Sha’Carri Richardson is an Olympic champion, as of Friday. The 24-year-old American sprinter anchored the USA Women’s 4×1 relay to gold, in 41.78 in rainy at Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The quartet of Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas and Richardson was enough to get USA on top of the podium for the third time in 12 years, three of the last four Olympics Games.
“We just looked at what we did yesterday, had a talk amongst each other, then make the necessary corrections going in,” said Terry. “But we still had trust and confidence in one another. And that’s what we’ve brought out here today.”
Despite the brief shower, USA got out the gate with a decent start by Jefferson, Terry continued to make ground on the field, The 200m Olympic Champion did her job on the curve to keep the lady’s in the race, handing the baton to Richardson in 4th place. Richardson had the task of running down Britain, Germany and France, and after passing them, looked over to her right with a contentious glance.
Sha’Carri Richardson’s Paris 2024 stunner
Sha’Carri Richardson’s Richardson ran home in a 10.09 split, crossing the line screaming in conquest.
Great Britain was second, with Daryll Neita bringing the Jackrabbits home in 41.85 and Germany was third in 41.97.
The moment that I would describe is realizing that when we won as USA ladies, it was a phenomenal feeling for all of us,” said Richardson.
While the women have seemed to righted their ship, the U.S. men this century seemed stuck in a time loop, fumbling their relay fortunes with botched handoff after botched handoffs or, careless roster construction.
This year, they also had the misfortune of not having their fastest man this season and usual fourth leg, Noah Lyles, who had to withdraw from Olympic competition following the 200m final due to an untimely Covid diagnosis.
Lyles anchored last year’s gold medal winning 4×1 relay team at the Budapest world championships as well as in Doha 2019. He was set to anchor on Friday before news of his Covid infection broke.
He posted on several social media platforms,
“First I want to thank God for getting me through this entire Olympics! Second I want to congratulate @LetsileTebogo3 @kenny_bednarek and everyone else on an amazing Olympic 200m final. Finally I want to thank everyone for the supportive messages. I believe this will be the end of my 2024 Olympics. It is not the Olympics I dreamed of but it has left me with so much Joy in my heart. I hope everyone enjoyed the show. Whether you were rooting for me or against me, you have to admit you watched, didn’t you?😜
See you next time
Sincerely, Your world’s fastest man for the next 4 years!”
This left USATF with the task of reshuffling their relay order. Instead of Coleman handing off to Fred Kerley’s, Kenny Bednarek would be second and Kerley (the 100m bronze medalist with a 9.76 PR) would assume anchor duties, Kyree King, a leg in the heats, would fill third leg in the final.
The lack of continuity would be regretted by the first exchange as, Bednarek, fresh off another 200m silver, left a little early and had to slow down for Coleman. This ultimately led to a grossly delayed pass that essentially ended their race. Not to mention, a disqualification was the ultimate result, given it was outside of the exchange zone.
The team managed to cross the line in 7th place, in 37.89 before the official confirmation.
“Obviously we all are going to be hard on ourselves,” said Coleman who had just finished competing in his first Olympic final since missing out on making Team USA in any individual events. “Obviously, it’s a little disappointing, especially for America, because we wanted to do it, we wanted to bring it home, we knew we had the speed to do it,” said Coleman.
After winning gold in Sydney, USATF’s male 4x100m has had its chances at mounting the top of the Olympic podium. With names like, Geene, Gatlin, Gay, Crawford, Bromell, Kerley, Coleman taking part, the highest finish has been silver.
Despite an occasional triumph at one of the more frequent World Athletics Championships, they always seem to either get in their own way, or simply not be good enough (which was the case for their eventually nullified 2012 outing) on Track and Field’s grandest stage.
American icon Carl Lewis, who was overtly furious three years ago, when the U.S. failed to even qualify for the final, was even angrier about this generation’s relay woes.
He tweeted/posted on X: “It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at @usatf is more concerned with relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom.”
Canada would win the race in 37.50, after Andre De Grasse’s anchor leg, running past China and Italy and bringing South Africa (37.57) Great Britain (37.61) with him as Canada relived their Donovan Bailey era glory days a bit.
Christian Coleman did provide some optimism in his reaction to the latest mishap.
“All of us are world class, and I expect all of us will be back on the team in LA,” Coleman said. “I think on home soil, we’ll be able to have the confidence to bring it on home.”
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