Olympic Men’s 4 x 100 — DQ-Ja Vu All Over Again

TO PARAPHRASE TOLSTOY, every unhappy relay is unhappy in its own way. This Olympics, we have two distinct threads in the 4 x 100, a happy one, starring Canada, and a very unhappy one, featuring another star-crossed quartet from the United States.

The Canadian thread is easy to tell: a sharp team put together three solid handoffs and grabbed gold in 37.50 in an exciting and close race. The U.S. thread is a bit more complicated: U.S. coaches took a team that ran a world-leading 37.47 in the heats, made a substitution, changed the order, and ended up with a disqualification in the first 10 seconds or so of the final.

For both threads we’ll start with the heats. The first was remarkably fast. The U.S. team of Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kyree King and Courtney Lindsey dominated in 37.47, a time just 0.08 short of the fastest heat ever despite an ugly handoff from Coleman to Kerley. South Africa followed in 37.94, then Britain in 38.04. Japan and Italy got the two time qualifiers. In the second, the Chinese won in 38.24, topping France (38.34) and Canada (38.39). The Canadians cut it close with a margin of just 0.06 over Jamaica to grab the last qualifying spot. Both Australia and Nigeria from heat 1 had run faster than China but did not make the final.

U.S. coaches had expected Noah Lyles to join the team for the final, along with Kenny Bednarek. However, after Lyles’ 200 finish and Covid announcement, they went with plan B. They chose to put Bednarek on the second leg, moving Kerley to the anchor, meaning that every exchange combination would be different than in the heats.

The rain ended before the race, though the track remained very wet. At the gun Coleman got out like lightning. His split of 9.86 is the fastest-ever leadoff, measured by the chip inside the baton. The French were a half-second behind, and the Canadian lead-off, Aaron Brown, recorded a 10.43.

That is also where the thread unraveled for the Americans. Bednarek, the 200 silver medalist, left too early and Coleman could not catch him in time. Bednarek slammed on the brakes too late, Coleman ran into his back, and the stick changed hands out of the zone.

On the backstretch, Japan, Italy and France led, with Canada’s Jerome Black bringing his team up to…