Wallace Spearmon has always been interested in the science behind performance. In 2011, less than a year removed from one of his best efforts on the track when he ran 200 meters in 19.79 seconds at the Zurich Diamond League, he was called upon by the television show MythBusters to determine whether a human could walk on water.
“Wallace, how far do you think you’re going to get?” the show’s host, Jamie Hyneman, said.
“I’m hoping for three steps,” Spearmon replied.
The Chicago native sped down the sloped dirt path and proceeded to land directly in the water, ending that experiment’s hopes.
But 14 years later, maybe Spearmon has some tricks up his sleeve. As the General Manager of International Teams, Athletes, and Coaches Services for USA Track and Field (USATF), he’s earned an opportunity to shape the direction of the U.S.’s hopes in the relays and says he intends to lean on data science to help promote future success at the national level.
His appointment in February was part of a major restructuring of USATF’s High Performance Department, which also saw Robert Chapman become its Chief of High Performance Operations and Tyler Noble as its Lead Sports Science & Data Analyst. In total, the USATF made a swift culture change – while at the same time laying off high-ranking employees, according to a report by LetsRun.
In the aftermath of that organizational change, the USATF also moved on from relay coaches Mechelle Freeman, who coached the women’s 4×100 team to Olympic gold in 2024 and World Championship wins in 2022 and 2023, and Mike Marsh, who were operating on contracts which ended after the 2024 year. Marsh’s men won gold in 2023 at the World Championships, but were disqualified at the Paris Olympics following a head-scratching hand-off in the zone.
Daryl Woodson, an assistant during the Paris Olympics, was hired in March to take over as head coach of the division.
The American men haven’t run faster than 37.40 in the 4×100 since 1992, while the U.S. women hold the world record of 40.82, though that time was last broken in 2012. Spearmon, 40, revealed to me that there’s a grand vision in place.
“I’m actually really excited about this,” he said. “Tyler Noble, he has some programs that can motion-capture stride length, stride frequency, gait – they can almost project injuries. And he’s at every relay practice.”
An Important Time For Change With USATF
This moment is particularly important for Spearmon, who became a world champion in 2007 as a member of the U.S. men’s 4×100 team and reached both the Beijing and London Olympics in the mid aughts.
His most gut-wrenching setback, however, came when he was not selected to be a part of the men’s 4×100 lineup in 2008.
And in fact, failure in the relays has been an ongoing sore subject for Team USA. The American men’s 4×100 team has not won gold since 2000, enduring a drought of six straight Olympic cycles. This bothers Spearmon, because the U.S. men have won three Olympic golds at the men’s 100 meters since 2000 and won the last four golds at the World Championships. It’s not an issue of talent.
“I believe we have the best athletes in the world,” Spearmon said.
The most important piece to the puzzle, Spearmon contends, is an overarching, consistent vision of the team’s objectives and its strategy. He confirmed to me that flaws in communication were an issue in previous cycles.
Prior to Spearmon’s appointment, the USATF pivoted from a model of hiring relay coaches who were, more or less, volunteers or contractors, to a more precise and long-term outlook decided upon by USATF. Woodson’s hire reflects that vision, he said. What also elevated that strategy was a directive by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which issued a $6.2 million dollar grant to the governing body and advised for a more centralized model of hiring.
Florida track coach Mike Holloway, who is on the executive committee of the USATF High Performance Division, told LetsRun that he felt that Freeman and Marsh, who do not coach college or professional athletes, were more akin to “relay coordinators” than coaches of the program.
Spearmon said shoring up communication issues within the relay pool is one of his main priorities.
“As an athlete, if you’re given at the beginning of the year a certain direction, you can train for that. You can make sure you’re ready for it,” he said. “But when you don’t receive any information until you make the team, that’s too late. So we’ve addressed that by hiring a relay coach who applies consistent concepts from the youth level all the way up to our senior teams.”
But this also applies for athletes who aren’t ultimately selected for teams. Notably, U.S. 400 meter runner Kendall Ellis expressed frustration in Paris when she was not selected to run in the Olympic final. “If we win and people are feeling negative about the experience, then that’s something I would like to address,” Spearmon said. “I feel like it’s our job to provide you with information. It is not our job to ensure you like that (information), but it is our job to make sure you have it.”
Hiring Woodson was the first step, Spearmon said. Next were key hires like Jeremy Wariner, the Olympic 400 meter champion in 2004 and a three-time gold medalist; Kyra Jefferson, a 3-time NCAA champion; and Taylor Washington, an Olympic gold medalist in the 4×400 in Rio in 2016. All three are assistants under Woodson.
If not more important are the relationships USATF’s new coaches forge with the likes of Lance Baumann, Mike Holloway and Tonja Buford-Bailey—three coaching veterans whose technical acumen lead the likes of Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway and Gabby Thomas, among others.
Can a collaborative vision coincide with U.S. success ahead of Los Angeles 2028?
Spearmon said he got his first glimpse of his new standard in March at the Texas Relays. The 4×100 foursome of Tamari Davis, Thomas, Jenna Prandini and Anavia Battle ran a time of 41.74, which was four-hundredths of a second faster than the U.S. women’s winning time from Paris.
“This is the most prepared we’ve ever been,” Spearmon said of USATF’s relay strategy. “We have some big goals and I would say we have some big expectations for LA28. I think we’ll be able to achieve those.”
What’s Next For Wallace Spearmon’s Vision On The Track With USATF
Spearmon will get answers for all of his questions soon enough. And he says his experience will have prepared him for it.
From his time as the USATF Athlete Commission’s Chair, to his tenure as an Associate Director of Athlete Services, which saw him work through governance and advocacy for athletes, his influence has grown and shaped around the changing dynamics of the sport itself.
Spearmon has even coached at the international level, from the under-20 ranks all the way up to the senior team. From 2017-2019, he was an assistant relay coach and in 2021 became the team’s lead when Orin Richburg could not attend the Tokyo Olympics, per LetsRun.
Identifying objectives and meeting core expectations will be a subject shared between Spearmon and the staff that reports up to him.
“What I felt like as an athlete was completely different then what I felt as a coach,” Spearmon said. “So in this administration role, I believe it’s going to be different then either one of those previous experiences.
“It’s my job to make sure that our relay coach operates within a certain scope and does the best job he can do,” he continued.