The Olympic bell is placed in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
Athletes who win gold are allowed to ring a bell in the Stade de France. It will soon hang in Notre Dame.
SAINT-DENIS, France – Gabby Thomas leaves the 2024 Olympic Games with the best souvenir: gold.
To be more precise: gold medals. Three of them.
Thomas claimed her third-place finish in the women’s 4×400 relay in the Olympic athletics final at the Stade de France on Saturday, as the Americans set an American record with a time of 3:15.27, edging out the Netherlands (3:19.50) and Great Britain (3:19.72).
Thomas ran the third leg, taking the baton from Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and passing it to Alexis Holmes as the final runner. Thomas ran an intermediate time of 49.30.
Shamier Little, the only athlete from the final who also competed in the heats, opened the USA with a round of 49.50.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who set a world record with her 400m hurdles win on Thursday, delivered a brilliant split time of 47.70 to give the Americans a huge lead. Thomas followed with a split time of 49.30 before Holmes took the win with 48.77.
The 27-year-old Thomas also won the women’s 200-meter race and the women’s 4×100-meter race. In Paris she won her first Olympic gold medal; in Tokyo she took silver (4×100 relay) and bronze (200).
In the preliminary rounds on Friday, Quanera Hayes, Little, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown achieved the fastest qualifying time (3:21.44).
McLaughlin-Levrone, Thomas and Holmes only ran in the finals. All seven runners who competed for the USA will win medals.
The U.S. women have dominated the 4×400 relay, winning eight consecutive gold medals in the event. When Team USA won in Tokyo, it gave the legendary Allyson Felix her 11th Olympic medal and made her the most decorated female track and field athlete of all time.
