After the close finish in the 100 metres between reigning World Champion Noah Lyles and seasonal World Leader Kishane Thompson, won by Lyles by .005, there was excitement for the rematch on the anchor of the 4x100 relay. USA had a tradition of winning the Olympic 4x100. Between 1912 and 2000 the USA had lost the Olympic 4x100 only 5 times out of 20 Olympics. Jamaica won 3 times in a row during the Usain Bolt era, 2008-2016. Italy returns as the defending champion, with only one addition to their relay pool. Canada returns as the silver medalists and China as the bronze after the disqualification of second place finisher Great Britain. So Jamaica and USA didn't even make the reconfigured podium, Jamaica crossing the finish line in fifth and USA finishing in sixth, in their heat, not making the final. That was a repeat of USA's recent history, finding new ways not to win the 4x100. USA's 2016 "early" exchange was so egregious, a failure to execute rules every team has to adhere to from the junior level, through high school and college, caused a successful lobbying effort to make the technical rules for passing easier. Tracks all over the world had to be repainted to eliminate the acceleration zone leading to the beginning of the passing zone. Predictions expected USA to break their streak of futility with Jamaica and Italy as top contenders.[2]
Things changed when Lyles finished third in the 200, without his fast finish. After hugging his competitors, Lyles said he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 two days earlier and that he was dropping out of the relay. With substitutes, USA was the top qualifying team out of the heats. Jamaica failed to make the final.
For the final, USA substituted Kenny Bednarek onto the team for the final and completely changed the order. GBR, Italy and Japan made similar changes, while Canada, South Africa, China and France stuck with a well practiced order.[3]
With the best starter in the world, multiple World Indoor Champion Christian Coleman-USA blasted out of the blocks, making up a huge amount of the stagger on Méba-Mickaël Zeze-FRA to his outside, while leaving Jeremiah Azu-GBR behind. On the far outside, Aaron Brown-CAN was also pulling away from Deng Zhijian-CHN while 18 year old Bayanda Walaza-SAF was gaining behind Deng. At the first exchange, USA's Bednarek almost came to a complete stop trying to complete the handoff, Great Britain's Louie Hinchliffe whizzed by with Japan's star Abdul Hakim Sani Brown gaining. Jerome Blake-CAN continued to widen the gap on China's star Xie Zhenye with South Africa's Shaun Maswanganyi gaining behind. Around the final turn, former World Junior Record holder Yoshihide Kiryū zoomed past everybody, so as the teams evened out after the excellent underhand exchange to Koki Ueyama, Japan was ahead. A fast turn on the inside by Lorenzo Patta brought Italy about even with Canada's Brendon Rodney. After the handoffs, SAF's Akani Simbine and FRA Pablo Matéo were even, marginally ahead of GBR's Zharnel Hughes 3 metres down on Ueyama, won on ITA's Filippo Tortu and CAN's six time Olympic medalist Andre De Grasse. De Grasse and Tortu quickly picked off Ueyama but down the stretch Simbine and Hughes were closing fast, passing Ueyama metres out and Tortu less than 20. Simbine maintained the slight edge on Hughes to give South Africa the silver over Great Britain's bronze, but not enough to catch De Grasse for gold. The vaunted American squad crossed the line in seventh only to learn that they had been disqualified. Bednarek had left way too early, then tried to stop and the exchange from Coleman was out of the passing zone.[4]
It was a seven Olympic medal for De Grasse and a new African Record for the South African squad.
For the men's 4 x 100 metres relay event, fourteen teams qualified through the 2024 World Athletics Relays. The remaining two spots were awarded to the teams with the highest ranking on the World Athletics Top List. The qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.[8]
