The women’s 4 x 100 relay team from Team USA, which placed second in the event behind Jamaica in Tokyo, won the gold medal at the Olympics on Friday night at the Stade de France. Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas, and Sha’Carri Richardson were among the runners in the final. Germany won bronze, and Team Great Britain won silver.
The victory gives flamboyant American track star Richardson her first Olympic gold medal. She finished in second position behind St. Lucian athlete Julien Alfred last Saturday in the 100-meter sprint, missing out on an individual gold medal. Although Richardson’s performance in the 4 x 100-meter relay in Tokyo may have been the difference between silver and gold, she was suspended prior to the Games, which made headlines throughout the world. Richardson smoked marijuana, which is prohibited by World Anti-Doping Agency regulations. She claimed that around the time of Richardson’s victory at the U.S. Olympic trials, she had done this to relieve the stress of losing her biological mother.
Thomas, the Harvard-educated track and field star, won a second Olympic gold medal from the relay victory, positioning her as Team USA’s breakout performer. On Tuesday night, Thomas won the 200-meter event wire-to-wire. Jennifer Randall, a professor of education at the University of Michigan, the mother of Thomas, claimed that she called her daughter in Alabama, where Gabby was visiting Randall’s grandmother, her great-grandmother, after watching Allison Felix compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning a gold medal in the 200-meter relay and a silver in the 4 x 400-meter relay. “I told her, ‘This is you,'” Randall explains. “You’re going to compete in the Olympics.” Most likely, she was merely rolling her eyes. Thomas was eleven at the time.
Track and field wasn’t Thomas’s thing until she was a senior in high school. According to Randall, “Gabby was predisposed to working hard.” She’s also fiercely competitive. She took pleasure in establishing and achieving goals. When Thomas travelled to Austin to join a training group after turning professional and was juggling her classes at Harvard, she considered giving up track and field. “It was difficult for her,” Randall adds. “However, I’m sure she would have regretted quitting.”
Felix is the most decorated track and field athlete in American history with 20 world championship medals and 11 Olympic medals. Thomas looked up to Felix, and the two of them now have a cordial friendship. Thomas plans to compete in the 4 x 400 relay tomorrow night, and if all goes according to plan, she might even surpass Felix’s Olympic record of three golds in the 200, 4 x 100, and 4 x 400 events.
The triumph builds on Team USA’s outstanding track and field showing in Paris. In the sport, Americans currently hold 10 gold medals; Canada comes in second with just two. In total, Team USA has won 28 medals in track and field. With six, Australia and Jamaica shared second place.
In the women’s 4 x 100 on Friday, the American handoffs were crisp and their legs moved quickly. There is no team with greater depth. It’s firmly back in the lead.
