SAINT-DENIS, France — The U.S. men’s and women’s 4×400 meter relay teams did more than just sweep Olympic gold on Saturday night.
They also cemented Paris 2024 as USA Track & Field’s most successful Olympics in 40 years.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Rai Benjamin took the baton in first on the final leg, then held off a charge from Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo — winner of the 200 on Thursday — to win the men’s 4×400 relay in Olympic record time of 2:54.43 — .10 ahead of Tebogo.
About 15 minutes later, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone built a massive lead with a dominant second leg and Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes finished the job with ease to win the women’s relay.
Those performances boosted USA Track & Field’s medal count at these Olympics to 34. That’s the most track and field medals that the Americans have piled up at one Olympics since they amassed 40 on home soil at Los Angeles 1984.
The U.S. track & field medal count wasn’t a pile of bronzes either. The Americans’ 14 gold medals were also their most since 1984.
That the U.S. men were able to win gold was especially impressive considering who was missing from the relay lineup. Quincy Hall, the Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 400 on Wednesday night, was not part of the 4×400-meter quartet, presumably because of an injury sustained during his memorable last-gasp charge from fourth place to first.
Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood and Bryce Deadmon got the baton to Benjamin with a slight lead over Botswana. That set up an anchor-leg showdown between Benjamin, the Olympic gold medalist in the 400 hurdles, and Tebogo, the sprinter who took gold over Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek in the men’s 200.
While Tebogo and Benjamin both ran splits of barely over 43 seconds, the American had just enough gas left in the tank to lean across the finish line first. The U.S.’s time of 2:54.43 broke the Olympic record in the men’s 4×400 relay.
Benjamin’s heroic anchor leg means that 16-year-old phenom Quincy Wilson will leave Paris with a gold medal. U.S. relay coach Mike Marsh did not select Wilson to run in Saturday’s final after he struggled running the leadoff leg during prelims the previous day.
Source Agencies
