Carl Lewis branded Team USA’s relay performance as a ‘clown show’ as they finished sixth in their semi-final.
The men’s 4x100metres relay ended in disaster for the typically-dominant US team, finishing sixth in their heat.
They failed to qualify for the final race, meaning their medal hopes were left in tatters, despite having a strong team.
Their squad boasted two of the individual 100m finalists, Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker, world leader Trayvon Bromell and Cravon Gillespe.
Gillespe, who ran the heats en route to their 2019 world championship title, was a surprise inclusion over Kenny Bednarek or Noah Lyles and made little impression in a mass finish.
But the changeovers were poor, particularly a shocking second handover, which took away all momentum as China won the heat in 37.92 and Canada came second.
Italy, who boasted newly-crowned Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, posted a national record of 37.95 to advance, while Germany and Ghana also finished ahead of the Americans.
Lewis, a winner of nine gold medals in four Olympic Games didn’t hold back as he blasted his compatriots.
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‘The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay,’ Lewis posted on Twitter.
‘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 [Association of American Universities] kids I saw.’
In an interview with USA Today, Lewis added: ‘This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared.
‘It’s unacceptable. It’s so disheartening to see this because it’s people’s lives.
‘We’re just playing games with people’s lives. That’s why I’m so upset. It’s totally avoidable.
‘And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show.
‘I can’t take it anymore. It’s just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.’
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