Olympic Icon Carl Lewis Urges For Indefinite Halt Of U.S. Relays After ‘Unacceptable’ Finish

The United States has a lot of medals in this year's Olympics in Paris. However, they once again came up short in the men's 4x100 relay race.

Noah Lyles did not participate in the event after being diagnosed with COVID-19 following his bronze medal finish at the 200 meter. The 4x100 men's relay team from the USA was disqualified due to a botched handoff , causing much frustration across the sport.

Carl Lewis, a nine-time Olympic gold medal winner, expressed his frustration with the US team after the race with a fiery post on X.

"It is time to blow up the system," Lewis wrote. "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."

Lewis also had a post the night before saying it is not the athletes to blame but the coaches.

Lewis' frustrations have apparently boiled over for a number of reasons.

Now, the United States has failed to medal in the 4x100 relay since the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

It has now been two decades since they have won any sort of medal in the relay, which is surprising given their success in other events.

Lewis' frustration comes from several reasons, but he clearly called out the United States Track Federation for being more concerned with "relationships than winning."

The failure in Paris by the United States team is just another chapter of a long line of losses. In 2008, they dropped a baton in Beijing. In 2012, they finished second before being stripped of the medal due to doping.

In 2016 they were eliminated in a heat due to a baton mishap, and then in 2021, they failed to reach the final due to a poor exchange.

So, this is nothing new for the United States, and Carl Lewis appears to be sick and tired of seeing them come up short on the big stage.

Related: U.S. Relay Team Facing Intense Backlash After Embarrassing Disqualification