by Elliott Denman
COACH TONY FUSCO ASKS:
“MY MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS
GET THE BATON AROUND THE TRACK;
WHY CAN’T THESE GUYS?”
BY ELLIOTT DENMAN
Tony Fusco, my good friend, taught and coached at Eatontown, New Jersey’s middle school for years and years.,
He had a lot of success, too.
In the classroom and on the track.
(Eatontown is a feeder school for Monmouth Regional High School, which has sent two Golden Falcon grads, 1976 400 hurdler Quentin Wheeler and 1984 high jumper Milton Goode, to the Olympic Games.)
Tony Fusco’s young relay runners racked up many big wins and quick times along the way.
And they got the baton around the track – in both the 4×100 and 4×440 (yards that is), which evolved into the 4×100 and 4×400 (meters, that is.)
And, just like a few zillion other Paris Olympics-watchers, he was flummoxed to see the Team USA 4×100 men definitively botch it up – on the very first exchange of the final, no less, Christian Coleman to Kenny Bednarek.
Bednarek started too soon, had to put on the brakes, and USA medal hopes evaporated. Kyree King and anchor Fred Kerley ran sizzling legs….to no avail.
It was a flub, just as so many of their 21st-century predecessors have flubbed, too.
“Just can’t understand this happening….again…and again…and yet again,” Tony Fusco told me.
“What’s the big problem? My middle school kids get the stick around the track. Why can’t these guys? They’re supposed to be pros.”
Another New Jerseyan chimed in on the subject…with a bit more vehemence.
Said Willingboro’s own Olympic icon, Carl Lewis:
“It is time to blow up the system. This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that everyone at USA Track and Field 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.”
Five Games were held between the two World Wars and Team USA was brilliant in each.
In 2024, Canada (37.50) took the gold over South Africa and Great Britain.
Take note: (A) Team USA (running with a Coleman-Kerley-King-Courtney Lindsey lineup) had won its semifinal the day before in 37.4; (B) Noah Lyles’s Covid announcement scrambled all revised-lineup plans. (C) Team GB included U. of Houston coach Lewis’s star, Louie Hinchcliffe.
This big debate, of course, is not late-breaking news.
The 4×100 joined the Olympic program in 1912 and right off the bat, Team USA flubbed that one, too. An out-of-the zone pass erased an apparent 42.2 semifinal win. Team GB went on to win the final in 42.4. anchoring in 42.2), 1924 (Alf Leconey anchoring in 41.0), 1928 (Henry Russell anchoring in 41.0), 1932 (Frank Wykoff anchoring in 40 flat) and 1936 (Jesse Owens leading off, Wykoff again anchoring, in 39.8)…That 1936 win, of course, is forever besmirched by…well, it’s the old-old story – the non-inclusion of Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman.
The Games resumed at London in 1948 and Team USA. anchored by Mel Patton, resumed winning, in 40.6…but only after a loud protest overrode the original (out of zone) DQ call on the Barney Ewell-Lorenzo Wright first exchange.
Team USA’s streak reached a magnificent eight with the wins in 1952 (Andy Stanfield anchoring in 40.1) and 1956 (Bobby Morrow anchoring in 39.5.)
Disaster finally ended the streak at Rome in 1960. Frank Budd’s great leadoff leg was nullified by second man Ray Norton’s too-soon take-off. Dave Sime’s rousing anchor rallied Team USA home first…and then the DQ call came in. The golds to Germany.
Next: a four-Games win streak: Bob Hayes-anchoring 1964 (39 flat), Jim Hines-anchoring 1968 (38.24, first time FAT became official), Eddie Hart-anchoring 1972 (38.19) and Steve Riddick-anchoring 1976 (38.33.)
Team USA really didn’t really lose the 1980 golds (won by the Soviet Union home team in 38.26); we simply stayed home by edict of President Jimmy Carter.
The record since has been spotty, up-and-down, hit-and-miss – but far more miss than hit in recent history.
Superstar/Immortal (take your choice) Lewis brought his nation’s team home first at LA in 1984 (37.83) but ’88 was a flubber. A substitution-caused hassle led to a DQ in the prelims.
West Virginia football star James Jett lived up to his name, anchoring a 37.40 win in 1992, But Canada was red-hot in 1996 and won it in 37.69. USA’s over-cautious silver medalists at least got the stick around within the zones.
Team USA (anchored by Tim Montgomery) won again in 2000 (37.61) But one more error in 2004 – on the Shawn Crawford-Justin Gatlin first handoff – and Team USA (which had won a 38.02 semifinal) saw the golds go to Great Britain in 38.07. Of course, no one knew it at the time – it was the start of a six-Games losing streak.
Team USA’s ambitions blew up again in 2008 (where Team Trinidad won in 38.06) and (at the start of the Usain Bolt era), to Team Jamaica in 2012 (world record 36.84) and 2016 (37.27.)
But Tokyo 2021 (Italy in 37.50 ) and Paris 2024 (Canada in an identical 37.50) were USA flubbers, too, and so here we are.
In summary: They’ve run the 4×100 26 times and Team USA has won 15 of them – but is zero-for six starting in 2004. (Great Britain, Soviet Union, Jamaica and Canada have won two each; Germany, Trinidad, Italy, one apiece.)
Thus, when the Games return to home territory at LA in 2028, Team USA will settle into its blocks in the Coliseum, get set…and (lugging a quarter-century burden) do its darndest to end a six-Games losing strek and five straight utter disasters. Now that will be pressure.
Veteran New Jersey runner Rich Meyers at least offers commiseration.
“Remember that the speed run by these athletes is incredible with many running sub 9 seconds (flying start, of course) for 100 meters. A small mistake by someone who is working with someone he doesn’t know (thanks to lack of team practice, late lineup shifts, etc) will be costly.
“Let’s not be so quick to be critical. (USA relay coach) Mike Marsh is an Olympian (and gold medalist) who has been there and done that.
“I don’t have an answer. Just trying to have folks understand the conditions.”
