Team USA's embarrassing sixth-place performance in a men's 4X100 relay heat was slammed on Thursday by nine-time gold medalist Carl Lewis, who took aim at the American sprinters and their coaches for their failure to qualify for the final.
'It was a total embarrassment,' tweeted the 60-year-old track and field legend.
The US boasted several top 100-meter sprinters, including Tokyo 2020 finalists Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker, as well as Trayvon Bromell and Cravon Gillespie.
Unfortunately for the Americans, a botched second baton exchange killed the team's momentum, and Gillespe's final leg failed to close the gap.
Initially Baker inadvertently grabbed Kerley's jersey while reaching for the baton before whiffing and ultimately hauling it in.
'The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay,' Lewis wrote on Twitter. '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.'
American sprinter Fred Kerley (left) struggles to hand the baton to Ronnie Baker of the US in the Men's 4x100m Relay heats during the Athletics events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Team USA's embarrassing sixth-place performance in a men's 4X100 relay heat was slammed on Thursday by nine-time gold medalist Carl Lewis, who took aim at the American sprinters and their coaches for their failure to qualify for the final
Lewis, a two-time gold medalist in the 4X100 relay, thought the runners's roles were miscast
The exchange between Kerley and Baker wrecked the Americans in qualifying Thursday, leading to a sixth-place finish that left them out of the final and extended a quarter-century of misery for the country that brings the deepest track team to the Games.
'We just didn't get the job done today. That's all,' said Kerley, who ran the second leg.
Outrage spread quickly, as it always does when this happens.
Lewis, a two-time gold medalist in the 4X100 relay, went into more detail with USA Today. The 60-year-old University of Houston assistant track coach appeared to take aim at Orin Richburg, the USA Track and Field coach who was not made available to reporters after Thursday's poor showing in Tokyo.
'This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared,' Lewis said.
'It's unacceptable,' he continued. 'It's so disheartening to see this because it's people's lives. We're just playing games with people's lives. That's why I'm so upset. It's totally avoidable. And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can't take it anymore. It's just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.'
