SAINT-DENIS, France — With about 200 meters left in the women’s 4×400 relay race, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas started walking on the track. Naturally, perhaps even subconsciously, they started drifting to the conclusion. One their legs rendered inevitable.
“They had to be escorted, like pull us back,” Shamier Little said with a laugh. “We were kind of celebrating. But, you know, anything can happen.”
Anything almost did happen. The exchange between McLaughlin-Levrone and Thomas nearly went awry. Thomas took the baton, turned to take off and almost tripped on the inside rail.
It was the only drama in the race.
“I did have a little moment of panic with the collision on the rail,” anchor leg Alexis Holmes said. “Once I saw Gabby back on the track, I knew we were gonna be OK.”
Thomas indeed stayed on her feet, padded the lead McLaughlin-Levrone built and the U.S. was off to its eighth consecutive gold medal in the women’s 4×400 relay.
“Of course,” Little said, “that anything wasn’t going to happen.”
It was a fitting end to the athletics portion of the Paris Games. The final visual of McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas, Little and Holmes, draped in the American flag, taking an encore lap around the track at Stade de France. The U.S. owned the venue.
The women’s 4×400 relay team, in the final event at Stade de France an epic Olympics, was a portrait of the United States’ track and field dominance at the XXXIII Olympiad. The American quartet completed the four laps in 3:15.27 — just a tenth of a second off the world record.
Little ran the opening leg in 49.98 seconds, the only sub-50-second time in the opening leg. So she got the baton to McLaughlin-Levrone first. It was over.
McLaughlin-Levrone, the best in the world, turned a close race into a blistering lap in 47.70 seconds.
Let’s put that in perspective. Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won gold in the women’s 400-meter final with an Olympic record time of 48.17 seconds. And with the duty of waiting for and carrying a baton, McLaughlin-Levrone ran faster. Her leg of the relay was a tenth of a second off the world record.
It was easily the fastest leg of the entire relay. (The second fastest was Femke Bol’s 48.62-second anchor lap for the Netherlands.)
McLaughlin-Levrone joined Thomas and Rai Benjamin — who won the men’s 400-meter hurdles and men’s 4×400 relay — as the multiple gold medal winners for American track and field.
McLaughlin-Levrone, completing her third Olympics, now has four gold medals. She also won the 400-meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay in Tokyo. If anyone can take a legitimate run at Carl Lewis’ record nine gold medals, it’s her. She just turned 25 years old, which makes two more Olympic games reasonable. She could easily add more events in Los Angeles in 2028. She’d be the fastest women’s 400-meter runner in the world if she added that event. She also discussed adding the mixed relays. Three or four medals in one Olympics is well within her ability.
When McLaughlin-Levrone handed the baton to Thomas, the American’s lead had grown to well over two seconds.
Thomas, one of the breakout stars of these games, won her third gold medal in Paris. That’s as many as Simone Biles and bested only by French swimmer Léon Marchand. Thomas, the new 200-meter champion, ran the third leg on both gold medal relays. Even more special, each of her golds was in different lengths. She ran 100, 200 and 400 meters in Paris, displaying her versatility as an elite sprinter. Thomas now has five Olympic medals including her silver and bronze from the Tokyo Games.
By the time Thomas handed off to Holmes, the lead was over four seconds.
Now you see why Little was counting unhatched chickens. Sunday morning was closer than the nearest competitor.
Holmes’ had an easy anchor as the U.S. won by four seconds. Her lap was a coronation of the entire American performance.
The Netherlands finished second with a time of 3:19.50. Great Britain took third at 3:19.72.
“We got the real quarter horses,” Little said. “We really do. It’s amazing to be part of history and to add on to that and see the dominance lying before you and fall in line with that.”
This was how these Olympics should end for U.S. track and field, signing off with two of their biggest stars providing the encore.
All totaled in Paris: 34 medals, 14 gold. That’s double the gold medal count from the Tokyo games, when the U.S. took home 26 medals.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
© 2024 The New York Times Company
