The Team USA women’s 4 x 100 relay-m team—with Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas, and Sha’Carri Richardson running in the final—won Olympic gold at the Stade de France on Friday night, signaling a return to sprint supremacy for the U.S. women, who finished second in this event behind Jamaica in Tokyo. Team Great Britain won silver, while Team Germany took bronze.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]With the win, Richardson, the charismatic American track superstar, finally gets her Olympic gold. She fell short of an individual gold medal last Saturday, finishing in second place behind Julien Alfred of St. Lucia in the 100-m race. Richardson might have made the difference between silver and gold for the 4 x 100-m relay in Tokyo, but she was suspended before those Games, making worldwide news: Richardson had smoked marijuana, a banned substance under World Anti-Doping Agency rules. She said she did so to cope with the stress of losing her biological mother around the time of the U.S. Olympic trials, which Richardson won.
The relay win also gave Thomas, the Harvard-educated track and field standout, a second Olympic gold medal at these Paris Games, setting her up to be the breakout athlete for Team USA. Thomas won the 200-m wire-to-wire on Tuesday night. Thomas’ mother, University of Michigan education professor Jennifer Randall, said she watched Allyson Felix run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Felix won a silver in the 200-m and a gold in the 4 x 400-m relay, and phoned her daughter in Alabama, where Gabby was visiting her great-grandmother, Randall’s grandmother. “I told her, ‘this is you,’” says Randall. “You are going to be an Olympian.’ She probably just rolled her eyes.’” Thomas, at the time, was 11.
Thomas didn’t take to track and field until she was in high school. “Gabby was predisposed to working hard,” says Randall. “And she’s very competitive.” She enjoyed setting goals, and reaching them. Thomas thought about quitting track and field while juggling academics at Harvard, and after turning pro, when she moved to Austin to join a training group. “It was hard for her,” says Randall. “But if she would have quit, I know she would have regretted it.”
Thomas looked up to Felix, the most decorated American track and field athlete with 20 world championships medals and 11 Olympic medals, and the pair now enjoy a friendly relationship. Thomas expects to run the 4 x 400 relay tomorrow night, and she could match Felix’s haul at the London Olympics, when Felix won gold in the 200, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 races.
The victory extends Team USA’s dominant track and field performance in Paris. The Americans now own 10 golds in the sport; Canada has the second-most, with just two. Team USA has won 28 track and field medals overall. Jamaica and Australia tied for second most with 6.
The American handoffs were clean, and legs fast, in the women’s 4 x 100 on Friday. The team’s depth is unmatched. It’s firmly back on top.
