US men and women win gold in 4x400m relay at Paris Olympics

SAINT-DENIS, France — Both the U.S. men and women won gold in the 4×400-meter relay at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, with the men setting an Olympic record and the women easily beating the competition.

Rai Benjamin held off Letsile Tebogo on the final leg to give the men’s team the win in record time. The U.S. women’s team finished in 3 minutes, 15.27 seconds, just .1 shy of the world record set by the Soviet Union in 1988.

Benjamin added this Olympic title to the one he had won the night before in the 400m hurdles, preventing 200m champion Tebogo from giving Botswana another victory over the Americans.

It was Tebogo, the 21-year-old sprint sensation, who stole the show — and gold — for the U.S. in the 200 meters on Thursday, demoting Kenny Bednarek to silver and Noah Lyles, who tested positive for COVID-19, to bronze.

The American quartet of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Benjamin completed the four laps in 2 minutes, 54.43 seconds, nearly a second faster than the U.S. 4×400 team ran at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And Saturday’s time was just .14 slower than the world record set by the United States in 1993.

Botswana were a tenth of a second back on Saturday, with Tebogo joined by Bayapo Ndori, Busang Collen Kebinatshipi and Anthony Pesela.

Great Britain came third in 2:55.83.

On the women’s side, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas combined for a 14th gold medal and the 34th medal for the United States, closing out Olympic action at the Stade de France with a time of 4.23 seconds in the women’s 4×400-meter relay.

The gold medal winners in the 400-meter hurdles and 200 meters won the second and third legs for the United States, giving Alexis Holmes a 30-meter lead, but he didn’t lose any ground.

McLaughlin-Levrone, who has the fourth-fastest time in the world in the 400 meters, in addition to her last world record in the hurdles, ran her leg in 47.71. That was 0.91 seconds faster than the second-fastest woman in the field, Femke Bol, who led the Netherlands to silver.

The 34 medals on the track were the most for the U.S. at a non-boycotted Games since the early 20th century, when there were more events and fewer countries. The 14 gold medals were the most at a non-boycotted Games since Bob Beamon, Tommie Smith and John Carlos led the U.S. to 15 victories in 1968.

The US earlier equalled its total of 32 medals from the Rio Games when high jumper Shelby McEwen surprisingly won silver after losing a tense tiebreaker to New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, who celebrated by diving into the fortunately inactive javelin landing zone.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.