Even the best athletes in the world
get it horribly wrong once in a while.
So what happens when you take four top sprinters,
and ask them to hand over a 30 centimetre baton, three times,
over 400 metres in a flat-out sprint?
Take the US women's 100m relay team at Athens 2004.
They were favourites to win gold, but disaster struck.
Team USA were disqualified when this happened.
The baton transfer was just too late.
Four years later in Beijing,
another group of superfast women were dreaming of gold -
until they dropped their chance.
Passing a baton around a track is pretty simple in principle,
but doing it at light speed in front of millions
can make for interesting viewing.
They should make the baton something really precious.
You know, if it was a smartphone,
no-one would drop it.
Ha-ha-ha! Yeah - I'm going to tweet that.
Oh!
So what's the problem?
It can't be lack of practice. Right?
In fact, athletes put a lot of work
into perfecting their relay technique.
Right to left.
Left to right.
Early take.
Late take.
Upswing.
Downswing.
Orthodox.
Unorthodox(!)
Now on to the 2012 Games in London.
The US women's sprint team had to fix this.
A third consecutive failure did not bear thinking about.
Team selection would be key.
First up was Tianna Madison,
a long jump world champion with impressive track speed.
Next, Allyson Felix -
also not a 100m specialist,
but as the 200m Olympic champion,
no-one ran the bend better.
Third up, Bianca Knight, the world junior champion.
And finally, Carmelita Jeter for the last leg.
Her job was to close the deal.
Jeter had run the fastest 100m in the world in 2012.
Their closest rivals, Jamaica,
were led by 100m gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Madison was to run leadoff against the champ.
Fraser-Pryce off like a rocket for Jamaica
with Madison outside her. She's going very strongly...
She held her own against the Jamaican on the first leg,
handing over to Felix.
The US had a super changeover there...
Felix ran an extraordinary bend,
putting the Americans into the lead.
Allyson Felix here to Bianca Knight...
Wow, terrific run, the Jamaicans are in second place,
there's casualties further back
but we'll come back to that later
because this is a brilliant run.
It's coming up to the final handover -
Carmelita Jeter to take the baton...
One more to go. Just don't drop it.
And here they come now. Carmelita Jeter,
this is a huge lead for the US.
Let's look at the time - this is special.
This could be a world record by a huge margin...
40.82.
We've witnessed history here tonight.
What an amazing performance from the US women.
This perfect handover enabled Jeter to carry the baton home.
Her split time over the final 100 metres
was a sensational 9.70 seconds.
The US didn't just beat the world record -
they shattered it.
The East Germans had owned this event in the '70s and '80s,
setting a world record that lasted an amazing 27 years.
Until now.
It means we're the best in the world -
in history - and I'm just so happy.
We haven't had one since '96
and we're glad to be the team to do it.
We got the stick around. That was the most important thing,
and all I knew was I had to bring it home.
But I looked at that clock and I saw that we was moving!
Those four women took a massive half a second
out of the longest-standing record in women's sprinting.
The only thing that dropped... was the time on the clock.