The quadrennial joke continues. Too much prancing, ego, and individualism to ever succeed. Still laughing.
I don't even think it's that deep. The team out there today weren't exactly prima donnas. They simply don't practice exchanges and only run relays on the absolute biggest stage, which makes no sense.
The quadrennial joke continues. Too much prancing, ego, and individualism to ever succeed. Still laughing.
I don't even think it's that deep. The team out there today weren't exactly prima donnas. They simply don't practice exchanges and only run relays on the absolute biggest stage, which makes no sense.
Agree - the team is always mostly guys in finals of individual events and they just don't seem to give the relay the attention it needs.
This post-race interview doesn't give me much confidence.
“It just didn’t happen,” Coleman said after the race. “We could’ve put in more work, it just didn’t happen. We practiced a lot. Me and Kenny have been on the team a few times, and we felt really confident going out there. It just didn’t happen this time. It’s part of the sport.”
He added, “We’ll bounce back from it and all of us are world-class. I expect all of us to be back on the team in LA. We’ll have more confidence to bring it all home.”
there is no excuse, BUT it is difficult to get the relay work in during the games. most of these guys are all on their own training plan, and it isn't always easy to sneak in a handful of 50+ meter reps at full intensity to lock down the handoffs. Where does Kenny B. fit those full intensity reps in before and after his 200m final? I don't know what his training program looks like.
but here is the problem where you have four guys with 4 different coaches giving 4 different plans based on what their guys have done and where they are going next. and maybe they're dealing with some little niggles and need some rest.
BUT i'll say it again. if they can't put in the work for those reasons, give the job to the courtney lindseys of the world.
and there are guys who can do it and do it almost perfectly without a ton of work. but these aren't those guys.
Wow they were absolutely horrendous. That looked like my HS freshmen 4 X 100 relay team their first time doing it. There is just no excuse for the athletes or coach. Unless for some reason Coleman and Kenny did not have a single practice session together, this type of performance is just criminal. If you are waiting for the stick you don't need to be perfect, you just need to wait for the incoming leg to pass a certain mark (you keep your eye on it), and shouting something as a backup. This was just total garbage. And since this was not the first time, from now on just let the B squad run from prelimins to final so there is less risk of a terrible pass and DQ. We don't need the fastest in the world to get a medal in this, just clean passes with the B team. Fkn embarrassing clown show from the US team.
Agreed... Is it to much to ask a professional track athlete to run every single round of the 400 meter relay... China won the heat not because they're the fastest, but because they execute, which is what we should do to USA's relay coach
Wow they were absolutely horrendous. That looked like my HS freshmen 4 X 100 relay team their first time doing it. There is just no excuse for the athletes or coach. Unless for some reason Coleman and Kenny did not have a single practice session together, this type of performance is just criminal. If you are waiting for the stick you don't need to be perfect, you just need to wait for the incoming leg to pass a certain mark (you keep your eye on it), and shouting something as a backup. This was just total garbage. And since this was not the first time, from now on just let the B squad run from prelimins to final so there is less risk of a terrible pass and DQ. We don't need the fastest in the world to get a medal in this, just clean passes with the B team. Fkn embarrassing clown show from the US team.
the shouting "go" as backup is completely unnecessary and a distraction. the outgoing runner has one job, which is to look for a foot to get to a piece of tape. keep it simple
US coaches refuse to change to safer and faster underhand pass. Look at Japan and France - way less talent with much better passes. Carl will go traditional too like most collegiate coaches so problem will continue. Definition of insanity - doing same thing over and over again expecting different results. It's big part of the problem that most athletes come out of NCAA system where few use underhand pass.
This article from 2017 provides the data and while US coaches resist it has only gotten worse: "Since adopting the underhand baton exchange, the Japanese men’s 4x100m relay team has been one of the most consistent teams in the world, featuring and placing in ten out of twelve global finals between 2001 and 2016. In comparison, Jamaica have placed in nine finals since 2001, Trinidad and Tobago in eight, the US in six (and was retrospectively disqualified from two of them), Canada in five and Great Britain in only four. All of these teams use the down-sweep technique."