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No Gold, No Lewis for U.S. Men

ATLANTA, Aug. 3—As the greatest relay runner in history watched from a VIP box on the press level of Olympic Stadium, Canada did what no 4x100-meter relay team ever has done before at an Olympic Games: It beat the U.S. men to the finish line.

Coaches for the U.S. team decided not to ask Carl Lewis to replace the injured Leroy Burrell and selected University of Kentucky senior Tim Harden instead. Harden, 22, ran the slowest leg of any runner on the top three teams as the Americans fell hopelessly behind, then watched 100-meter gold medalist and world record holder Donovan Bailey blaze to victory. Canada’s winning time was 37.69 seconds; the United States won the silver in 38.05.

The U.S. men never have settled for silver or bronze in the history of the Olympics. It has been gold or bust; the United States has won 14 of the 18 events that have been contested. In 1912, 1960 and 1988, the United States was disqualified; in 1988, Calvin Smith and Lee McNeill failed to exchange the baton in the 20-meter passing zone during a qualifying round, depriving Lewis, who would have run the final, of a chance at a gold medal. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow Games.

"To be blunt about it, we were barbecued," said Mike Marsh, who ran the Americans’ second-slowest leg.

The United States’s three other relay teams fared far better. The U.S. women won both of their relays: the 4x100 in 41.95 seconds over the Bahamas and Jamaica; and the 4x400 in 3:20.91 over Nigeria.

The U.S. men’s 4x400 relay, with Michael Johnson absent because of the hamstring injury he suffered during his world-record performance in the 200 meters, also won the gold medal in 2:55.99, the third-fastest time in history. DeMatha graduate Derek Mills ran the third leg of the relay for the Americans.

In other events, world record holder Noureddine Morceli of Algeria won the men’s 1,500 meters in 3:35.78 over Spain’s Fermin Cacho, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist; Russia’s Svetlana Masterkova, gold medalist in the women’s 800 earlier in the week, won the women’s 1,500 in 4:00.83; and Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria won the women’s high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 8— inches.

Abdi Bile of Somalia and George Mason University finished sixth in the 1,500.

After Johnson won the 200 meters Thursday, the Games’s spotlight was focused squarely on the men’s 4x100 relay and the Lewis saga. Since Monday, when he won his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the long jump, Lewis has been a subject of much controversy. He said he would be interested in running the relay to try to get his historic 10th Olympic gold medal. Others said he didn’t deserve the chance, that he didn’t go to the relay training camp in North Carolina in mid-July, that he should simply be happy with his ninth gold medal and go home.

Three hours prior to the relay today, Leroy Burrell, the former world-record holder and a 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the relay, withdrew from the event for the second time in three days. But this time, he didn’t come back. Doctors told him on Thursday that his sore right Achilles tendon made it impossible for him to run, but, on Friday, Burrell was back training again.

He quit the relay for good this afternoon.

"It’s really bothering me," Burrell said today. "I probably wouldn’t be able to do everything I need to do in warmups to get ready tonight. I’d be taking a big chance, not only for myself but for the rest of the guys, and for that reason I’m not running."

Burrell’s withdrawal did not automatically mean Lewis would run, but it certainly cleared the way for him to be placed on the team. It was believed that if Burrell withdrew, Lewis would run.

Hunt said Friday that the health of Burrell—Lewis’s close friend and training partner—would be the key to whether Lewis was on the squad.

"We told Carl personally that if Burrell could not go, or one of the others for that matter, he’s certainly one of the people we would strongly consider," said U.S. men’s track coach Erv Hunt.

But after meeting with his assistant coaches and team captain Dennis Mitchell, the decision was made: Harden, a man with no international experience, would replace Burrell on the second leg of the relay. Mitchell pulled Lewis aside at the relay practice and told him.

"He took it like a champion," Mitchell said.

Lewis was eligible for the relay because he qualified for the final of the men’s 100 at the U.S. Olympic trials in June. He finished eighth in that race, but was told he was not one of the four men who would run the relay. He was invited to be an alternate, but turned down that opportunity and skipped the relay training camp.

Nonetheless, Lewis began campaigning for a spot on the U.S. squad after winning the long jump. While he insisted that he was satisfied with his nine gold medals, he also found himself caught up in a wave of public support to run for his 10th gold, the most of any Olympian ever.

Burrell reacted angrily when asked whether there were motivations beyond his injury for dropping off the squad.

"I’m really sick of people insinuating that," he said. "I’ve been at this a long time and I know when I can’t go and when I can go. My decision has nothing to do with Carl.

"The Olympic gold medal would mean just as much to me as it would mean to Carl. If I don’t think I can get the stick around and I don’t think I can be as effective as I need to be, I’m not going to jeopardize anybody’s chance to win."

Lewis’s day was far less eventful than he had hoped it would be. He went to the warmup track this afternoon, but never took off his T-shirt or baseball cap.

The Americans’s performance tonight led to all kinds of second-guessing.

"It was just the intimidation factor," said Carol Lewis, Carl’s sister, of what the U.S. team was missing without her brother. "You can’t play games in a situation that is this tight. Carl never has been caught before."

Lewis could not be reached for comment.

Just last year, at the 1995 world championships in Sweden, Jon Drummond and Tony McCall mishandled the baton and failed to exchange it within the passing zone.

Lewis twice anchored the United States to gold medals in the 4x100: in 1984 and 1992. Both times, the Americans set a world record.