US men have no answers to ‘dumb questions’ after botching 4×100 in fifth straight Olympics

SAINT-DENIS, France ― The only thing worse than the U.S. men’s performance in the 4×100-meter relays Friday at Stade de France was the explanation.

And it’s not as if they haven’t had practice.

Practice at explaining messes, that is.

The Americans have the world’s deepest well of sprinters, yet they just missed the medal stand in the 4×100 for the fifth consecutive Olympics. The reason this time was that Kenny Bednarek, the second leg, started too soon, forcing him to slow up so much that Christian Coleman rear-ended him.

That sound you heard from across the pond was the crash of another generation of American sprinters.

Once you’ve made a tactical error of that magnitude, there’s no fixing it. By the time the baton found its way to Fred Kerley, of Taylor and Texas A&M, he was pretty much looking at the field.

As it turned out, the Americans were disqualified because of the bad exchange.

No one on the U.S. team offered much of a take on why this keeps happening. No one wanted to throw Bednarek under the bus, which was understandable, not to mention the polite thing, what with him standing right there.

But somebody had to give some kind of explanation, starting with Bednarek, who didn’t take any questions. Kerley started things off on a bad foot by telling the media not to ask any “dumb questions.” Fat chance. You can threaten all you want, but we’re going to ask dumb questions. Our only defense is we don’t do it on purpose.

Anyway, when asked if they were disappointed, a legitimate question, Kerley said, “I don’t think we’re disappointed. I think we just gotta learn from this one and keep on going.”

For the record, Fred, saying you’re not disappointed after what happened Friday is a dumb answer. The Americans smoked the rest of the field at the world championships last year. Even without Noah Lyles, who pulled out of the relay complaining of COVID complications after finishing third in the 200, the Americans were heavily favored to break their streak of flops.

Since they last won gold in Sydney, it’s been a fumble (’04, ‘20, ‘24), or DQ (’08, ‘16) or doping (’12).

For a little perspective on just how bad that is, realize that between 1920 and ‘00, the U.S. ran the 4×100 in 18 Olympics, and they won gold in 15.

Boom or bobble, that’s us.

Mostly bobble now.

Granted, a baton pass isn’t easy when two people are running at full tilt or close to it. As a team of All-Stars, they don’t always get a lot of practice, either. The relays are as much about chemistry as speed. A little like a double-play combination. Hard to develop a comfort zone in a matter of weeks.

But the rest of the world has the same set of issues, and you don’t see Canada or Great Britain or South Africa playing bumper cars every Olympics.

Why the U.S.?

Whatever you do, don’t ask Kerley, who, by my count, called at least four questions dumb before deferring to Coleman, who tried.

“I think it just didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a little disappointing, especially for Americans because we wanted to bring it home. We knew we had the speed to do it.

“It didn’t happen, but we’re human beings, too.”

No one’s arguing your humanity, Christian.

Only your passer rating.

Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN

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