NJ's Carl Lewis Sounds Off On Team USA's Olympic Relay Collapse

BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ — Olympic legend and Burlington County native Carl Lewis is blasting the effort of Team USA’s 4x100 meter relay team after it failed to advance out of a qualifying heat at the Tokyo Games.

Team USA finished sixth in their heat in the event. The top three finishers in each heat and the two next best times advance to the finals.

Lewis, a Willingboro native who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver and 10 World Championships, including eight gold, took to social media to voice his frustration with this year’s team.

“The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay,” Lewis said via Twitter. “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 team suffered from a noticeably bad hand-off on the second exchange. It’s the first time the team failed to qualify for the final since 2008. The U.S. men’s 4x100 meter relay team last won a gold medal in 2000, and a silver in 2012.

Lewis took some heat for his comments on Twitter.

“This tweet leaves a bad taste, lacks class,” one follower wrote. “You have status. Air it out internally with team USA. Bad look.”

“So now we are kicking people when they are down,” another wrote. “Is that what we do?”
One follower did agree.

“Thank you, Champ,” they wrote. “The US men’s sprinters showboat way too much and are down right embarrassing. Four straight Olympic Games that they will not medal in an event we used to own. The Japanese and the Chinese have passed us up in sprinting. Sad, but true.”