worst mistakes was when the men finished in sixth place in the preliminary heats because they were too slow. This disappointed many. As the field athlete Carl Lewis said, “The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay.”
Source: The New York Times American Women Run Away with Gold in the 4X100-Meters. American Men Settle for Silver.
