4 × 100 metres Relay, Men

For one of the few times in Olympic history, the United States was not favored in the short relay, as Jamaica had all the cards. Usain Bolt had already won the 100 and 200 in world record times, and his teammate, Asafa Powell, was the 100 world-record holder coming into 2008. Aided by Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, it was thought that only poor baton passing could get the US ahead of the Caribbean powerhouse. But the US team never even got the chance. In the first heat of round one, Darvis Patton ran the third leg for the US and was leading as he went to hand-off to Tyson Gay. But the two dropped the baton and the US was out of the heat and the final. This left the way open for Jamaica to run virtually uncontested, though it is highly unlikely the US could have beaten Jamaica in the final, even at their absolute best. Jamaica dominated the final, shattering the previous world record of 37.40, to record 37.10. Bolt ran the third leg on the curve, clocking an estimated 9.0 around the turn, and Asafa Powell’s anchor was timed by tafnuts in 8.7. This gave Bolt his third sprint gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, all in world record time, a feat which had never been performed at the Olympics.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

In January 2017 Jamaican Nesta Carter was revealed to have a positive re-test for methylhexaneamine. The possible disqualification would impact on the stellar Olympic record of Jamaican sprint great Usain Bolt, since Carter’s positive test would also disqualify the Jamaican team and Bolt would lose this gold medal. However, Carter appealed this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). On 31 May 2018 the appeal was dismissed by the CAS and Carter and the Jamaican team remained disqualified, which cost Bolt his ninth gold medal. Trinidad & Tobago received their gold medals at a ceremony at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland on 5 July 2022.