Mechelle Lewis Freeman had an hour to kill before finding out if she killed her career. She was in Eugene, Ore., for the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Freeman, in her first year as the U.S.’s women’s relay head coach, woke up on the morning of the 4 × 100 final and made a decision that, for more than a century, would have been heretical: She benched her fastest sprinter.
Aleia Hobbs had done nothing wrong. Her exchanges in the preliminary heat were clean—and the U.S had already run a 41.56, the lowest time in the world that year. But Freeman and men’s head coach Mike Marsh were in the process of totally revamping the U.S. relay program, and clean was no longer good enough. They were looking for every edge to create the most efficient possible exchanges. They had drilled their runners on technique and teamwork before the meet at relay camp, which Hobbs missed because she had COVID-19.
