Paris Olympics preview: 4x100m relays

Men's 4x100m

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• USA on the hunt for a first Olympic men's 4x100m gold medal since 2000
• Olympic champions Italy carry momentum from European Championships
• Canada and Jamaica cannot be discounted

For Noah Lyles to complete his goal of winning four gold medals in Paris, the 27-year-old will not only need to pull off the sprint double, but do something perhaps even more difficult: help the United States men’s 4x100m relay team win its first Olympic title in a generation.

Dropped batons and disqualifications have led to a gold drought since 2000 and just one medal at all ever since – a silver, in 2004. Yet USA enters this Olympics with the year’s fastest time and confidence after winning the World Athletics Relays in May in 37.40. The US team of Courtney Lindsey, Kenny Bednarek, Kyree King and Lyles also ran 37.49 in the heats to underscore their potential. That quartet may run together again in Paris, as all qualified either individually or through selection in the relay pool.

The World Relays served as not only a qualifier for Olympic spots but as a window into the potential contenders in Paris. That group still includes Italy, the reigning Olympic champions, who initially finished third at World Relays only to be subsequently disqualified for a changeover that occurred outside of the zone. Undeterred, one month later Italy won the country’s first European men’s 4x100m title in 37.82 on home soil, which remains the third-fastest time in the world this year, after legs by Matteo Melluzzo, Lorenzo Patta, Filippo Tortu and reigning Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs. That group enters with familiarity, as Patta, Tortu and Jacobs all return from the gold-winning team in Tokyo.

Two years after Canada won the world 4x100m title in Oregon, the quartet that powered that championship remains in the hunt together in Paris. Brendon Rodney, Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown and Jerome Blake ran 37.82 at the World Relays to post the fourth-fastest time this year. 

As always, Jamaica will be a team to watch. Though Jamaica finished third at last year’s World Championships and seventh at the World Relays, neither of those teams featured a leg from Kishane Thompson, the world leader at 100m this year, and only one featured Oblique Seville, who ranks fourth in the 100m. Both are featured in Jamaica’s relay pool, along with Ackeem Blake.

France, Japan and Great Britain all finished within one-hundredth of a second together in the World Relays final, suggesting that any could emerge as a threat to make the Olympic final, but Japan then took a step forward at the Diamond League meeting in London on 20 July by running 38.07, the fifth-fastest time this year. South Africa, who ran 38.08 in qualifying at the World Relays to secure a bid to Paris, will look to recapture the magic that fuelled that run.

 

Women's 4x100m

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• Great Britain’s women enter Paris having just claimed the world-leading time
• USA has chance to build on strong early season form
• Jamaica defends title after two world silver medals

When the United States clocked a world-leading 41.85 to win at May’s World Athletics Relays, the gap between their time and their challengers was massive, with runner-up France 0.9 of a second behind. 

But by the time the Olympics begins, their margin for error will have diminished.

Relays are run with enough infrequency that fast times have a way of making a statement. Great Britain’s team of Dina Asher-Smith, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita did just that on 20 July by equalling the national record and running a world-leading 41.55 at the London Diamond League meeting, on the eve of the Olympics. The time creates a potential showdown for gold in Paris.

Not only has Great Britain usurped the world lead and gained confidence after June’s European Championships title win in 41.91 – with a team that included Asher-Smith, Neita and Hunt – but France lowered its own season’s best to 42.1, also at the London Diamond League meeting.

Asher-Smith, Great Britain’s leadoff leg, is one of the world’s most accomplished active relay runners, having earned Olympic bronze in Rio and Tokyo and silver and bronze at the World Championships. Yet she is still chasing a global relay gold. Standing in the way, again, could be the US.

The US team in Paris could have the potential to go ever faster, however, as Sha’Carri Richardson, the world champion at 100m, is part of the relay pool after she did not run at World Relays. If the US does not currently own the world-leading time, it does boast big-event experience, having won the World Championships in both 2022 and 2023. Tamari Davis, Aleia Hobbs, Melissa Jefferson, Jenna Prandini and Twanisha Terry join Richardson as options in Paris. The options provide continuity for the US, as each has contributed to the country’s recent world titles. 

Great Britain and USA are the only teams to have broken the 42-second barrier this season, but challengers for medals will emerge from a deep pack in Paris.

Jamaica, the silver medallists at each of the last two World Championships and Olympic champions in Tokyo, have not clocked a time since their 42.74 at World Relays. Yet with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, two of the fastest women in history and members of Jamaica's winning team in Tokyo, along with Shashalee Forbes, who helped Jamaica earn silver last year in Budapest, the nation cannot be counted out as a medal threat. 

The Netherlands, after running 43.09 at World Relays, dramatically lowered their best time to 42.39 in June on the same day Germany set a season’s best of 42.47. Australia will be hoping recent success will translate at the Olympics, after running 42.48 in London at the Diamond League meeting.

Andrew Greif for World Athletics