Gabby Thomas roared around the wet corner on the Stade de France track in the final of the Olympic women’s 4x100m relay on Saturday night. It was the same corner she stormed around on Tuesday night when she won the gold medal in the individual 200m, but this time her job was to pass the baton to Sha’Carri Richardson, the U.S. team’s other superstar sprinter.

The handover could have gone more smoothly. Thomas and Richardson didn’t make it on the first attempt, but neither runner lost their nerve. “We’re professionals,” Thomas said after the race. “It was raining really hard when we did it. We just move really fast. I try to get a stick around. We have confidence and we’ve done it before. So you don’t panic when that’s your job.”

Richardson looked back one last time to make sure the baton was in her hand, then stormed from fourth to first place, running the final leg in 10.09 seconds – the fastest in the final field.

When Thomas saw the baton in Richardson’s hand, she knew the race was theirs. “I had no doubt we did it.”

Before crossing the finish line, Richardson looked to her right at Britain’s Daryll Neita. Richardson knew she was going to win and sent her opponent a not-so-subtle message.

For a moment, the screen at the Stade de France showed Great Britain as the winner. Richardson growled in disbelief. But order was quickly restored: the USA relay team won after running the 400m in 41.78 seconds; Great Britain won silver in 41.85 seconds, while Germany came third and secured bronze after crossing the finish line in 41.97 seconds.

“Realizing that we won as Americans was a phenomenal feeling for all of us,” Richardson said after the race.

“Passing the baton to Sha’Carri is something very special and unique,” said Thomas. “I was just very proud and grateful. I was grateful to compete with these ladies, especially Sha’Carri, and we won gold.”

The American women have now won the Olympic 4 x 100 meter relay 12 times, more than the rest of the world combined. Team USA has won the race in three of the last four Olympics. Melissa Jefferson led the U.S. effort at the start before passing the baton to Twanisha Terry, who ran an outstanding split time of 9.98 seconds, the best in her group.

“Nobody can run the second leg like I can,” Terry said. “It’s something I believe in with all my heart. I love the second leg.”

It showed, too. Terry, Jefferson and Richardson are all training partners in Florida: Terry wore a T-shirt with the greeting “The Trio” at her post-race press conference. The three women all qualified for the 100m in Paris. They included Thomas, who lives in Austin. “The third leg is a crucial leg,” Terry said. “She’s just the right person to come into the equation and have a complete equation.”

Seventeen minutes after the US women’s thrilling victory, the starting signal for the men was given.

And unfortunately for the US fans, the same old story repeated itself.

The U.S. regularly fields the world’s greatest roster of speedsters. On paper, America has the fastest team, both men’s and women’s. While the women have regularly won the Olympic 4×100, the U.S. men entered Saturday night’s race without having won gold in the event since the 2000 Sydney Games. The U.S. men’s team last won a 4×100 medal two decades ago, a silver in Athens.

Nothing changed in France. Starter Christian Coleman and runner-up Kenny Bednarek, who won silver in the 200m last night, failed to pass the runner cleanly. Bednarek seemed to set off too early, which caused the accident. Coleman stumbled into another lane; after the race, in which the Americans finished seventh, Team USA was disqualified.

The American men have repeatedly botched handoffs over the years. The 2024 team was in no mood to explain itself afterward. “If you all say something stupid, we’re not talking,” said Fred Kerley, the 100m bronze medalist in Paris, who ran a final leg that ended up being meaningless before reporters could ask. “I’m going to tell you all that now.”

Kerley then called two objectively reasonable stupid questions stupid. Former U.S. sprinter Wallace Spearmon, an athlete support officer at USA Track & Field, shot Kerley a look, but that didn’t stop Kerley from responding snippy again.

“You all keep saying the same shit,” Kerley said.

Coleman, acting as a spokesman for the team, denied that the absence of Noah Lyles, who was ill with COVID-19 last night and ran the 200m and finished third but did not run the relay, contributed to the poor performance.

“We’ll bounce back from this and be good,” Coleman said. “We’re all world class. I expect all of us to be back in the team in LA and I think on home soil we’ll have a little more confidence and make it home.”

Running legend Carl Lewis, a two-time gold medalist in the 4×100-meter race, has taken the US track by storm.

“It’s time to blow up the system,” he wrote on X. “This continues to be completely unacceptable. It’s clear that EVERYONE at (US Track & Field) is more interested in relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run a relay again until this program is fundamentally changed.”

Not long after Lewis tweeted and Kerley insulted the media, the American women’s team was atop the podium. Richardson, who won her first Olympic gold medal after narrowly missing out on the 100-meter dash last Saturday — and after missing her chance to run in Tokyo due to a controversial marijuana ban — shed a tear under her left eye as the national anthem played. Thomas has already won two gold medals at these Paris Games. She could win another tomorrow night, in the women’s 4 x 400-meter relay.

Thomas and Richardson hugged. No panic. A smooth connection.