Current:Home > NewsTeam USA wins women's 4x400 for eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal -AssetLink
Team USA wins women's 4x400 for eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal
View
Date:2025-04-17 10:25:14
SAINT-DENIS, France — Gabby Thomas is leaving the 2024 Olympics with the best kind of souvenir: gold.
Gold medals, to be specific. Three of them.
Thomas picked up her third in the finale of Olympic track and field Saturday at Stade de France in the women’s 4x400 relay, as the Americans clocked an U.S.-record 3:15.27 to smoke the Netherlands (3:19.50) and Great Britain (3:19.72).
Thomas ran the third leg, taking the baton from Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and handing off to Alexis Holmes for the anchor. Thomas ran a 49.30 split.
Shamier Little, the only athlete from the final who’d also run in prelims, got the U.S. started with a 49.50.
2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who set a world record when she won the 400 hurdles on Thursday, turned in a blistering split at 47.70 to give the Americans a huge lead. Thomas followed with 49.30 split before Holmes brought it home with 48.77.
“It was kind of a joint decision between me and the coaches,” McLaughlin-Levrone said of running the second leg, unusual for someone who usually anchors. “We knew it was gonna look a little unconventional, but we knew if we did our parts it was going to be fun.”
Running with a major gap between first and second is also uncommon, but Holmes said the energy in Stade de France "was indescribable. I’ve never felt anything like it so my adrenaline was definitely pumping."
Thomas, 27, also won told in the women’s 200 meter dash and the women’s 4x100. Paris marks the first time she has won Olympic gold medals; in Tokyo she earned a silver (4x100 relay) and bronze (200).
In the prelims Friday, Quanera Hayes, Little, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown turned in the fastest qualifying time (3:21.44). McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas and Holmes ran in only the final. All seven runners who competed for the U.S. will get medals.
The U.S. women’s have dominated the 4x400 relay, winning eight golds in a row in the event. When Team USA won it in Tokyo it gave the legendary Allyson Felix her 11th Olympic medal, making her the most decorated track and field athlete of all time.
The team was just a tenth off the world record, set in 1988 and considered to be untouchable — until recently, that is. The Americans' time implies that sooner rather than later, that record will fall.
"I think this generation of track and field is just on a different level," McLaughlin-Levrone said. "Everything is improving including us, including our technique, including how we prepare.
"I don’t think anything is impossible at this point, and I think we’re continuing to prove that every time we step on the track."
The win capped a superior performance for the U.S. on the track, and added to the overall vibe of U.S. women owning the 2024 Olympic Games.
"I’ve been here for awhile and I’ve been watching all the women across the Games dominate and it’s been really inspiring and really motivating," Thomas said. "Just watching swimming and gymnastics, I was itching to get out here on the track and show the world what we could do. I'm in great company."
Email Lindsay Schnell at lschnell@usatoday.com and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell
veryGood! (1529)
Related
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- Is Indigenous Peoples' Day a federal holiday? What to know about commemoration
- Should the next House speaker work across the aisle? Be loyal to Trump?
- The Marines are moving gradually and sometimes reluctantly to integrate women and men in boot camp
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- A former Goldman Sachs banker convicted in looting 1MDB fund back in Malaysia to help recover assets
- Shooting at Pennsylvania community center kills 1 and injures 5 victims
- What is Hamas? Militant group behind surprise Israel attack has ruled Gaza for years
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Miami could have taken a knee to beat Georgia Tech. Instead, Hurricanes ran, fumbled and lost.
Ranking
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- Orioles couldn't muster comeback against Rangers in Game 1 of ALDS
- 'Just an embarrassment:' Major League Baseball managers are grossly underpaid
- Two wounded in shooting on Bowie State University campus in Maryland
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Amtrak train crashes into SUV in Vermont, killing SUV driver and injuring his passenger
- Stock market today: Asian markets are mixed, oil prices jump and Israel moves to prop up the shekel
- Horoscopes Today, October 7, 2023
Recommendation
The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
A Complete Guide to Nick Cannon's Sprawling Family Tree
150-year-old Florida Keys lighthouse illuminated for first time in a decade
Horoscopes Today, October 7, 2023
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
An Israeli airstrike kills 19 members of the same family in a southern Gaza refugee camp
Investigators: Pilot error was cause of 2021 plane crash that killed 4 in Michigan
Terence Davies, filmmaker of the lyrical ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives,’ dies at the age of 77