Rai Benjamin said he had a late night out before the 4x400: "I was pretty much done, you know, so I had a pretty late night if you can imagine."

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15 hours ago 09/22/2025 11:32am EDT

re: Salvitore Stitchmo

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:
I think you are probably 100% right on that.
The USATF as everyone knows is just a garden bed of weeds that keep sustaining themselves and making sure no "flowers" ever find space to root and grow - no different to any god awful corporate really.
But as true as what you said might be, Rai just shouldn't be airing that out. What comes of? Either he makes himself look unprofessional (because not everyone has this context you are giving above), it looks like he is selling out his national body and teammates, or it looks like he is arrogantly dismissing their opponents on the track. So it's a complete loss situation for him, which based on the sentiment of the comments in this thread, validates that.

Serious question:

Do you genuinely think that you are a smart person?

15 hours ago 09/22/2025 11:52am EDT

re: amateur hour smh

I find Rai extremely attractive. He has such a cheeky smile and grin. When he said he would win a D measuring contest against Karsten, I nearly creamed my pants.

14 hours ago 09/22/2025 12:10pm EDT

re: amateur hour smh

amateur hour smh wrote:
In the post-race interview after the 4x400 final, Rai Benjamin said he had a late night out last night and wasn't even aware he was running the 4x400 until the morning of the final.
Was the team not made aware a protest was ongoing for the US team to be reinstated? Was Rai told he wasn't in the final lineup, and then they changed the lineup after the guys from the heats had to run twice? Or did Rai just drop the ball and not take his role seriously?
They only lost by hundredths so this might have been the decision-maker.
Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZLWkro2HQo

Well, it worked for Max McGee.

13 hours ago 09/22/2025 1:47pm EDT

re: trackfan9123

trackfan9123 wrote:
BotswanaWasBest wrote:
Nah, Botswana's team was just better. Consider the fact that they did win gold and bronze in the 400 singles and that the US' best man got 7th. Of course this discounts Rai who didn't participate in the 400. But moreover, three of Botswana's final four had ran the 400 relay heats the day before the final (none of the Americans did). This fatigue more than outweighs that Rai "had a late night out".
Rai ran a mid-44 split. He was in better shape than that. Regardless of his responsibility or not, Rai's poor leg cost the US an otherwise 5-7 meter win over Botswana.

That and the fact that lane one inside had big puddles to splash through, impacted first leg but also final stretch where Botswana was on the outside of lane one which was puddle free. It didn't take much and both of these were factors IMHO.

13 hours ago 09/22/2025 1:50pm EDT

re: Salvitore Stitchmo

Salvatore Stichmo: I 100% agree with youd

12 hours ago 09/22/2025 1:57pm EDT

re: SlowFatMaster

Disappointed in let'srun for not taking a deeper dive on his comments before casting judgment.
At one point he says-
"I did not really know we were running until this morning. ...I got the call this morning. "
Later he says "like I said, i was not really paying attention...I did not know I was running until this morning. Not gonna lie".
In between those comments, he did also mentioned about the the extra runoff race " a lot of people did not know what was going on behind the scenes.... Trying to figure everything out and we did not know till twelve or one that were running". So here he does seem fully aware of the runoff, and the reality that the US would be in the finals.

So one can only conclude from this That no one told him going during the protests that even though it might be a long shot, there was still a chance the US could make the finals and that there was a good chance he would be running in the finals. If he was told that I am absolutely sure he would not have just gone out partying.

And then no one reached out after they did make it to let him know that there was a good chance he was running in the finals. At least he could have then shut things down and gone immediately to bed.

I one hundred percent put this on the coaches.

Frankly, I give Rai credit for his honesty.

[ However, yes, there is a chance he is fibbing on some level. And therefore everyone needs to be asked exactly what went down with the decision making, and the communication and the timeline of it all. With US relays, usually someone drops the baton. But this time someone dropped the ball.]

12 hours ago 09/22/2025 1:58pm EDT

re: maybe not so fast

maybe not so fast wrote:
Okay, I have worked within the USATF sphere before, and there communication is absolutely pathetic. I give more grace to Rai. He left the track the night before thinking that the team had been eliminated as just about everyone else did. He went out on the town and never received a call differently. The final decision to accept the appeal and place the team in the re-run was made somewhere close to 11:00pm local time. As all of you know, you can do a lot of partying by 11:00pm if you want. As Rai said he did not know anything differently until the next morning. Who should have called him? So all of the fools from USATF that spent our money to go over and have a good time - none of them called to tell EVERYONE involved (all the 400 meter people). If Rai did not know until the following morning and I take him at his word then that is one the relay coach, USATF, and to some extent Rai's coach. Again, as someone who has worked within USATF in the past I was always shocked at the poor communication in the USATF group. I could provide you examples and you would all shake your heads and laugh. They are a bunch of of clowns and there have been many, many posts on this site about that.

I've never really done too much with USATF, but I believe this.

- Rai watches USA not qualify for 4x4

- No immediate news of appeal being successful

- Rai assumes the USA will not be running the next day, like we all did. And/or his coach(es) did not tell him the appeal was still in the works.

- Goes and parties with friends and family, like we all would

I probably wouldn't have mentioned this to the media, but honestly, I can imagine this not exactly being Rai's fault.

12 hours ago 09/22/2025 2:07pm EDT

re: I believe this

I believe this wrote:
I've never really done too much with USATF, but I believe this.
- Rai watches USA not qualify for 4x4
- No immediate news of appeal being successful
- Rai assumes the USA will not be running the next day, like we all did. And/or his coach(es) did not tell him the appeal was still in the works.
- Goes and parties with friends and family, like we all would
I probably wouldn't have mentioned this to the media, but honestly, I can imagine this not exactly being Rai's fault.

I feel like if the communication was half decent, every single person in the relay pool would have been notified or attended a quick meeting where they said, "Right now we're DQd, but we may be reinstated. Prepare to race tomorrow."

Would take like 5 minutes to do. Or a phone call. IDK, doesn't sound too hard!

11 hours ago 09/22/2025 2:59pm EDT

re: high school xc coach

high school xc coach wrote:
You have to be more professional than that wrote:
Rai Benjamin said in his interview after the 400 hurdles that he was going to run the 4x400. So he admitted that he knew was going to run the relay. But for some reason he decided "Screw it, I'm going out on the town anyway." Very unprofessional.
I really like rai, and he'll be relieved to know I'll forgive him, but he was so wrong and unprofessional here. unless he really somehow went off grid, no phone; and didn't know about the runoff.
I'm shocked he admitted to this so flippantly

Stop it jogger.

I split 45s in 1976, after boozing til after 4 am.

He ran more than fast enough. Botswana were always the favorite.

This is how real athletes behave.

11 hours ago 09/22/2025 3:28pm EDT

re: absolutelystupid

Rai split 44.40 this year after splitting 43.18 in Paris. Even accounting for the conditions of the track in Tokyo, it's clear he was not at his best there.

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:00pm EDT

re: maybe not so fast

maybe not so fast wrote:
Okay, I have worked within the USATF sphere before, and there communication is absolutely pathetic. I give more grace to Rai. He left the track the night before thinking that the team had been eliminated as just about everyone else did. He went out on the town and never received a call differently. The final decision to accept the appeal and place the team in the re-run was made somewhere close to 11:00pm local time. As all of you know, you can do a lot of partying by 11:00pm if you want. As Rai said he did not know anything differently until the next morning. Who should have called him? So all of the fools from USATF that spent our money to go over and have a good time - none of them called to tell EVERYONE involved (all the 400 meter people). If Rai did not know until the following morning and I take him at his word then that is one the relay coach, USATF, and to some extent Rai's coach. Again, as someone who has worked within USATF in the past I was always shocked at the poor communication in the USATF group. I could provide you examples and you would all shake your heads and laugh. They are a bunch of of clowns and there have been many, many posts on this site about that.

Well, Citius said that Chris Bailey—who actually ran in the prelim and runoff—learned about the runoff from their social media post. So I fully believe Rai just thought they were out. I think the initial request to be advanced was denied, too, so I can see them sticking around until that news and then hitting the town before the final decision comes through.

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:14pm EDT

re: absolutelystupid

absolutelystupid wrote:
high school xc coach wrote:
I really like rai, and he'll be relieved to know I'll forgive him, but he was so wrong and unprofessional here. unless he really somehow went off grid, no phone; and didn't know about the runoff.
I'm shocked he admitted to this so flippantly
Stop it jogger.
I split 45s in 1976, after boozing til after 4 am.
He ran more than fast enough. Botswana were always the favorite.
This is how real athletes behave.

you sound like a complete fa

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:23pm EDT

re: amateur hour smh

On the same but from a different angle: the US team would win if RSA didn't start pressing Botswana in the last 50m. That's when Botswana's runner woke up and soon after realize the US is not that far as it seemed before. At least, that's how it looked to me.

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:31pm EDT

re: He Got Whupped

He Got Whupped wrote:
What a Mah-roon wrote:
He probably thought it would come off as a valid, cool sounding excuse for losing, Mr. Party and all. But it doesn’t come off thet way. He’s a dope.
That’s part of it. But he was also trying to cover for the embarrasment of being run down in the stretch. He got his arse whipped and can’t handle it in honest fashion.

This^^^^

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:54pm EDT

re: JohnR

JohnR wrote:
BotswanaWasBest wrote:
Nah, Botswana's team was just better. Consider the fact that they did win gold and bronze in the 400 singles and that the US' best man got 7th. Of course this discounts Rai who didn't participate in the 400. But moreover, three of Botswana's final four had ran the 400 relay heats the day before the final (none of the Americans did). This fatigue more than outweighs that Rai "had a late night out".
That doesn't really get at the issue. Which is that regardless of pedigree the US had a sizable lead after 3 laps and would have won if Rai had delivered a good -- not great, just good -- anchor leg. He did not. This loss is on him.

Not like his leg in the 4x4 at ncaa’s to finish. That reminds me: what is michael norman doing these days?

9 hours ago 09/22/2025 5:56pm EDT

re: What a Mah-roon

What a Mah-roon wrote:
Let\'s be real wrote:
There is literally no way he did not think there was a chance he was running unless they specifically told him that. He said he was in 45 hurdle shape and he's run the anchor for the past few years successfully - what did he expect?
He probably thought it would come off as a valid, cool sounding excuse for losing, Mr. Party and all. But it doesn’t come off thet way. He’s a dope.

my thought 2

3 hours ago 09/22/2025 11:26pm EDT

re: absolutelystupid

absolutelystupid wrote:
high school xc coach wrote:
I really like rai, and he'll be relieved to know I'll forgive him, but he was so wrong and unprofessional here. unless he really somehow went off grid, no phone; and didn't know about the runoff.
I'm shocked he admitted to this so flippantly
Stop it jogger.
I split 45s in 1976, after boozing til after 4 am.
He ran more than fast enough. Botswana were always the favorite.
This is how real athletes behave.

That’s fast! I wonder how much faster your time would have been had you rested properly instead.

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Rai Benjamin said he had a late night out before the 4x400: "I was pretty much done, you know, so I had a pretty late night if you can imagine."

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