The team of Felix, Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammazd and
Athing Mu was never in jeopardy in this one. It was America’s seventh straight
victory at the Olympics in the 4×400. Poland finished second, 3.68 seconds
behind, and Jamaica finished third.
Felix, who became the most-decorated woman in Olympic track
history when she won bronze in the 400 the night before, now passes Carl Lewis
with the most track medals of any U.S. athlete. Of the 11 medals, seven are
gold.
Paavo Nurmi of Finland holds the all-time mark in track with
12 medals from 1920-28.
The win came on McLaughlin’s 22nd birthday, and gave her
another gold to go with the one she captured when she set a world record of
51.46 in the 400-meter hurdles earlier in the week.
The race featured four U.S. medalists — McLaughlin, Felix,
Muhammad, who finished second in the hurdles, and Mu, the 19-year-old who won
gold in the 800.
It wasn’t so much the win that was in doubt but the world
record of 3:15.17, set at the 1988 Seoul Games in the last relay the Soviet
Union ran as an Olympic team.
By the time Mu collected the baton from Muhammad for the
anchor lap, the clock read 2:28 and the record was out of reach. But the win
was in the bag.
The four sprinters huddled and hugged. Felix is 35, and has
detailed her long struggle simply to make the Tokyo Olympics. Mu turned 19 this
summer, and there’s a chance she’ll need a mighty big medals case when it’s all
over.
Minutes after the women won, the U.S. men also romped to the
gold. The first win for the American men’s sprinters came on the last event run
on the Olympic oval and gave the U.S. a total of 26 — seven of them gold — with
only the men’s marathon remaining Sunday.
Other winners Saturday included Neeraj Chopra in the
javelin, who won India’s first-ever gold medal in Olympic track and field.
Another first went to Mariya Lasitskene, who’s victory in
the high jump gave the Russian team its first gold of the meet. The Russians
were only allowed to send 10 track and field athletes to Tokyo.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen brought 1,500-meter gold to Norway, while
Sifan Hassan, who runs for the Netherlands, added the 10,000-meter gold to the
gold she won in the 5,000 and bronze she won in the 1,500. She’s the first to
try that triple at the Olympics.