Carl Lewis calls US men’s 4×100 relay team’s performance a ‘total embarrassment’

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis did not like what he saw from Team USA in the 4×100 relay in the Tokyo Olympics.

The team bumbled baton tosses and failed to advance to the finals.

In a tweet, Lewis said the “USA Team did everything wrong.”

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

He added, “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.”

The U.S. hasn’t won the Olympic 4×100 since 2000 and hasn’t made it cleanly to the finish line in a final since taking a silver medal in 2012. But they gave that one back because of a doping ban against Tyson Gay. The U.S. got DQ’d for another bad pass in the medal race in 2016.

Lewis is hopeful the team will get better. He tweeted Thursday, “It’s the next day and time to focus on solving the problem. All hands on deck.”