SAINT-DENIS, France — The U.S. men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay teams did more than just sweep Olympic gold Saturday night.
They also cemented Paris 2024 as USA Track & Field’s most successful Olympic Games in 40 years.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Rai Benjamin took the lead in 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 an 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 brought USA Track & Field’s medal tally at these Olympics to 34. It’s the most track and field medals Americans have accumulated at one Olympic Games since collecting 40 on home soil at Los Angeles in 1984.
The U.S. track and field medal count wasn’t a pile of bronzes either. The Americans’ 14 gold medals were also their most since 1984.
The fact that the Americans were able to win gold was especially impressive considering who was not in the relay lineup. Quincy Hall, the Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 400 meters 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 took over from Benjamin with a slim lead over Botswana. That set up a late-stage duel between Benjamin, the Olympic gold medallist in the 400m hurdles, and Tebogo, the sprinter who took gold from Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek in the men’s 200m.
While Tebogo and Benjamin ran times of just 43 seconds, the American had just enough gas left to cross the finish line in first place. The American’s time of 2:54.43 broke the Olympic record in the men’s 4×400 relay.
Benjamin’s closing leg heroics mean 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 to run the first leg during preliminaries the day before.