The U.S. men’s 4×100 relay team had a rough time in Tokyo, finishing sixth in its heat and not even qualifying for the final.
It was a disappointment for a quartet of some of the world’s fastest runners — Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie. And nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis had seen enough.
The all-time track and field great took to Twitter to express his disappointment and didn’t hold back, saying “The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay” and calling it a “total embarrassment” and “completely unacceptable.”
But that wasn’t all! Here’s the tweet …
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
And here’s what he told USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan in a phone interview:
“This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared,” Lewis said in a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports.
“It’s unacceptable. 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.”
Wow.
