Teamwork truly makes the dream work and the Women’s 4x100m relay team was a testament to that. With Sha’Carri Richardson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas, and Melissa Jefferson, the Americans found a new set of ‘Golden Girls’ with their roaring victory on the track.
However, their speeds were not the only reason why they could catch up to each other and perform successful handoffs. Terry sat down in a post-victory press conference to talk about what made them work as a team, that ultimately gave them the desired goal.
Unlike the popular take that team members might be putting a lot of thought into how they’d arrange themselves and sprint away, Terry immediately dismissed the idea.
They never put too much thought into the myriad of processes and instead simply focused on communicating with each other.
All it took for the women was to participate in some pep talk before the race and make sure they were all comfortable with each other’s pace. This not only helped them work smoothly with each other on the track but also navigate through mishaps in case they ran into trouble.
View this post on Instagram
“We just know that, we rely on each other so much to do our job that, for instance like with me and Gabby, she know I’m going to get it to you.”
The coordination between the relay members involves the first member taking forth the baton and passing it on to others. The important task is to perform a smooth handover so that the next member doesn’t have to search around and stop for the baton.
Terry emphasized how all her teammates had the same thought process that helped them succeed.
“That’s just the mindset that we go in with, no matter what four ladies we put on the track.”
Instead of focusing too much on one’s strengths and capabilities, the women’s relay team made things work due to their common idea of wanting to contribute to the team. The race was a sight to witness with all of them securing and maintaining a good pace to the very end.
This also happened to be Richardson’s first Olympic gold and to say the team was elated would be an understatement. They wrapped up the race with a season-best of 41.78s, with the 24-year-old securing a comfortable lead with style.
On the contrary, the Men’s 4x100m relay team was disqualified after a botched baton handoff between the second and the third leg.
