SAINT-DENIS, France — (AP) — Sha'Carri Richardson made her first Olympic gold-medal moment memorable — giving the sprinters behind her the side-eye, then stomping her foot to the track on her final step across the finish line.
Afterward, she moved aside to watch the U.S. men do what they do best in the 4x100 relay — find a way to lose.
Richardson powered from third to first in the anchor leg to lift the United States to victory Friday, then had a front-row seat to watch the U.S. men extend their streak to 20 years without a medal at the Games.
“I was very comfortable with these ladies," Richardson said of a foursome that includes her training partners, Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, and 200-meter champion Gabby Thomas.
The men were racing without Noah Lyles, who called it an Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the 200 while fighting COVID. Hard to think that even the 100-meter champion could've saved them.
This race unraveled on the first exchange, when Christian Coleman crashed into Kenny Bednarek, then actually ran by him as they were awkwardly passing the baton. By the time Fred Kerley took the stick for the anchor lap, the U.S. was in seventh place. Not even Lyles could've overcome that.
“It just didn’t happen,” Coleman said. “Maybe we could have put in some more work. I just think in the moment it didn’t happen.”
With the U.S. out, Andre De Grasse put a bright mark on his otherwise disappointing Olympics by anchoring Canada to gold in a time of 37.50 seconds.
It was the first medal in Paris for De Grasse, and the first for the Canadians in the one-lap relay since Donovan Bailey anchored them in 1996. South Africa finished second and Britain third.
In the evening's final race, American Rai Benjamin finally pulled out of the shadow of world-record holder Karsten Warholm, getting his first individual major title by blowing past the defending champion in 46.46 seconds.
Alison dos Santos of Brazil finished third for the second straight Olympics, giving these Games the same three men on the podium as Tokyo. This race was no repeat of that one — the fastest hurdles race ever — but Benjamin still ran a time that would've been a world record 37 months ago, before Warholm took it below 46.
Looking in on the relays in disgust, but not surprise, was Carl Lewis, a two-time winner in this race who is never shy about calling out the USA Track and Field relay team.
“It is time to blow up the system,” he said on social media. “This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at USATF is more concerned with relationships (than) winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom.”
In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Lewis suggested experts in the U.S. develop a relay manual and send it to every high school coach in the country.
“The issue has always been politics, has always been drama, has always been deception,” Lewis said. “If they can eliminate those things, there’s no question they have the fastest team in the world.”
Some might blame the lastest loss on the impact of the lineup shuffle. Lyles, who ran anchor in the U.S. victory last year at world championships, probably would have done so again at Stade de France.
But that task went to Kerley, and Bednarek ran second. It set him up to receive the pass from Coleman.
A day earlier in qualifying, Coleman handed to Kerley with his right hand while grabbing Kerley’s arm with his left — an awkward exchange that didn’t cost anything.
This one did. The only U.S. medal during its dry spell was a silver in 2012 that was later stripped due to doping.
“At the end of the day, we knew what we could do,” said Kyree King, who ran the third leg. “We came out here and we had the mindset of no risk, no reward, so we went out there and went big. It didn’t happen.”
The run by Richardson and her teammates was everything the men's race was not — filled with smooth safe passes of a rain-slickened baton, then capped off by America's fastest 100-meter runner.
The silver medalist from the 100 received the baton from Thomas in third place.
By the halfway point of her leg, Richardson had overcome runners from Britain and Germany. She glanced to her right — and backwards — and gave a look of “you're not catching me,” then took eight more steps.
On the ninth one, Richardson slammed her left foot on the ground over the finish line and let out a yell.
The Americans won in 41.78 seconds, good for a .07-second win over Britain, which struggled with two baton changes in the rain.
The bad pass between Thomas and Terry in qualifying and could've ruined the Olympics was nothing but a distant memory. And Richardson, a few days later than some expected, is an Olympic champion.
“I just remember trusting Gabby and knowing that she’s going to put this thing in my hand no matter what," Richardson said, “and to leave my best on the track.”
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