Relay revamp featuring Lyles, Richardson has U.S. looking for 2028 Olympic gold in L.A.

If the United States is going to win the most gold medals three years from now at the Los Angeles Olympics, there's a good chance the U.S. track relay teams will play a big part.

If this year's world championships are any sign of what's to come, then give the U.S. a better-than-average chance.

USA Track and Field overhauled its struggling relay strategy to start this Olympic cycle and won four of five possible gold medals at the world championships in Tokyo last month. Anchors in three of the wins were Sha'Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

It marked only the second time over the past 10 years both the men's and women's 4x100-metre teams won gold at the same major championship — worlds or Olympics.

"We always have great talent, but do we have the culture in place to allow the talent to achieve what they're capable of?" said Robert Chapman, the USA Track and Field chief of high performance operations. "I feel we took a solid, positive step to nailing that process and getting that established."

The most notable difference comes in the way the relay team is selected. For last year's Olympics, USATF had a list of no fewer than eight people who had input into the makeup of the team. For 2025, that list was pared down to two general managers -- former U.S. sprinter Wallace Spearmon and distance runner Amy Begley.

"There's always been involvement by a high-performance committee, and we've had contractor coaches" making decisions, Chapman said. "It wasn't exactly straightforward. We tried to reorganize and restructure how we do relays."

That, in turn, kept the coaches out of politics about team make-up and allowed them to "focus on fundamentals of what really matters, like passing the baton,"