Opinion — That USA 4×1 Pass In Paris

Dennis Grady, a long-time sprint relay analyst and critic, has contributed several articles on this subject to our Track Coach publication. It won’t surprise you that Grady has strong opinions on the botched first pass by the USA men’s 4×1 squad in the Paris Olympic final. The gaffe ultimately led to a DQ. Not since Sydney 2000 has a U.S. men’s short relay team won Olympic gold. Recent history is fraught with frustration. Below you will find a letter from Grady expressing his take on what went wrong as Christian Coleman passed to late second-leg substitute Kenny Bednarek in the Stade de France in August.

I just watched again the video of the men’s Olympic 4×1 final. It was obvious that Kenny Bednarek, who by all accounts was slated to run the third leg before Noah Lyles got sick, was switched to the second leg to keep Kyree King in the same spot as the preliminary heat, and Fred Kerley was moved to anchor.

It appears to me that Bednarek set up at the zone exactly the same way he would have set up at the second exchange. The coaches failed to take into account how Bednarek’s stance and technique for looking back would not be a good idea for the first exchange.

First mistake: Kenny gets up into his three-point stance (which I have repeatedly said is riskier than a two-point stance) and critically was looking through his legs to see Coleman, as soon as the gun went off, therefore holding that position for much longer than necessary — and also not having any idea as to how Coleman is doing. Most importantly, he cannot see anything except what is straight behind him.

Second mistake: Because KB is holding his position for what would seem like forever, he is eager and ready to take off as soon as he sees someone in his narrow field of vision… which he does, but the runner he could see then was in the next lane [6], who was ahead of Coleman due to the stagger. If Kenny had been standing up and looking at Coleman as he approached the mark, he would not have taken off so early.

Third mistake: Making more changes than absolutely necessary: Coleman-Kerley-Bednarek-Lindsey = Gold.

Bad luck with the lane draw: If the U.S. had been in lane 7, 8 or 9, KB’s erroneous technique would probably not have had the same result. And at the second exchange Kenny would have seen Fred Kerley storming down the…