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American runners are going through their worst Olympic Video games in historical past after failing to win a single gold medal on the observe on the Tokyo Video games.
When the curtain got here down on the World Championships in Doha two years in the past, america seemed set for a brand new period of dominance.
Christian Coleman had bagged the 100m gold, Noah Lyles had claimed an emphatic victory within the 200m, and the American workforce departed Qatar with a formidable haul of 14 gold medals.
However quick ahead two years and the Individuals are going through an inquest into what has gone improper in Tokyo, the place there’s each probability the US males may fail to win a person operating gold medal for the primary time in Olympic historical past.
Whereas the US ladies have contributed two gold medals on the observe, via 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin and teenage 800m star Athing Mu, the boys have thus far come away empty-handed.
Throughout the board, the US males’s medal hopes have wilted within the fierce solar within the Olympic Stadium.
Trayvon Bromell arrived in Tokyo as heavy favorite to develop into the primary American winner of the 100m gold medal since 2004 however did not even attain the ultimate.
World champion Lyles was equally favoured to assert the 200m crown, however needed to accept bronze.
– ‘Complete embarrassment’ –
Within the 110m hurdles, one other world champion, Grant Holloway, was upset by Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment, whereas within the 400m hurdles, Rai Benjamin was undone by the brilliance of Norway’s Karsten Warholm.
Within the 800m, an occasion gained by the USA’s Donavan Brazier in Doha, who did not qualify for Tokyo, Clayton Murphy completed final.
The dismal run continued within the 1,500m, the place Matthew Centrowitz, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist, was eradicated within the semi-finals.
Arguably the nadir got here on Thursday, when the boys’s 4x100m relay workforce had been knocked out within the semi-finals after an error-strewn efficiency left them in sixth.
It was the primary time in Olympic historical past the US 4×100 had did not qualify for the ultimate from a accomplished warmth.
US sprinting greats Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson had been aghast on the relay show.
“It was a complete embarrassment and fully unacceptable for a USA workforce…” Lewis wrote on Twitter, whereas Johnson later branded the displaying “embarrassing and ridiculous.”
US athletes themselves have been at a loss to clarify what has gone improper in Tokyo.
Some surprise if the US resolution to cancel a pre-Olympic coaching camp in Japan resulting from Covid-19 considerations undermined the workforce’s preparations.
“We have not been right here that lengthy, we received right here on quick discover,” US 400m runner Michael Cherry stated Thursday after a fourth place end in Thursday’s closing.
“Each different workforce had coaching camp, however that is no excuse. We’re nonetheless anticipated to come back out right here and execute how we’re presupposed to. it is simply not taking place proper now.”
– Overblown hopes? –
Lack of observe was cited as an element by sprinter Ronnie Baker after a poor baton handover between him and team-mate Fred Kerley had contributed to the US exit within the relay.
“We’re all operating quick proper now,” Baker stated. “Fred is operating 9.8sec and I’m operating 9.8sec. Attempting to time that up completely with a few practices is hard.”
Others level to the problem US athletes face in making an attempt to peak for 2 main championships — the US Olympic trials and the Olympics — inside weeks of one another.
In 2019, the US squad benefited from an interval of greater than two months between the trials and world championships in Doha.
Even so, not everyone seems to be satisfied scheduling is a matter.
“It actually is determined by how you propose your season out,” stated 110m hurdler Devon Allen after ending fourth in Thursday’s closing.
“To peak for 4 weeks, for 5 weeks, like we do for the trials and the Olympics is not actually that powerful.”
Different athletes steered the US could have had overblown medal expectations for the Olympics.
“I believe perhaps you guys simply took it with no consideration all these years,” eradicated 1,500m champion Centrowitz instructed reporters on Thursday.
“Earlier than 2012, nobody was successful and I would not even say rather a lot have been successful. I do not know what the expectation was. I do know we had extra medals in 2016, however that is simply the best way it goes typically.”
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