Americans run blazing time in 4×100-meter relay — and could still get benched for Olympic finals

Courtney Lindsey and Kyree King helped Team USA’s 4×100-meter relay secure a spot in the men’s final and a chance to earn the country’s first medal in the event in two decades, but they likely won’t get a chance to actually race in the ultimate heat — despite Lindsey’s 8.88-second burst to finish the final leg.

The pair of American sprinters — 25 and 30 years old, respectively, and competing in their first Olympics — are expected to get swapped out of the event for Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek once the pair of top sprinters complete the men’s 200-meter final Thursday afternoon in the 2024 Olympics, according to NBC.

Team USA won its heat with a time of 37.47 seconds, 0.47 seconds ahead of South Africa, and was nearly a full second better than any country in the second heat, with China’s relay team taking that race in 38.24 seconds.

Near the end of the third leg, King helped Team USA jump ahead of Great Britain and Italy, before Lindsey took the baton and finished the final stretch — the anchor leg typically reserved for Lyles, who took gold in the 100-meter race earlier in the Olympics — in 8.88 seconds.

Courtney Lindsey leaves NO doubt down the stretch and pulls away to move the USA on to the 4x100m relay final. #ParisOlympics

📺 USA Network & Peacock pic.twitter.com/MeCqGxcWkI

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2024

But the event nearly turned disastrous after the first handoff between Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley, according to the Associated Press.

Coleman needed to grab Kerley’s wrist with his left hand while passing off with his right in order to keep their exchange intact, and while that dropped Team USA to fourth for the next stretch of the event, King and Lindsey helped them to recover — and then win convincingly. 

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The US men’s 4x100m team—Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kyree King, and Courtney Lindsey—blazed through heat 1 at #Paris2024, winning in an impressive 37.47s! pic.twitter.com/WhkMOHZ7a2

— RunBlogRun (@RunBlogRun) August 8, 2024

If Team USA earns a medal in the final, it’d mark their first in this Olympics event since 2004, when they lost to Great Britain in the final by one-hundredth of a second and took silver in Athens with a lineup of Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, Coby Miller and Maurice Greene.

Since then, there has been the failed baton exchange of 2008, when Darvis Patton couldn’t shift possession to Tyson Gay.

There was the silver medal in 2012 that was rescinded after Gay’s doping ban.

There was the 2016 disqualification — after making the final — and three years ago, in Tokyo, Team USA didn’t even make it to the final for the first time since the infamous Patton-Gay exchange.

This time, though, the men’s team made the final without two of their top sprinters, and now they’ll be tasked with shifting around a first-place relay lineup and keeping that time, or anything close to it, intact. 

And if that happens, a lengthy medal drought could end.