PARIS — American sprinter Kendall Ellis, the reigning U.S. 400-meter champion and a relay specialist, said that four minutes before Saturday night’s 4×400-meter final, Team USA’s head women’s relay coach informed her that she would not be running in the final.
“I feel very proud of the team that was put out there. I think they ran incredible,” Ellis told ESPN late Saturday night. “I also feel disappointed and lied to and embarrassed. I feel like I was blindsided because I was told one thing this morning and, for hours, thought I was running in the final. It seems everyone know besides me.”
Ellis said she woke up Saturday morning to a text from relay coach Mechelle Freeman telling her she would not be running in the final. Ellis said she then asked Freeman for an in-person meeting with an athlete liaison present at a hotel near the Olympic Village.
There, she said, Freeman expressed concerns about Ellis’ inconsistency at the distance — she won the 400 meters at U.S. trials but was relegated to the repechage round here in Paris — before Ellis made a case for why she should reconsider.
“At the end of the conversation,” Ellis said, “[Freeman] said, ‘You seem ready. I’m going to put you on this relay in the third leg.’ She told me to pick up my uniform for the finals. I said, ‘OK’ and got to the stadium at 6:15 under the impression I was running.”
USATF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ellis said she began warming up shortly before check-in for the race when another U.S. coach came up to her and said he was “really sorry” to hear she wasn’t running in the relay. Ellis relayed the encounter to her personal coach, Quincy Watts, who pulled Freeman aside. Ellis then overheard Freeman inform Watts that she was not running in the final.
“That was four minutes before the race,” Ellis said.
“We had a good conversation [this morning], a good meeting,” Ellis said. “I’m an incredible relay runner. It was disappointing to not be on the relay, but I’m angry about the way it was done. I don’t feel supported or valued as a member of the team or as a 400-meter runner, and I don’t feel respected.”
Ellis said that although she was shocked to learn she had been pulled from the relay, especially in the manner that she was, she’s not surprised by the lack of clarity.
“I feel like so many athletes on the U.S. team have had this concern of there being a lack of transparency and communication regarding U.S. relays,” she said. “This is not new. This is not shocking. There is a history of this on USA relays, and I am fed up and would like to bring awareness to it.”
Ellis said she planned to continue racing through the end of the summer but now is unsure what the future holds.
“I can’t give an answer right now,” she said. “I’m disappointed and upset, and now’s not the time to make decisions.”