00:00Team USA were the favourites to win, but when the Brazilian runner interfered in their lane,
00:04Alison Felix was bumped and thrown off balance.
00:07She tried desperately to hang on and pass the baton before they hit the end of the exchange zone,
00:12but they just couldn't do it.
00:17The women couldn't believe that their hopes of Olympic gold in Rio had been shattered
00:21before they even reached the finals.
00:23After the race, the team immediately filed an appeal, claiming obstruction by the Brazilian team.
00:28The appeal was accepted and the Brazilian team was disqualified,
00:32but that still didn't really help the US team.
00:34They still hadn't put in a fast enough time to qualify for the finals.
00:38However, that's when the Olympic officials did something that they'd never done before
00:42and that they've never done since.
00:44They allowed the US team a rerun, without any other competitors, just them, the track and the baton.
00:50Unsurprisingly, without the pressure of competition, not only did the team qualify,
00:54but they ended up setting a qualifying time faster than every single other country,
00:58eliminating the slowest qualifying team, China, from the final.
01:02The Chinese fans left the stadium in protest.
01:05It was the first time in 16 years that China had even made it to the finals of the event.
01:09And now, after this completely unprecedented decision,
01:13the Chinese team had been kicked to the curb.
01:15Still, despite the drama and the contentious decisions,
01:18USA had officially made it to the finals.
01:21The fastest qualifying time would usually reward the US with a middle lane,
01:25but after everything that happened, they were assigned to the worst lane on the track.
01:28They're on that inside lane.
01:30They only have themselves to blame.
01:32And some would say they were lucky to get a second chance of defending their Olympic title.
01:37Lane 1 has a tighter curve than the outer lanes,
01:39and it's the lane with the most wear and tear, giving it slightly less grip.
01:43And in the Olympics, being disadvantaged by even a fraction of a second can mean missing out on a gold
01:48medal.
01:49But as a starting pistol fired, you wouldn't know that the US team were disadvantaged.
01:53At each pass of the baton, they continued to cut away the distance to the other teams.
01:58And by the time Tori Bowie set off on the final 100 metres,
02:01she tore towards the line like a freight train.
02:04The team won gold, and they'd officially set the second fastest time
02:07in the history of the women's 4x100 metre relay.
Comments