SAINT-DENIS, France – The U.S. men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay teams won more than just Olympic gold Saturday night.
They also made Paris 2024 the most successful Olympic Games for US athletics in 40 years.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Rai Benjamin was the first to take the baton for the final leg, then fended off an attack by Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and won the men’s 4×400 relay in the Olympic record time of 2:54.43 – 0.10 minutes ahead of Tebogo.
About 15 minutes later, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone built a huge lead with a dominant second leg, and Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes finished the task with ease to win the women’s relay. Holmes crossed the finish line in 3:15.27 – an American record and more than four seconds ahead of the Netherlands (3:19.50).
These performances brought the U.S. track and field team’s medal count at these Olympics to 34. That is the most track and field medals the Americans have won at an Olympic Games since they won 40 medals on home soil in Los Angeles in 1984.
US athletics also did not just win bronze medals. The Americans’ 14 gold medals were their highest number since 1984.
That the U.S. men were able to win gold was especially impressive considering who was missing from the relay. Quincy Hall, who won the men’s 400-meter Olympic gold medal on Wednesday night, was not part of the 4×400-meter quartet, presumably due to an injury sustained during his memorable last-minute push from fourth to first place.
Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood and Bryce Deadmon handed the baton to Benjamin, narrowly ahead of Botswana. This set up a showdown between Benjamin, the Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, and Tebogo, the sprinter who won gold in the men’s 200-meter race ahead of Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek.
Tebogo and Benjamin both ran just over 43 seconds, but the American had just enough gas left in the tank to cross the finish line first. The American’s time of 2:54.43 broke the Olympic record in the men’s 4×400 relay.
Benjamin’s heroic final leg means 16-year-old prodigy Quincy Wilson will leave Paris with a gold medal. US relay coach Mike Marsh did not select Wilson for Saturday’s final after he struggled on the first leg in the heats the day before.
