At the World Championships in Budapest in August 2023, Alexis Holmes, “the Hamden, Connecticut, native,” as Team USA calls her, was on the US women’s 4x400 m relay after what Team USA describes as “the last-minute call she received to replace an injured teammate.” It was a race that belonged to “the United States, which has won this race at seven of the last eight worlds,” the Associated Press wrote. In the mixed relay earlier that week, Team USA wrote, “Just a few steps from the finish line, Holmes drew even and began to pass Bol, moments before the Dutch star fell to the track and dropped her baton. Holmes had pulled off a massive upset, using a blazing-fast 48.82 second split to help Team USA break the world record (3:08.80).”
The women’s 4x400 m heat came on Saturday, August 26. “The American women’s 4x400 relay team was disqualified from the preliminary round at the world championships Saturday after their third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange,” AP reported. The third runner “missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes,” and “When they finally did make the exchange, they were out of the legal passing zone.” In Team USA’s words, “Holmes took the baton from a teammate outside of the exchange zone in the qualifying round.” “This year, they won’t even make the final,” AP wrote.
Holmes answered in a statement of her own, which Sportskeeda quoted in full. “I wasn’t able to execute the final baton pass which resulted in our team being disqualified from the final,” she wrote. “It was a visual handoff and it was my job to stay in the zone.” She ended: “Thank you to Team USA for the opportunity to represent my country on the world stage. I will be back, and I will do better next time.”
A year later, at the Paris Olympics, “USA’s Alexis Holmes ran a personal best of 49.77 seconds in the 400m final at the Stade de France, finishing sixth,” NBC Connecticut reported. In the women’s 4x400 m final on August 10, 2024, “Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes teamed up,” World Athletics wrote, and Holmes ran the last leg. The Netherlands “had Bol on their final leg,” and “Bol ran a 48.62 anchor to move the Netherlands from fourth to second.” But by the time Holmes took the baton, the lead “had stretched to nearly 75 meters,” by Southern Connecticut State University’s count, and World Athletics says she “maintained her team’s lead of about 40 metres on the final leg, running a 48.78 split to cross the line in 3:15.27.”
The US won “by more than four seconds in a North American record of 3:15.27,” World Athletics reported, and “The Netherlands … silver in a national record of 3:19.50.” “Holmes crossed the finish line setting a new American record of 3:15.27 and securing her first Olympic gold medal,” NBC Connecticut wrote. It was the USA’s “eighth consecutive Olympic title in the women’s 4x400m,” World Athletics added, “earning gold in Paris with the second-fastest time in history.” A year earlier, she had written: “I will be back, and I will do better next time.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- A fumbled handoff to her knocked the favorites out of the World Championships. AP: “The American women’s 4x400 relay team was disqualified from the preliminary round at the world championships Saturday after their third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange.” Holmes, in her statement: “I wasn’t able to execute the final baton pass which resulted in our team being disqualified from the final.” 13
- Her name is Alexis Holmes. Team USA: “Sprinter Alexis Holmes”; “the Hamden, Connecticut, native.” 2
- In Budapest in 2023, she got a late call to run the last leg. Team USA: “the last-minute call she received to replace an injured teammate.” AP, from Budapest on Saturday, August 26, 2023: “anchor runner Alexis Holmes.” 21
- The US women had won it at seven of the last eight worlds. AP: “the United States, which has won this race at seven of the last eight worlds.” 1
- But on the final handoff, the baton kept missing her hand. AP: the third runner “missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes.” Sportskeeda: Holmes “failed to collect the baton … properly despite repeated attempts.” 13
- When she finally had it, they were outside the zone. AP: “When they finally did make the exchange, they were out of the legal passing zone.” Team USA: “Holmes took the baton from a teammate outside of the exchange zone in the qualifying round.” 12
- They were disqualified, in the heats. AP: “disqualified from the preliminary round”; “This year, they won’t even make the final.” Team USA: “an unfortunate disqualification in the women’s 4x400.” 12
- “It was my job to stay in the zone,” she wrote. Holmes, in her statement, as Sportskeeda quotes it: “It was a visual handoff and it was my job to stay in the zone.” 3
- “I will be back, and I will do better next time.” Holmes, in her statement: “Thank you to Team USA for the opportunity to represent my country on the world stage. I will be back, and I will do better next time.” She signed it “With love, Alexis.” 3
- A year later, she ran the last leg of the Olympic final. World Athletics (August 10, 2024): “Holmes … maintained her team’s lead of about 40 metres on the final leg, running a 48.78 split to cross the line in 3:15.27.” Its photo caption: “Alexis Holmes anchors USA to victory in the 4x400m in Paris.” 4
- Her teammates were Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas. World Athletics: “Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes teamed up to win.” 4
- Running last for the Dutch was Femke Bol. World Athletics: “But the latter had Bol on their final leg”; “Bol ran a 48.62 anchor to move the Netherlands from fourth to second.” 4
- This time, she took the baton and never looked back. World Athletics: she “maintained her team’s lead of about 40 metres on the final leg.” Southern Connecticut State University: the lead “had stretched to nearly 75 meters by the time Holmes took the baton for the final leg.” 47
- She won by more than four seconds, in an American record. World Athletics: “to win by more than four seconds in a North American record of 3:15.27”; “The Netherlands … silver in a national record of 3:19.50.” NBC Connecticut: “Holmes crossed the finish line setting a new American record of 3:15.27 and securing her first Olympic gold medal.” 46
- She came back, and did better. Holmes, in 2023: “I will be back, and I will do better next time.” World Athletics, in 2024: “USA won their eighth consecutive Olympic title in the women’s 4x400m, earning gold in Paris with the second-fastest time in history.” 34
Sources
- US women DQ’d from 4x400 relay at worlds due to faulty baton exchange (August 26, 2023) The Associated Press, on News4JAX
- A Year After Her Breakthrough Performance, Sprinter Alexis Holmes is Ready to Make a Run at the Paris Olympics (June 22, 2024) Team USA
- “I’m overwhelmed with remorse and disappointment”: Alexis Holmes apologizes for the US women’s 4x400m relay team’s World Championships disqualification (quoting her statement in full) Sportskeeda
- USA wins eighth successive Olympic women’s 4x400m gold in Paris (August 10, 2024) World Athletics
- Hamden’s Alexis Holmes and Team USA win gold in women’s 4×400 final NBC Connecticut
- Alexis Holmes makes New Haven track community proud with a gold medal NBC Connecticut
- On Alexis Holmes and the Paris 2024 women’s 4x400 m final Southern Connecticut State University News
Notes
The heat, not a final: AP says the US women were “disqualified from the preliminary round” and that “This year, they won’t even make the final,” so the fumble did not cost them a gold medal in a final, as one popular retelling has it. The Short’s “out of the World Championships” means out of that event: earlier that week Holmes had anchored the US mixed relay (Team USA).
The exchange: AP says “their third and fourth runners in the four-lap race bungled the baton exchange,” with the third runner missing “on several attempts”; Holmes wrote that “it was my job to stay in the zone.” The Short and this page tell it through her own words and name no one else.
Her statement: her words come from her own published post, which Sportskeeda quotes in full; no major outlet quoting the whole statement was found, so only a few of its lines are used here, attributed to her.
The lead at the last changeover: World Athletics says “about 40 metres”; Southern Connecticut State University says “nearly 75 meters.” The Short gives no number.
The record: World Athletics calls 3:15.27 “a North American record”; NBC Connecticut calls it “a new American record.” The Short says “an American record.”
Femke Bol: the Short says only that she ran last for the Dutch. World Athletics says she moved “the Netherlands from fourth to second”; Holmes kept the lead to the line, so a retelling in which Bol closes in on her isn’t used.
Alexis Holmes, Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Femke Bol are alive. Only race results and reports (AP, World Athletics, Team USA, NBC Connecticut, Southern Connecticut State University) and Holmes’s own published statement are used; nothing about anyone’s family or private life, and no other runner from the Budapest relay is named.
Pictures: no free photo shows the Budapest heat, its handoff or the Paris final while it was run; every picture of those moments we found is agency, broadcast or federation work, so none is used. Alexis Holmes is at the Bislett Games in Oslo on May 30, 2024, between Budapest and Paris, in four photos by Ssu: standing on the track, and walking and bent over after the 400 m (not the Budapest disqualification). The two photos of the US team with flags are from the real night of the Paris final, August 10, 2024 (Citizen59, both cropped): Holmes with Shamier Little, and Holmes, Little and Gabby Thomas on their victory lap. The handoff is another women’s 4x400 m relay, at a 2013 meet, with other runners (Red CreaDeporte). Shamier Little is at the USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines on June 24, 2018 (jenaragon94); Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is after her 400 m hurdles win in Paris on August 8, 2024, not the relay (LeeMNichols); Gabby Thomas is in Saint-Gratien, France, on July 25, 2024 (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott); Femke Bol is hurdling in Stockholm on August 23, 2020 (Bob Ramsak). Budapest’s National Athletics Centre is seen outside and inside on August 19, 2023, a week before the heat (Elekes Andor), and the Stade de France on the morning of August 4, 2024, not the night of the final (Pronoia).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Brahms, Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0); Mussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain (1886 version) (Musopen, public domain); Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68: IV. Adagio - Piu andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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