The U.S. Closes Out On-Track Events of Paris 2024 With Three Golds, Two From Relays

SAINT-DENIS, France — Team USA delivered a grand finale on Saturday in the last night of Athletics action at Stade de France. The men’s and women’s 4x400-meter relays put an exclamation point at the end of an already stellar few days of athletics for the Americans. Both relays secured gold-medal finishes for the the U.S., bringing the medal total to 34 across all track and field events so far.

The total of 34 medals is the most since Americans won 40 at Los Angeles in 1984, and the most in a non-hosted Olympics since 42 in 1912. There is a chance for a 35th and final track & field medal, as the women’s marathon takes place the morning of the final day of competition.

Racing a few minutes before the women, the men set the stage as they posted an Olympic Record to defend their title from Tokyo. The quartet of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Rai Benjamin crossed the line at 2:54.43 to break the previous record of 2:55.39 set by the U.S. at Beijing in 2008. Botswana took second with 2:54.53 and Great Britain rounded out the podium with a 2:55.83. Benjamin, the newly crowned 400m gold medalist, threw down the fastest split for the U.S. with a 43.18 as he fought to hold off Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo on the anchor leg.

“It was probably my most calculated anchor leg that I've ever run,” said Benjamin. “I knew it wasn't going to be be easy… so I had to be really, really smart and I did my best to hold him off.”

Notably, the men were without Quincy Hall, the 400m champion here in Paris, and he was not used in the heats yesterday. However, 16-year-old Quincy Wilson did race in the first round, making him the youngest male track and field gold medalist in Olympic history. The relay gold marks number 19 in the event for the U.S., seven above the nearest competitor, Great Britain.

The women followed shortly after the men’s record-breaking win, seeking a gold medal of their own. The U.S. sported a loaded lineup for the final with Shamier Little leading off followed by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes. Little contributed to the world record-breaking 4x400m mixed relay last week while Holmes took sixth in the 400m. McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record en route to 400m hurdle gold on Thursday and Thomas has an individual gold of her own from the 200m here in Paris as well as a relay gold from last night’s 4x100.

A third gold medal would make Thomas the fifth American woman to win that many in a single Olympic Games, joining Wilma Rudolph in 1960, Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988 and Allyson Felix in 2012.

The order looked different than it has in the past for the Americans, the biggest difference being that McLaughlin-Levrone is usually in the anchor sport.

“I just knew that if that was the case I had to do my job,” said McLaughlin-Levrone. “I knew Shamir was going to get me in a good position and I had to open it up. Gabby kept it going and Alexis brought it home. We all just did our parts. We knew it was gonna look a little unconventional, but we knew that if we did our parts, we were gonna be fine.”

“Fine” was a dominant first-place finish and a time of 3:15.27 that was .1 second slower than the world record set by the Soviet Union in 1988 and 4.23 seconds ahead of the Netherlands. This marks the eighth consecutive time the Americans have won the women’s 4x400m and the ninth gold medal overall.

“I think this generation of track and field is just on a different level,” said McLaughlin-Levrone. “Everything is improving, including us, including our technique, including how we prepare. I don't think anything's impossible at this point. I think we’re continuing to prove that every time we step on the track.”

Before the U.S. closed out the night with gold medal relays, Masai Russell brought home one more individual gold for the Americans on the track in the 100m hurdles. Her only event of the Games, the 24-year-old had been anxiously awaiting her moment after watching the success of her teammates.

“Honestly, seeing everyone else from Team USA do their thing, I was like, ‘Yeah, I need to get a taste of that,” said Russell.

Sandwiched between her USA teammates, Grace Stark and Alaysha Johnson in the final, Russel appeared to be right with the pack the first part of the race. The last several hurdles, she used an explosive back-half to edge out the rest of the field.

“I take a lot of pride in my last five hurdles,” said Russell. “I know a lot of people can’t compete with me on the back end. My start is getting there, but I know it's really hard for me to get beat on the last five hurdles."

In a photo-finish, Russell clocked a 12.33, just ahead of France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela’s 12.34 and the 12.36 by Tokyo gold medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico. Stark ended up fifth and Johnson finished seventh. In her debut Games, Russell’s gold marks her first in what she intends to me several more international medals

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“It’s something that no one can ever take from you,” said Russell. “People can say whatever they want about me, but no one can ever say anything about an Olympic gold medal.”

Hanna Barton is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.