The U.S. men and women both closed out the 2024 Olympics with wins and records in the 4×400 relays, but what separates them is the process, not the result.
For the men, Rai Benjamin had to hold on for dear life as the Olympic 200m champion was right on his rear for the entire anchor leg. He narrowly held on with a 43.13 split. Tebogo ran a monstrous 43.03 split to get Botswana silver.
The men, featuring Chris Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, and Benjamin, finished in 2:54.43, breaking the 16-year-old Olympic Record (OR) of 2:55.39 by over a second, missing the world record by 0.14 seconds. Botswana also ran under the OR in 2:54.53, while Great Britain got bronze in 2:55.83.
We were pushed to the limit. Botswana did a great job,” said Norwood.
For the women, it was dominance from the first to the anchor leg. Shamier Little started off strong with a 49.48 split; when she handed off to the greatest 400m hurdler ever, the race for second began. Sydney McLaughlin ran a 47.71 split to blow the race open. By the time she reached the homestretch, she had created a 30m lead on the rest of the field before handing the baton to Gabby Thomas. Thomas, en route to her third gold medal of these games, increased the lead even further with a 49.30 leg. Once she handed it off to 400m finalist Alexis Holmes for a 48.78 anchor split, the team finished in 3:15.27, setting an American record that was 36 years old.
“I think this generation of track and field is just on a different level,” McLaughlin-Levrone said to NBC News. “Everything is improving, including us, including our technique, including how we prepare. So, I don’t think anything’s impossible.”
Femke Bol finished her third final with a second-place finish this time, as she split 48.62 for the Netherlands in 3:19.50. Similarly to the men’s race, Great Britain grabbed bronze here as well in 3:19.72.
This was the eighth consecutive Olympic victory in the 4x400m relay for the U.S. women. This was also the third consecutive victory for the men.
The U.S. just has so much depth,” said McLaughlin-Levrone.
With the victories, the U.S. closed out the track portion of the Olympics with their biggest medal haul since 1984, with 14 of them being gold medals.
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