SAINT-DENIS, France — For Sha’Carri Richardson, this was a beautiful relay through the rain.
The only shame was that she couldn’t stay out there to help the men’s team win, too.
Richardson captured her first Olympic gold medal with a come-from-behind anchor leg for the United States in the Olympic 4x100 on Friday, then stepped aside to watch the U.S. men extend their streak to 20 years without a medal at the Games.
This year’s mishap happened quickly, on the first exchange, when Christian Coleman crashed into Kenny Bednarek, then actually passed him as they were awkwardly passing the baton. The U.S. was disqualified for an illegal pass.
It was a more-of-the-same result for a team that raced without 100-meter champion Noah Lyles, who pulled out of the Olympics with COVID. Even without Lyles, the speed of the Americans made it their race to lose.
They always find a way.
“It just didn’t happen,” Coleman said. “Maybe we could have put in some more work. I just think in the moment it didn’t happen.”
Andre De Grasse put a bright mark on an otherwise disappointing Olympics by anchoring Canada to gold in a time of 37.50 seconds. It was the first medal in Paris for De Grasse, but his seventh overall. South Africa finished second and Britain third.
The run by Richardson and her teammates was everything the men’s race was not - filled with smooth safe passes of a rain-slickened baton, then capped off by America’s fastest 100-meter runner.
The silver medalist from the 100 received the baton from Thomas in third place. By the halfway point of her leg, Richardson had overcome runners from Britain and Germany. She glanced to her right - and backwards - and gave a look of “you’re not catching me,” then took eight more steps. On the ninth one, Richardson slammed her left foot on the ground over the finish line and let out a yell.
The Americans won in 41.78 seconds, good for a .07-second win over Britain, which struggled with two baton changes in the rain.
“The moment that I would describe is realizing that when we won as USA ladies, it was a phenomenal feeling for all of us,” Richardson said.
Gabby Thomas ran the third leg and got her second gold of the Games, this one going with the 200-meter title. Twanisha Terry and 100 bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson rounded out the team. The exchange between Terry and Thomas that nearly wrecked the Americans in qualifying was better this time.
It marked a sweet close to the Olympics for Richardson, who came into the Olympics as a favorite but surprisingly fell to Julien Alfred of St. Lucia.
For the men, just another bad pass that will certainly lead to four more years of questions about a program that cannot get its act together.
Some might blame it on what a late lineup change. Lyles, who ran anchor in the U.S. victory last year at world championships, probably would have done so again at Stade de France.
But that task went to Kerley, and Bednarek ran second. It set him up to receive the pass from Coleman. A day earlier in qualifying, Coleman handed to Kerley with his right hand while grabbing Kerley’s arm with his left - an awkward exchange that didn’t cost anything.
This one did.
“At the end of the day, we knew what we could do,” said Kyree King, who was mired in seventh place when he finished the third leg of a race where the U.S. would end up with a ‘DQ.’ “We came out here and we had the mindset of no risk, no reward, so we went out there and went big. It didn’t happen.”
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