4 × 400 metres Relay, Women

The United States had not lost this event since 1992, but on paper, looking at the 400 metre runners, Jamaica seemed to have the better of it for Tokyo. The only problem with that argument was that the USA would run only one of their 400 metre entrants, that being Tokyo bronze medalist Allyson Felix. To strengthen their squad, they brought in 400 metre hurdle gold and silver medalists Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad, and also added 800 gold medalist Athing Mu. Game over.

Jamaica and the USA were drawn in heat two and even with their second team, none of whom would run in the final, the USA qualified ahead of Jamaica by over a second, with Great Britain well back in third. The three auto-qualifiers from heat one were Poland, Cuba, and Belgium, with the Netherlands and Canada time qualifying from the faster heat two to fill out the final.

McLaughlin led off for the Americans in the final, and handed off to Felix with a slight lead over Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek. Felix ran 49.4 for her leg, extending the lead to 5 metres at the exchange, as Muhammad took over and turned the race into a rout, running a 48.94 leg to gave Mu about a 15-metre lead for the anchor. Mu then posted the fastest leg of the final, running 48.32, as the USA won by almost four seconds over Poland, with Jamaica close behind for the bronze.

The USA relay gold medalists represented the first time ever at the Olympics or a World Championship that a relay squad contained four individual gold medalists. Both McLaughlin and Mu won their second gold medals of the Tokyo Olympics, while Allyson Felix extended her many Olympic records. She left Tokyo with 11 medals, the most ever by a woman in Olympic athletics, and 7 gold medals, also the most ever.