Olympic legend Carl Lewis says 'no athlete should return' to Olympics after 'embarrassing' USA track and field performance
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Arturo Holmes/Cameron Spencer
It's safe to say that Carl Lewis isn't happy about Team USA's athletics performance in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Lewis is a former Olympic athlete and won nine gold medals for his country over the course of his sporting career.
His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 and he was best known for sprint and long jump events.
Since his retirement, Team USA have continued to go from strength to strength and this year have managed to achieve a whopping 125 medals in Paris (at the time of writing).
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America has achieved 14 golds in the athletics, but Friday's men's 4x100m relay race (August 9) wasn't their day as the team ended up being disqualified.
Why, I hear you ask? Because of an illegal pass.
Christian Coleman crashed into teammate Kenny Bednarek while making the exchange between the first and second leg. Coleman also handed the baton over outside the exchange zone, therefore going against the rules.
The rules state, as per World Athletics: "The baton shall be passed within the takeover zone. The passing of the baton commences when it is first touched by the receiving athlete and is completed the moment it is in the hand of only the receiving athlete.
"In relation to the takeover zone, it is only the position of the baton which is decisive. Passing of the baton outside the takeover zone shall result in disqualification."
Following the team's botched relay race, Lewis took to social media and called upon an upheaval of 'the system'.
"It is time to blow up the system," Lewis wrote on Friday. "This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at @usatf is more concerned with relationships than winning."
He added: "No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom."
Doubling down on his disappointment, NBC Olympics' Lewis Johnson reported that Lewis was 'furious'.
He said, as per NBC New York: "Carl is furious and he's angry about multiple things. First of all, he's angry about a system that he says is not set up to help the athletes from the United States moves forward and do well.
"He said if Noah Lyles was out sick with Covid, they should have just replaced the anchor leg and nothing else. But the fact they reordered the entire relay had him worried, and in the end had him upset."
People online are now campaigning for Lewis to coach Team USA for Los Angeles 2028.
"Please step in Mr Lewis. This hurt my heart," one person tweeted, as another person added: "Carl Lewis should be an Olympic track coach or at minimum a consultant for the USA Olympics team in Los Angeles 2028!"
USA Track & Field declined to comment when approached by UNILAD.