Carl Lewis 'furious' at Team USA sprint coaches after botched hand-off dooms 4x100m relay: 'I'm done with them'

Stop us if you’ve heard this before. The U.S. men’s sprint relay team failed to medal at the Olympics. Again. And Carl Lewis, the legendary track star, is furious with the futility.

Team USA finished seventh. To add to their misery, they were disqualified over a bad exchange between the first and second legs of the 4X100 relay. After Friday, the United States has not medaled at the Olympics in the 4X100 relay since 2004. The last time they won the race was in 2000 at the Sydney Games in Australia. This is a relay the Americans used to dominate. They won it 15 times since the Olympics added the event in 1912.

Andre de Grasse anchors Canada to 4x100m GOLD in Paris! 🇨🇦 #ParisOlympics

📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/uA15jxhZHb

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2024

NBC reporter relayed that Carl Lewis is ‘angry’ at result

Lewis Johnson, the track analyst for the NBC Olympics coverage, was standing near Lewis as the men sprinted around the track at the Stade de France outside Paris. Lewis is now the head track coach at the University of Houston, his alma mater.

Johnson relayed what Lewis said, adding that the icon with nine Olympic golds, was “furious.”

“A few moments ago, I talked with the Olympic legend Carl Lewis,” Johnson said. “He was down here just a few feet away from me as the men’s 400-meter relay was contested. Carl is furious and he’s angry about several things.

“First of all, he’s angry about a system that he says is not set up to help the United States move forward and do well,” Johnson said. “He’s also angry that they didn’t have the right people in the right places. If Noah Lyles was out sick with Covid, they should’ve just replaced the anchor leg and nothing else. But the fact they reordered the entire relay had him worried and at the end, had him upset.”

Lewis was filmed by NBC cameras expressing his frustration, including mouthing: “I’m done with them.”

Lewis says Team USA still could’ve won without Noah Lyles

Lyles won the 100 meters earlier this week. He was supposed to run the anchor leg on the relay. But after he fell to the bronze medal in the 200, his signature event, Lyles revealed he’d been diagnosed with Covid the morning after he won the gold in the 100. Hours after he confirmed his Covid diagnosis, he announced he wouldn’t be running the relay.”

According to Johnson, Carl Lewis said that the Americans could have absorbed the loss of Lyles and still won.

“King Carl has been a part of multiple Olympic game signature moments, world records,” Johnson said. “And as he stood there and watched this, he shook his head and was really disgusted. He was absolutely furious that it happened. He’s frustrated with the athletes and the system that put them in place not to succeed tonight in Paris.”

The problem, Friday, happened just after the race started. Kenny Bednarek, the silver medalist in the 200, apparently left early as he anticipated the baton from Christian Coleman. Bednarek then slowed down to get the baton. Fred Kerley, running the anchor, tried to get the US back into contention, but it was out of his control.