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SAINT-DENIS, France — On the final night of competition at the Stade de France, the Americans torched the purple track in their relays, setting a pair of records and pulling off another gold medal sweep in the men’s and women’s events.
It’s the third straight Olympics both U.S. 4×400-meter teams have won gold medals. For the women, it has now been more than 30 years since they didn’t capture gold in the event.
“We got the real quarter horses,” women’s lead leg Shamier Little said. “We really do. And it’s amazing to be part of history, and to kind of add on to that. To see the dominance lay before you, and then fall in line with that.”
Such dominance was on full display Saturday in the middle of the women’s relay, when Little handed the baton off before any other team’s first leg. When she put the stick in Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s hands, the race was effectively over.
McLaughlin-Levrone, the 25-year-old now four-time gold medalist hurdler who seemingly gets faster every time she’s on the track, sprinted hard into the first turn. Almost instantly, she created a massive gap between Team USA and the competition.
McLaughlin-Levrone’s spot in the lineup was a topic of conversation before and after the race. Although she’s a mainstay in the 4×400 relay, she typically runs the last leg. What accounted for the change?
“It was kind of a joint decision between me and the coaches,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “I just knew that if that was the case I just had to do my job.
“We all knew it was going to look a little unconventional, but we knew that if we did our parts we were going to be fine.”
McLaughlin-Levrone paced the entire field, running the lowest split of the relay at 47.71 seconds. That was .91 of a second faster than Femke Bol, who took the Netherlands to silver.
After…
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