Relay Roulette: The Baton Gamble
As an Ethiopian I find the Olympics to be a very exciting event that I cherish every four years just like the World Cup. Of course my focus is on long distance running where Ethiopians have a history of bringing home the gold along with our Kenyan neighbors. One particular competition in which Ethiopians have little to no history but that I find compelling nonetheless is the short distance relay race. These races are especially exciting at the exchange points in between the legs of the race where athletes exchange batons. We get tense and apprehensive that the pass off will go terribly wrong. But it would be even more exciting if exchange was not necessarily confined to the runners' respective teams and lanes. Of course this makes little sense in four leg races because if runners had the options of giving their baton to any runner in the succeeding leg, they very likely will give it to their own team mate to have their team win. This is not the case in "corporate relay races...