Can the U.S Perform Under Pressure?

The United States has some of the fastest runners in the world, but why have they dropped the paton in the last two Olympics? Both the woman and men hav both not had successful paton handoffs in the big meets, "OLYMPICS." In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Marion Jones was 2nd leg and Lauryn Williams was 3rd leg. At that time, Lauryn was a rookie and that was her first Olympics. As Marion was approaching her, Lauryn took off before Marion hit the mark, causing Lauryn to have to slow down and they ran outside the exchange zone and they dropped the paton.

Marion Jones and Lauryn Williams dropping the bation in the 2004 Olympics inAthens


The men also dropped the paton at this meet. Darvis Patton was 3rd leg handing off to Tyson Gay. Darvis was not accurate judging where Tyson's hand was at, causing them to drop the paton also. Most people just blamed it on Lauryn because she was a rookie and was so anxious to run. I also believed that, that's why she started running before she was supposed to. In the 2008 Bejing Olympics, both the men and the woman failed again. The woman dropped the paton in the prelims. Muna Lee was 3rd leg, she had run so many rounds in the past couple of days n the 100 and 200. When she took off to get the paton, she pulled up and dropped the paton.

Once again, the U.S was out of it. The men didn't drop the paton, instead, they handed off before their exchange zone had begun. Darvis Patton was third leg handing off to Wallace Spearmon. The handoff looked perfect to me, but comes to find out, both of Spearmon's feet was beind the exchange mark before he was handed the paton. The men were disqualified as well. I have not yet seen the U.S run in the final for the 4 by 100 meter relay. Can the U.S perform under pressure? They seem to ball up when it really counts. After the last 2 upsetting Olympics, lets see what happens in 2012!