Paris Olympics: US mixed 4×400 meter relay team sets world record

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PARIS — Before the track and field events at the Paris Olympics began Friday, members of the U.S. mixed 4×400-meter relay team openly discussed how fast they had to run to get on the podium.

“We talked about how you had to set a record to win a medal,” Shamier Little said.

The Americans broke the world record just as they had hoped — just a day earlier than expected. The quartet of Vernon Norwood, Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown won their heat in a time of 3:07.41, breaking the previous record of 3:08.80 set by the U.S. at last year’s world championships in Budapest.

Norwood opened up a small lead after the first half of the race, and his teammates continued to increase it. By the time Brown took over to run the final half, the question was not whether the U.S. would win the heat, but how fast the time would be.

No one was more surprised than the Americans when the time appeared on the scoreboard.

“I didn’t think we would do it That “Today,” Deadmon admitted with a smile.

The US enters Saturday’s mixed 4x400m final as the heavy favorite to win gold. None of the other teams that qualified for the final managed to break the 3 minute, 10 second mark.

The makeup of the mixed 4×400-meter relay team had been a source of intrigue heading into Friday because of the possibility that 16-year-old phenom Quincy Wilson could make his Olympic debut. Wilson is the eighth-fastest man in the world in the 400 meters this year and the third-fastest American. He earned his spot in the U.S. relay pool when he ran three consecutive sub-45-second times at the U.S. Olympic Trials and then improved his under-18 world record to an astonishing 44.20 seconds a few weeks later. Ultimately, U.S. relay coach Mike Marsh opted for experience and selected Deadmon to join Norwood in the mixed 4×400. Wilson will now have to wait to find out whether Marsh invites him to run a leg of the mixed relay final or the men’s 4×400-meter relay in the preliminary rounds on Aug. 9 or the final on Aug. 10.

The way the American quartet performed on Friday makes it hard to argue about the results. Now the Americans turn their attention to the final with a new goal in mind.

“Tomorrow,” Norwood said, “we hope to do it again.”