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Olympic track and field legend Carl Lewis, who attended the University of Houston, recently criticized the American men's performance in the 4x100 meter relay at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
According to FOX News, the team's sixth-place finish, was attributed to messy handoffs. U.S. sprinter Ronnie Baker missed the baton on the first pass attempt, grabbing teammate Fred Kerley’s uniform instead. Baker would sloppily handle the baton a second time until Kerley shoved it into his hands.
Lewis took to Twitter to voice his disappointment with the U.S. team's performance.
"The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay," Lewis wrote in an Aug. 4 Twitter post. "The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw."
The U.S. team finished in sixth place overall and would fail to qualify for the finals.
"I’m honestly kind of mad, not at these guys, they did what they could do," Trayvon Bromell, the U.S. sprinter who ran the first stretch of the race and passed the baton to Kerley, said, according to FOX News. "I did what I can do. I can really just speak for myself in a sense. Like I said, these guys did their job, I did what I could do. On the first leg, it just — it’s really some BS for real, to be honest with you."
China's team won took first with a time of 37.92. Canada was in second and Italy was in third, according to CNN News. Germany and Ghana also crossed the finish line ahead of Team USA.
"We just didn’t get the job done today. That’s all," Kerley said after the race, according to FOX News.
Bromell, Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie made up the U.S. Olympic roster running in that order, according to NBC News.
Lewis is a veteran of four Olympics with a total of nine medals to his name, according to his website.