The Power of Teamwork

Just a week ago, many of us watched with high adrenaline and excitement as the 2022 Track and Field World Championships outweighed expectations. There were too many outstanding performances to name, but among them was the spectacular Women’s 4x100 meter relay final, NBC broadcast. U.S. Women’s lead off runner Melissa Jefferson delivered a stagger-breaking start followed by exchanges to Abby Steiner (second leg), Jenna Prandini (third leg) and Twanisha Terry (“Tee Tee”) as anchor.

This dynamic team of four came to together to upset the Jamaicans who placed second, by creating a deficit too large to close. No doubt, the final legs posed a nail biter 41.14 seconds as Shericka Jackson from Jamaica shrank the distance while on the heels of Tee Tee Terry. However, Tee Tee held it down, maintained her focus and pushed through to secure the gold for the U.S.

Oddly, neither of the four U.S. women on this relay medaled in the individual sprints during the championships. Jefferson took eighth place in the 100m final, Steiner placed fifth in the 200m final, Prandini did not make the finals in the 200m and Tee Tee was eliminated in the 100m semi-final. Their individual performances were nothing to frown upon, but instead, showed evidence of the level of competition. After all, these were the World Championships and the ability to compete at this level requires beyond elite status.  

Collectively, this team of four came together to clinch the win. How so? As a former track and field athlete who ran my share of high school and college relays, one of the biggest lessons I learned is that while speed is important, the ability to work through smooth baton handoffs with well-choreographed timing and technique is perhaps more important. If you can’t effectively get the stick around the track, speed doesn’t matter – FACTS! I won’t rehash prior years of Olympic 4x100m relay struggles both the U.S. men and women once faced, not because of speed, but poor handoffs. The Eugene, Oregon hosted World Championships at Hayward Field showed us a new cache of teamwork from the U.S with lots of runway for future Olympics.

Appearing in my Twitter feed was this photo following the Women’s 4x100m final race. This picture spoke volumes and triggered many emotions for me. Four key attributes we can take away from this amazing photo, courtesy of Justin Britton/CITIUSMAG.

Teamwork – we can often achieve more as a team than as individuals.

Trust – when there is trust among team members, we can focus on the end goal and not have to keep looking over our shoulders or exhaust energy second guessing. Tee Tee had confidence in Prandini knowing that she would deliver the baton. Prandini also had confidence in knowing that if she did her part after running a blazing third leg, she could count on Tee to bring it home.

Trial and Error / Timing – synchronizing varying parts and pieces among teammates requires patience, practice, trial, and error to get the timing right. Relays can require more discretionary effort than operating as an individual because often these teams are not always finalized ahead. Beyond speed and baton hand-offs, there are designated passing zones which present limits to when the handoffs can occur.

Touch –high performing teams touch and agree. Perhaps the highlight of this photo is the uniquely captured frame of Prandini steadying placement of the baton into Tee Tee’s hand with certainty, almost as a control point. An iota of a moment to check-in and “touch” and agree with a teammate can make all the difference of being within an arm’s reach to victory.