Disqualified sprinters
USA's Elija Godwin (L) and Lynna Irby compete in the mixed 4x400m relay heats during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on July 30, 2021.
JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images
  • Team USA was suspended from the mixed-gender 4×400-meter relay at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
  • Two new sprinters messed up an exchange on a handoff, which led to the disqualification.
  • Team USA was favored to win gold and finished in first place before the disqualification.
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Team USA was disqualified from the mixed-gender 4×400-meter relay at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday because two sprinters made a baton pass outside the designated zone.

Elija Godwin and Lynna Irby, competing in their first Olympics, were the sprinters responsible for the errored pass. Irby was seen standing outside of the hand-off zone before Godwin reached her. Team USA, which was favored to win gold, finished in first place at the event, but officials announced the disqualification shortly after.

"Mistakes happen," Godwin said after the event. "We are human. We do make mistakes. If at the end of the day, we DQ'd, I know I'm going to hold my head up high because we went out and competed our best."

Team USA will file an appeal for the disqualification to the International Olympic Committee, and they might have a case to win it, according to one former American gold medalist.

Four-time Olympic gold winner Michael Johnson took to Twitter shortly after the event to give his perspective on the mishap and blamed officials for lining Irby up out of place before the race started.

Team USA sprinting coach Lance Brauman expressed the same argument, as he told USA Today that "officials did not line up the second runners correctly."

This is not the first disqualification that Team USA has faced for an errored handoff at an Olympic relay race. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Team USA was disqualified from the men's 4x100 meter relay after leadoff runner Mike Rodgers was ruled to have passed the baton to Justin Gatlin outside the first exchange zone. Usain Bolt of Jamaica ended up winning the race anyway, and Team USA did not win the appeal.

There have been eight other instances since 1995 of Team USA sprinters getting disqualified or failing to get the baton around at Olympic or World Championship relay events.

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